Kolkata’s Suhrawardy Avenue renamed. But has BJP govt confused Hassan with Huseyn Suhrawardy?

Welcoming the Kolkata Municipal Corporation's move, Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari called it a “historic decision” towards “rectifying a historical wrong”. In a first since the BJP came to power in West Bengal, Kolkata’s Suhrawardy Avenue, a prominent arterial road in the city’s heart, has been renamed Gopal Mukherjee Road, after “Gopal Patha”, a polarising figure associated with the 1946 communal riots preceding India’s partition in 1947. Welcoming the Kolkata Municipal Corporation’s move, Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari called it a “historic decision” towards “rectifying a historical wrong”.The Kolkata Municipal Corporation, which is being run by IAS officer Smita Pandey after the resignation of TMC mayor Firhad Hakim, renamed Suhrawardy Avenue on Saturday on the occasion of Paschimbanga Divas. In a post on social media, the chief minister wrote, “For decades, a major artery of our city bore the name of someone who wilfully misused state power as a weapon, orchestrating the massacre of innocent citizens for sheer political gain.” Although Adhikari did not specify which Suhrawardy he was talking about in his post, it appeared to referred to Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, a Muslim League leader who was the Prime Minister of Bengal during the 1946 riots and later went on to become the Prime Minister of Pakistan. However, historically, the road was never named after the controversial political leader, Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy. Instead, it was named after his uncle, Hassan Shaheed Suhrawardy – a highly regarded Bengali academic, diplomat, and art critic.Story continues below this ad The public discourse surrounding Suhrawardy Avenue, which connects the Park Circus 7-Point Crossing to Don Bosco Circle, has frequently faced scrutiny and debate. Nearly a decade ago, a wave of social media outrage erupted when an online right-wing outlet published a fiery piece titled, “It’s A Crying Shame That ‘The Butcher of Bengal’ has a road named after him in Kolkata. The article argued that the city shouldn’t be honouring Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, the political figure heavily blamed for enabling mass atrocities, violence, and displacement of the city’s Hindu population during the mid-1940s. The Calcutta Municipal Gazette of March 1933 mentions that the Calcutta Municipal Corporation held a meeting on March 8, 1933 and decided to name Suhrawardy Avenue “the new (100 ft) road constructed by the C.I.T. (Calcutta Improvement Trust) from Park Circus to the junction of Kasaipara Lane (and lying north of the Park) on which stands the house of Sir Hassan Suhrawardy, Vice-Chancellor of the Calcutta University”. The name of the road was notified through the Calcutta Municipal Gazette on April 20, 1933. The street’s new name is after Gopal Chandra Mukherjee, also known as “Gopal Patha”, associated with the “Great Calcutta Killings” that began on August 16, 1946, following the call for “Direct Action Day” by the All-India Muslim League, led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah.Story continues below this ad Mukherjee, then a 33-year-old meat shop owner from College Street, mobilised local youths into an armed resistance unit later called the Bharater Jatiya Bahini (Indian National Force), and gained prominence for organising community defense measures during the peak of the riots. “By renaming it (Suhrawardy Avenue) after Gopal Mukherjee, the fearless soul who stepped up as a protector-in-chief to defend and save thousands of innocent lives, finally, the restoration of historical justice will be achieved by honouring a true guardian and saviour. It’s time West Bengal remembers, corrects, and honours the Real Heroes,” Adhikari wrote on Sunday. However, Opposition leaders slammed the move, saying that the BJP government was “overlooking historical facts”. Congress leader Pawan Khera said the BJP leaders confused Hassan Suhrawardy with Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy. “These BJP leaders do not even know the difference between Hasan Suhr