Shyama Prasad Mookerji has been hailed as the first martyr in Kashmir. The book under review is an attempt by Balraj Madhok, the long time Jana Sangh leader and one time associate of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, to present the life story of the founder President of the Jana Sangh. Much of the narrative is taken up by the last few days of Mookerji's life, the days when he was arrested in Jammu and Kashmir and then died under what are claimed to be mysterious circumstances.

The son of the nationalist and educationist (and founder of the Calcutta University) Ashutosh Mookerji, Shyama Prasad became the youngest vice- chancellor of an Indian university (Calcutta University) at the age of 33 in 1934. He distinguished himself as an administrator, though not as a scholar or academic.

It was a short haul from education to politics. He had earlier been elected as a Congress candidate to the Bengal Legislature Council from the Calcutta University in 1929. He later left the Congress and joined the Hindu Mahasabha sometime in 1939 under the influence of V.D. Savarkar. This scion of a Bengali bhadralok family was the first minister to be sworn in independent India as the representative of a militant Hindu organisation. He soon resigned from the ministry and became the founder President of the Jana Sangh. He had earlier been the president of the Hindu Mahasabha from 1943- 45 and its acting president earlier.

The author remarks that Mookerji's 'decision to join the Hindu Mahasabha instead of the Congress, in which he could have surely reached the top in no time...' seems unconvincing. He brings forth no evidence of Mookerji's role in the Congress as long as he was in it. There are similar speculative statements that abound throughout the book. These might help to impress party cadre, but not to those not yet part of the faithful, to say nothing of those skeptical of the ideology that Mookerji represented and Madhok upholds. Unfortunately that is a major lacuna of the book, much of it is a sermon being preached to the choir. The absence of any references to published sources is a major drawback of the book.

There is an underlying streak of violence evident in the book that is a little disconcerting for those (like the reviewer) somewhat less inclined to recourse to strong-arm tactics. For example, regarding relations with Subhas Bose, the author writes:

"(The Calcutta Corporation elections in 1940) pitted the two stalwarts against each other... Subhas Bose, with the help of his favourite, decided to intimidate the Mahasabha candidates by the use of force. His men would break up all Mahasabha meetings and beat up its candidates. As a result, Mahasabha candidates got so terrified and demoralised that they would not hold any meetings at all. Dr. Mookerji could not tolerate this. He got a meeting announced that he planned to address himself. As soon as he rose to speak an audience member chucked a stone at him that hit in the head causing profuse bleeding. This infuriated the audience that adored him. They fell upon the goondas including the strongmen of Subhas Bose and gave them a thorough beating that put an end to their hooliganism. Soon after, Subhas Bose met Dr. Mookerji and suggested that there should be no interference or attempt at disturbing the meetings of the rival parties.

This incident proved the mettle of Dr. Mookerji as a political leader of the people of Calcutta and created a salutary effect on his opponents. Subhas Bose learned to respect him and they became good friends though their paths remained different. This friendship slowly grew into mutual admiration. "

The message that the author wishes to convey is clear, unfortunately, it is precisely this kind of abetment and tit for tat tactics that all parties employ. Going by the logic suggested by the author, now we know why each political party is competing with others to have the bigger goonda group with them. They are merely trying to "prove their mettle", win the "respect" and "mutual admiration" of the other parties.

It is, therefore, not an accident that Nathu Ram Godse, a member of Shyama Prasad Mookerji's party, the Hindu Mahasabha, was to assassinate Mahatma Gandhi. Significantly, the author makes no mention of Mookerji's reaction to the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. However, the climb down in the stand of the Jana Sangh, the party that Mookerji founded along with the author Balraj Madhok in 1951, was evident when the new party, unlike the Hindu Mahasabha, decided to open its membership to people from all religions and castes. Of course, he never gave up the core militant Hindu hard-line and anti- Muslim stand.

The book would have been valuable had it been more user- friendly. As it is, there is no index and no bibliography for the interested reader. Letters (or portions of them) have been reproduced in the book as part of the main text. It would have made the work much more useful by incorporating the Kashmir letters in the appendices.