Samar Guha ( bn, সমর গুহ) was a noted

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

n politician, and an

Indian independence movement The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events with the ultimate aim of ending British Raj, British rule in India. It lasted from 1857 to 1947. The first nationalistic revolutionary movement for Indian independence emerged ...

activist. He was a close associate of

Subhas Chandra Bose Subhas Chandra Bose ( ; 23 January 1897 – 18 August 1945 * * * * * * * * *) was an Indian nationalist whose defiance of British authority in India made him a hero among Indians, but his wartime alliances with Nazi Germany and Imperi ...

. He was also a well known academician, whose textbooks on chemistry are still widely used. In 1967, he was elected to the 4th Lok Sabha from Contai constituency in

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the four ...

as a

Praja Socialist Party The Praja Socialist Party, abbreviated as PSP, was an Indian political party. It was founded when the Socialist Party, led by Jayaprakash Narayan, Rambriksh Benipuri, Acharya Narendra Deva and Basawon Singh (Sinha), merged with the Kisan Mazd ...

(PSP) candidate. He was re-elected to the

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-pas ...

in 1971 and 1977 from the same constituency. He was a member of the

Janata Dal (Secular) The Janata Dal (Secular) is an Indian political party led by former prime minister of India, H. D. Deve Gowda. The party is recognized as a State Party in the states of Karnataka, Kerala and Arunachal Pradesh. It was formed in July 1999 by t ...

till his death. He died on 17 June 2002 at

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comm ...

Connection with Bose Mystery

Samar Guha strongly believed that Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose was not killed on 18 August 1945 after the overloaded Japanese plane that Bose was flying in crashed in Taihoku Japanese-occupied

Formosa Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is an island country located in East Asia. The main island of Taiwan, formerly known in the Western political circles, press and literature as Formosa, makes up 99% of the land area of the territori ...

(now Taiwan), As a parliamentarian, he was a devoted activist to make Government of India accept that Bose lived after 18 August 1945. He also made several efforts to make Government of India publish all secret files on Bose's death. Guha did not believe prior

Shah Nawaz Committee Indian nationalist leader Subhas Chandra Bose died on 18 August 1945 from third-degree burns sustained after the bomber in which he was being transported as a guest of Lieutenant General Tsunamasa Shidei of the Imperial Japanese Kwantung Army ...

's report on this. Even though the secret files were not published, Guha was one of the main vocal supporter of creating G D

Khosla commission Indian nationalist leader Subhas Chandra Bose died on 18 August 1945 from third-degree burns sustained after the bomber in which he was being transported as a guest of Lieutenant General Tsunamasa Shidei of the Imperial Japanese Kwantung Ar ...

to re-investigate Bose's death in 1970. However, G D Khosla Commission also came up with the same conclusion as Shah Nawaz Committee even after Guha's effort to point out the inconsistency in the report produced by Khosla Commission. Primarily due to Guhas's effort, then Indian Prime Minister

Morarji Desai Morarji Ranchhodji Desai (29 February 1896 – 10 April 1995) was an Indian independence activist and politician who served as the 4th Prime Minister of India between 1977 to 1979 leading the government formed by the Janata Party. During his ...

announced that Khosla Commission's statement was not the final words on Bose's death. Soon after though, Guha's credibility took a serious blow when he produced a picture of Bose claiming it was a recent one that turned out to be fake. Guha investigated all leads that he thought could help him to unravel any mystery behind Bose's death. Netaji's picture was placed in Parliament because of the effort of Samar Guha in the 1970s.

Literary works

* ''Netaji: Dead or Alive?'' (1978) * ''The Mahatma and the Netaji'' (1986) * Non-Muslims Behind the Curtain of East Pakistan (1965)

Notes

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External links

People from West Bengal India MPs 1977–1979 India MPs 1967–1970 India MPs 1971–1977 University of Calcutta alumni 2002 deaths Year of birth missing Praja Socialist Party politicians Lok Sabha members from West Bengal People from Purba Medinipur district Janata Party politicians {{WestBengal-politician-stub