Husseyn Suhrawardy is blamed for the Great Calcutta Killings, the horrible riots which began on 16 August, 1946 and inflamed Bengal over partition. Suhrawardy favoured a united and ‘separate’ Bengal from India and Pakistan. Suhrawardy Avenue, however, was not named after him but named after his more illustrious uncle 14 years before Independence.
In a social media post on Sunday, Adhikari said, “I commend the historic decision taken by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation yesterday, on the solemn occasion of Paschimbanga Divas, which will help rectify a historical wrong. Suhrawardy Avenue will now be renamed Gopal Mukherjee Road. For decades, a major artery of our city bore the name of someone who wilfully misused state power as a weapon, orchestrating the massacre of innocent citizens for sheer political gain.”
He went on to add, “by renaming it after Shri Gopal Mukherjee, the fearless soul who stepped up as a protector-in-chief to defend and save thousands of innocent lives, finally restoration of historical justice will be achieved by honouring a true guardian and saviour. It’s time, West Bengal remembers, corrects and honours the Real Heroes.”
Gopal Mukherjee (popularly called Gopal “Pantha”, for the goat meat shop he ran – pantha means “male goat” in Bengali). Joya Chatterji, Professor of South Asian History at the University of Cambridge, was quoted in a report published in Scroll.in in 2015 explaining that Gopal Mukherjee “was a major goonda at the time, who could command a force of around 500 men”. It is at the centre of this narrative of self-defence and just retribution that we find Gopal Mukherjee (popularly called Gopal “Pantha”, for the goat meat shop he ran – pantha means “male goat” in Bengali).
Gopal ‘Pantha’ indeed occupied a central role in the folklore of the city and was believed to have built self-defence groups to protect Hindus during the rioting. After Independence he branched out into real estate and was known as a strongman with protection and patronage of ruling politicians in the state. Organisations like Hindu Sanhati has been taking out processions in the city to recall his heroics with banners proclaiming Mukherjee to be “Kolkatar Rakhakarta” (Kolkata’s protector) and prefixed the title “Hindu bir” (Hindu braveheart) before his name.
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