Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee (1901-1953), second son of Sir Asutosh Mookerjee, was a multifaceted personalityeducationist, patriot, statesman, parliamentarian, a person of incredible courage and a great humanitarian. In a life of less than fifty-two years and in politics for just fourteen of them, he had risen to be a Union cabinet minister in Free India's first cabinet, and had thrown away that portfolio upon developing serious differences with Jawaharlal Nehru over the pogrom of the Hindu minority in East Pakistan. Before that he had been the driving force behind the creation of West Bengal and East Punjab by snatching these parts from Jinnah's Pakistan.