Prafulla Chandra Ghosh

Prafulla Chandra Ghosh (24 December 1891 – 18 December 1983) was the first Premier of West Bengal, India from 15 August 1947 to 14 August 1948. He also served as the Chief Minister of West Bengal in the "Progressive Democratic Alliance Front" government from 2 November 1967 to 20 February 1968.

Early life
Prafulla Chandra Ghosh was born on 24 December 1891 at a remote village, Malikanda, in Dhaka district, British India (now Bangladesh) as son of Purna Chandra Ghosh and Binodini Devi. Both his parents were religious devout and simple persons. Prafulla Ghosh was a brilliant student throughout his academic life and always stood first with scholarship. Prafulla had very rural upbringing and enjoyed cultural festivals such as Jatra, Kirtan, Padavali Gan, and also participated in agricultural activities.

Prafulla first attended Jagannath College and then moved to Dhaka where he graduated with B. A. (First Class First) and B. Sc (Chemistry) in 1913. In 1916, he obtained his M. A. and M. Sc (Chemistry) as first class first in both. Immediately, he joined research in Chemistry at Dhaka University. In 1919, he joined Presidency College, Calcutta as Demonstrator. In Jan 1920, he started work at Calcutta Mint as ASA master and he was the first Indian to be employed in that position. He was awarded doctorate in 1920 in Chemistry by Calcutta University.

Political life
Ghosh developed an interest in the Swadeshi Movement early on, but was most impressed and inspired by the ideas of armed revolution propagated by the Dhaka Anushilan Samiti, which he joined in 1909. However, the methods of the Samiti for raising money through theft and then defending the same in Court eventually alienated him, and he finally quit in 1913 to focus on academia. During the same time, while working for the Damodar flood relief, he met Surendranath Banerjee and other moderate leaders. Yogendra Nath Saha introduced him to the non-violent principles of Mahatma Gandhi. At the beginning, Gandhian principles did not impress him but he was moved by Gandhi's speech at Dhaka in December 1920 and soon afterwards met with him in Calcutta. In January 1921, he resigned from his position at the Calcutta Mint and along with other members of the Anami Sangh joined the Freedom Struggle.

Following the division of Bengal, Ghosh was appointed as the Premier of the Hindu-majority portion of West Bengal by the Indian National Congress. His tenure saw the influx & rehabilitation of Hindu refugees from East Bengal fleeing persecution from Muslims in the wake of communal riots inflamed throughout the country & widespread crackdown on the Communist Party of India, following it being banned by the Interim Government of India. He was accused of trying to convert the state into a police-state by enacting the West Bengal Special Powers Act of 1947. The Congress leadership was dissatisfied with his method of handling the matters, & replaced Ghosh with Dr. Bidhan Chandra Ray.

In 1957 state elections, he was elected as an MLA from Mahisadal on a PSP ticket. He lost the seat to Bangla Congress leader Sushil Kumar Dhara in the next election. In 1967 state election, he was re-elected as an MLA from Jhargram as an Independent candidate & was appointed as Food Minister in the First United Front Ministry of Ajoy Kumar Mukherjee. He was tasked with dealing the food crisis in the state caused due to famine, but the CPI(M), a key alliance member in the United Front coalition, launched strikes demanding his resignation after he controversially stated that poor Bengalis should give up their traditional consumption of rice & dal in favour of roti & boiled bananas to mitigate the effects of famine. Due to breakdown of co-operation between the Bangla Congress & CPI(M) due to clash of opinions & breakdown of law-and-order in the state due to Naxalite insurgency, Ghosh formed the Progressive Democratic Front with 16 other MLAs from the Bangla Congress & was sworn in as Chief Minister in November 1967 with the support of the Congress. However his government was dismissed within 3 months due to increasing political violence between the cadres of CPI(M) & Congress & President's rule had to be promulgated.

Family
His great-granddaughter is Priyanka Yoshikawa, who won the 2016 Miss World Japan contest.