Gaurishankar Bhattacharyya (10 December 1915 - 23 June 2002 ? ) was an Assamese freedom fighter, social activist, litterateur and politician, who served as the Leader of Opposition in the

Assam Legislative Assembly The Assam Legislative Assembly is the unicameral Assam Legislature, legislature of the List of states and union territories of India, Indian state of Assam. It is housed in Dispur, the capital city of Assam, geographically situated in present L ...

Early life and education

Bhattacharya was born in Samarkuchi village of

Nalbari district Nalbari (Pron: nɔ:lˈbɑ:ri) is an administrative district in the state of Assam in India. The district headquarters is located at Nalbari. The district derives its name from the combination of two words, "Nal" and "Bar." It is situated in ...

to Souridutta Bhattacharyya, a Sanskrit Pandit. He did his undergraduate from

Cotton College Cotton College was a Roman Catholic boarding school in Cotton, Staffordshire, United Kingdom. It was also known as ''Saint Wilfrid's College''. The school buildings were centred on Cotton Hall, a country house used by religious communities fr ...

, and earned an M. A. in history from

Presidency College, Kolkata Presidency University, formerly Presidency College, is a public state university located in College Street, Kolkata. Established in 1817 as the ''Hindoo College'', it was later renamed ''Presidency College'' in 1855 and functioned as a leadi ...

Political career

Bhattacharya was active in politics since his student days; in 1939, he was elected as the president of the All Assam Students Federation. In 1952, Bhattacharya won election to the

from the

Guwahati Guwahati () the largest city of the Indian state of Assam, and also the largest metropolis in northeastern India. Dispur, the capital of Assam, is in the circuit city region located within Guwahati and is the seat of the Government of Assam. Th ...

constituency for the

Communist Party of India The Communist Party of India (CPI) is a political party in India. The CPI considers the Foundation of the Communist Party of India, December 26, 1925 Cawnpore (Kanpur) conference as its foundation date. Between 1946 and 1951, the CPI led m ...

(CPI) defeating Rajabala Das of the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party, or simply the Congress, is a political parties in India, political party in India with deep roots in most regions of India. Founded on 28 December 1885, it was the first mo ...

(INC). He was the only legislator from CPI in the House. In 1957, he defended the seat, defeating Lakshmidhar Borah of the INC. However, five years later in 1962, Bhattacharya suffered defeat at the hands of Debendra Nath Sharma, the INC candidate. Months afterward, during the

Sino-Indian War The Sino–Indian War, also known as the China–India War or the Indo–China War, was an armed conflict between China and India that took place from October to November 1962. It was a military escalation of the Sino–Indian border dispu ...

, Bhattacharya was subject to

preventive detention Preventive detention is an imprisonment that is putatively justified for non- punitive purposes, most often to prevent further criminal acts. Preventive detention sometimes involves the detention of a convicted criminal who has served their sente ...

by the Congress government for his activism; he would leave CPI, shortly. In the 1967 elections, Bhattacharya stood as an independent candidate from the newly delimited Borbhag constituency and eked out a comfortable win over Pabindra Nath Sarma of the INC. Two years later, Bhattacharya collaborated with Renuka Devi Barkataki, a Congress renegade, to launch the Peoples Democratic Party of Assam (PDPA); it would be the first regional party to contest the assembly elections. Five years later, Bhattacharya stood as an independent candidate from Borbhag again, and won against Sarma. Bhattacharya became the leader of the Opposition in the Assam Legislative Assembly. The Peoples democratic Party (PDPA) later merged with

Janata Party The Janata Party (JP, ) is an unrecognised political party in India. Navneet Chaturvedi is the current president of the party since November 2021, replacing Jaiprakash Bandhu. The JP was established as an amalgam of Indian political partie ...

in 1977.

Literature

Bhattacharya moved away from politics in his later life, devoting time to literature; in 1999, he was conferred with the national Sahitya Academy Award (Anubad Suchi Samman) by the Sahitya Akademi for translating B.R. Aggarwalla's ''Trials of Independence'' into Assamese.

Personal life

Bhattacharya married Tarulata Bhattacharya; they had three sons — Dibya Shankar Bhattacharya who is a senior Indian Army officer, Dhruba Shankar Bhattacharya (now deceased) and

Siddhartha Bhattacharya Siddhartha Bhattacharya (born 10 June 1961) is a politician from the state of Assam.He is the son of former Leader of Opposition,Assam, Gaurishankar Bhattacharyya. He was a Cabinet Minister of Education of Assam and a Member of the Assam Legi ...

, and three daughters. Siddhartha Bhattacharya is a legislator from the

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; , ) is a political party in India and one of the two major List of political parties in India, Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. BJP emerged out from Syama Prasad Mukherjee's ...

. His eldest grandson is

Arnab Goswami Arnab, Arnav or Arnov is a first name popular in India, and means "ocean" in Sanskrit. It also means "rabbit" in Arabic and Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic ...

, an Indian right-wing news anchor and editor-in-Chief of Republic TV.

Notes

References

{{Reflist Assam MLAs 1957–1962 Assam MLAs 1952–1957 Cotton College, Guwahati alumni Presidency University, Kolkata alumni Communist Party of India politicians from Assam