Phani Bhusan Chakravartti

Phani Bhushan Chakravartti (1898 – 8 May 1981) was the first Indian cum Bengali permanent Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court and was the acting governor of West Bengal.

Quotes

• You have fulfilled a noble task by persuading Dr. Majumdar to write this history of Bengal and publishing it ... In the preface of the book Dr. Majumdar has written that he could not accept the thesis that Indian independence was brought about solely, or predominantly by the non-violent civil disobedience movement of Gandhi. When I was the acting Governor, Lord Atlee, who had given us independence by withdrawing the British rule from India, spent two days in the Governor's palace at Calcutta during his tour of India. At that time I had a prolonged discussion with him regarding the real factors that had led the British to quit India. My direct question to him was that since Gandhi's "Quit India" movement had tapered off quite some time ago and in 1947 no such new compelling situation had arisen that would necessitate a hasty British departure, why did they have to leave? In his reply Atlee cited several reasons, the principal among them being the erosion of loyalty to the British Crown among the Indian army and navy personnel as a result of the military activities of Netaji. Toward the end of our discussion I asked Atlee what was the extent of Gandhi's influence upon the British decision to quit India. Hearing this question, Atlee's lips became twisted in a sarcastic smile as he slowly chewed out the word, "m-i-n-i-m-a-l!"
  • Phani Bhushan Chakravartti in letter addressed to the publisher of Dr. R.C. Majumdar's book A History of Bengal. reproduced in Majumdar, R.C [Ramesh Chandra], Jībanera smr̥tidīpe [Jibanera Smritideepe]. Kolkata [Calcutta]: General Printers and Publishers [Jenārela], 1978. pp. 229-230. (Quotation translated from the original Bengali By Ranjan Borra in Subhas Chandra Bose, The Indian National Army, and The War of India's Liberation, 1982)