Early Life and Education
Jyoti Basu was born on 8 July 1914 as Jyotirindra Basu at 43/1 Harrison Road (now Mahatma Gandhi Road) Calcutta into an upper middle-class Bengali family in West Bengal, India. His father, Nishikanta Basu, was a doctor from the village of Barudi 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 (now 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 Presidency College of the University of Calcutta.
After completing his undergraduate studies in 1935, Basu set for England for higher studies of Law. It is said that Basu attended lectures by 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 became involved 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.
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