Jyoti Basu (8 July 1914 – 17 January 2010) or ‘Jyotirindra Basu was an Indian politician belonging to the Communist Party of India (Marxist) from West Bengal, India. To the people of West Bengal, he was more than a political head. Jyoti Basu was admired and loved by people and even his political opponent has a word of praise for him. He served as the Chief Minister of West Bengal from 1977 to 2000, making him India’s longest-serving Chief Minister as of 2010 of any Indian state.
He was a member of the CPI(M)Politburo from the time of the party’s founding in 1964 until 2008.
From 2008 until his death in 2010 he remained a permanent invitee to the central committee of the party. On his death,he was the last of the founding Politburo members of Communist Party of India (Marxist).
Jyoti Basu was born on 8 July, 1914 in an upper middle-class Bengali family in Calcutta (Kolkata). His father, Nishikanta Basu, was a doctor from the village of Bardi in Narayanganj District, East Bengal (now in Bangladesh), while his mother Hemalata Basu was a housewife. Basu’s schooling started at Loreto School at Dharmatala, Calcutta (Kolkata), in 1920. It was there where his father shortened his name and he became Jyoti Basu. However he was moved to St. Xavier’s School in 1925. Basu completed his undergraduate education and received the honours in English from the Hindu College (renamed the Presidency College in 1855).
After completing his undergraduate studies in 1935, Basu set for England for higher studies of Law. Young Jyoti Basu was perusing to crack the elite ICS examination but the destiny had some other things to offer. It is said that Basu attended lectures of Harold Laski at the London School of Economics in late 1930. It was in England that Basu was introduced to the activities of politics through the Communist Party of Great Britain. There he was inspired by noted Communist Philosopher and prolific writer Rajani Palme Dutt. In 1940 he completed his studies and qualified as a Barrister at the Middle Temple. In the same year he returned to India. In 1944 Basu becameinvolved in trade union activities when CPI delegated him to work amongst the railway labourers. When B.N. Railway Workers Union and B.D. Rail Road Workers Union merged, Basu became the general secretary of the union.
