Minocher Rustom Masani
Mr. M.R Masani stands at the political parting of ways, for he lives at a time when the socialist forces, to which the new Nationalism has given birth in India, is gathering strength, and the influence of the semi-bourgeois leadership in the Congress is still strong.
Mr. Masani may be called the social Socialist. His intellectual vigor can be felt only by cultivated minds. He is the first to apply conscious artistry to the development of Indian political theories. He is the first to discard the lingering traces of medievalism in politics. There is a new vital quality in whatever he says.
Mr. Masani was born at Bombay on November 29th 1905. He was educated at the Cathedral High School, Bombay. In 1925 he graduated from the Elphinstone College. Then he left for London for higher studies in economics. For four years he made a scientific study of economic facts in the London School of Economics. In 1927 he was elected Chairman of London School of Economics' Labor Party. In the same year he was elected Chairman of London Indian Majlis. He became the President of Indian Society. From 1926-28 he was the member of the British Labor Party.
After taking L.L.B degree of the London University he was called to the Bar and in 1929 he returned to India and started practice on the Original Side of the Bombay High Court.
In 1932 he participated in the Civil Disobedience Movement and was appointed President of the 52nd Emergency Council of the B.P.C.C. He was arrested and sentenced to one year's rigorous imprisonment. He is one of the founders of the Bombay Presidency College Socialist Group, and is its General Secretary. In 1934 he was on the editorial staff of the "Daily Sun". From 1934-37 he is the joint secretary of the Bombay Socialist Party. He is also the Joint Secretary of the All India Congress Socialist Party. Since 1934 he is a member of the B.P.C.C. In 1936 he was elected a member of the A.I.C.C. from 1935-30 he was a member of the Bombay Municipal Corporation.
The enormous sweep of his vision, its power and its exquisite nobility are vividly portrayed in his book "Soviet Side Lights". His thoughts are lofty and his life is their modeled expression.
The speaker Masani surpasses the theorist. But he spreads his ideas not through dialect but through example. He is admirable as the vital creator of a new political force.
Source: Haripura Congress Souvenir, 1938
