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 so ...

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. 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 List of Members of the 4th Lok Sabha (4 March 1967 – 27 December 1970), elected February–March 1967. The Lok Sabha (House of the People) is the lower house in the Parliament of India.13 sitting members from Rajya Sabha were elected to 4th ...

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 fou ...

as a Praja Socialist Party (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-p ...

in 1971 and 1977 from the same constituency. He was a member of the Janata Dal (Secular) till his death. He died on 17 June 2002 at

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

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 Indians, but his wartime alliances with Nazi Germany and Imperi ...

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

Taihoku Taihoku Prefecture (台北州; ''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 (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 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