Samar Guha () was a noted Indian politician, and an

Indian independence movement The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events in South Asia with the ultimate aim of ending British Raj, British colonial rule. It lasted until 1947, when the Indian Independence Act 1947 was passed. The first nationalistic ...

activist. He was a close associate of

Subhas Chandra Bose Subhas Chandra Bose (23 January 1897 – 18 August 1945) was an Indian independence movement, Indian nationalist whose defiance of British raj, British authority in India made him a hero among many Indians, but his wartime alliances with ...

. He was also a well known academic, whose textbooks on chemistry are still widely used. In 1967, he was elected to the

4th Lok Sabha The 4th Lok Sabha was in session from 4 March 1967 to 27 December 1970. Its members were elected in February and March 1967. 13 sitting members from the Rajya Sabha were elected to the 4th Lok Sabha in the general election.Indira Gandhi was th ...

from Contai constituency in

West Bengal West Bengal (; Bengali language, Bengali: , , abbr. WB) is a States and union territories of India, state in the East India, eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabi ...

as a

Praja Socialist Party The Praja Socialist Party, abbreviated as PSP, was an Indian political party. It was founded in 1952 when the Socialist Party, led by Jayaprakash Narayan, Rambriksh Benipuri, Acharya Narendra Deva and Basawon Singh (Sinha), merged with the ...

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

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, also known as the House of the People, is the lower house of Parliament of India which is Bicameralism, bicameral, where the upper house is Rajya Sabha. Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha, Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by a ...

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

Janata Dal (Secular) {{Infobox Indian Political Party , party_name = Janata Dal (Secular) , party_logo = , colorcode = {{party color, Janata Dal (Secular) , abbreviation = JD(S) , president = H. D. Deve Gowda , founder ...

till his death. He died on 17 June 2002 at Calcutta.

Connection with Bose Mystery

Samar Guha strongly believed that

Netaji 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 many Indians, but his wartime alliances with Nazi Germany and Fascist Japan left a l ...

was not killed on 18 August 1945 after the overloaded Japanese plane that Bose was flying in crashed in

Taihoku Taihoku Prefecture (臺北州; ''Taihoku-shū'') was an administrative division of Taiwan created in 1920, during Japanese rule. The prefecture consisted of modern-day Keelung, New Taipei City, Taipei and Yilan County. Its government office, ...

Japanese-occupied

Formosa Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The island of Taiwan, formerly known to Westerners as Formosa, has an area of and makes up 99% of the land under ROC control. It lies about across the Taiwan Strait f ...

(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'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 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 politician and Indian independence activist, independence activist who served as the Prime Minister of India, prime minister of India between 1977 and 1979 leading th ...

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 Janata Dal (Secular) politicians Indian independence activists from Bengal {{WestBengal-politician-stub