Sinha, Sachchidananda (1871-1950)

 

Sinha, Sachchidananda (1871-1950)

Born in a respectable middle-class Kayastha family at Arrah, the headquarters of the Shahabad district in Bihar, on 10 November 1871, Sachchidananda was the youngest child (and the only son in the family) of Bakshi Ramyad Sinha (1831-97), the Chief Pleader of the Maharaja of Dumraon. His grandfather, Bakshi Shiva Prasad (1790-1870), had been the Diwan of the Dumraon Estate.

Their ancestral home was somewhere near Lucknow and during the disturbed conditions under the later Mughals they migrated to the village of Murar near Buxar in Shahabad, and their locality in Murar is still known as Lakhnaua Tola. Some of their forefathers must have served in the Military Accounts Department of the Mughals and they were given the honorific appellation of Bakshi, but Sachchidananda never used it.
Sachchidananda's parents were Vedantists with liberal views and toleration for others, and they chose for their only son a name which represents the three sublimes attributes of the Divinity according to Hindu philosophy. From his parents Sachchidananda inherited a sprit of rationalism which gave him the strength to rebel openly in later life against unjust social restrictions and meaningless religious rituals and superstitions. He was the first well-known Bihari Hindu to have undertaken a sea-voyage to England and to have married (1894) outside his sub-caste.
Sachchidananda's wife Radhika Devi (1880-1919) was the only child of Seva Ram, a Barrister of Lahore, and the granddaughter of Rai Bahadur Kanhaiya Lal, a distinguished engineer of his time. It is generally held that Sachchidananda married a widow, but this is not the case. The most probable reason for Radhika Devi's being regarded as a widow must be that the remarriage of her paternal aunt Hardevi with Roshan Lal, a Barrister of Allahabad, a year before her own marriage, created quite a stir in northern India, and public memory being proverbially short, what was actually applicable to Hardevi was transferred to the niece, Radhika Devi.
Sachchidananda, learnt the Hindi alphabet first at home at his mother's feet. She used to hold in her house in the afternoon discourses on the Ramayana for the benefit of the local women-folk. Sachchidananda learnt the lessons of life as given in the epic in these midday gatherings and he used to say that the Ramayana had been a source of inspiration to him throughout his life, as it likewise inspired his countrymen-the petty or the mighty-for generations.
His father had a fairly big library in his house and he used to hold special evening lessons for the son. Sachchidananda was generally asked to read out to his father important chapters from different books on religion, history and politics and from the newspapers and magazines, to a large number of which his father used to subscribe. This aspect of the daily routine inculcated in the son a love of books and a devotion to duty and it also created in him a love for journalism which, as a hobby and useful pastime, he cultivated throughout his life.
Sachchidananda was educated at the Arrah Zilla School, T. K. Ghosh Academy at Patna, Patna College and City College, Calcutta. While he was a first-year Arts student of the Patna College, in 1888, he was deeply impressed by what he heard of and read about the genius and activities of Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya. He attended the Allahabad session of the Congress in that year with the sole object of being personally acquainted with Malaviyaji.

Later, in the summer of 1889, Malaviyaji visited Arrah on Congress organisational work and was Sachchidananda's guest at Patna. Sachchidananda wanted to be a lawyer, editor and public man like Malaviyaji, and with this end in view he prepared to sail to England to prosecute studies at the English Bar. But when his parents came to know about this, they made him discontinue his studies at Patna and took him home. After a few weeks he persuaded his parents to allow him to go to Calcutta and study there.

Once in Calcutta he again started preparations for a voyage to England and on 25 December 1889 secretly boarded a ship bound for London. But he was short of funds and on reaching Aden he wired his parents about his difficulties when they had no option but to be reconciled to the plan of their son.
In London Sachchidananda used to live with the Imam brothers, Ali and hasan. Along with them he took an active part in the deliberations of the Anjuman-i-Islamia, of which Mazharul Haq, Lala Har Kishan Lal, Shah Din Shafi, Abdur Rahim, M. A. Jinnah and Gandhiji were some of the prominent members. He was also an active member of the Northbrook Indian Club and was its Librarian for quite a long time. He was its Librarian for quite a long time. He was a voracious reader and soon he collected in his house a library of about one thousand books which formed the nucleus of the famous Sinha Library at Patna.

While in England he assisted the Congress Delegation of 1890 led by George yule and worked as a volunteer for the election of Dadabhai Naoroji from the Central Finsbury consistency in 1892. The training in practical politics, he thus received, stood him in good stead when he himself entered Indian politics as a Congressman in 1894.
Sachchidananda was called to the Bar from the Middle Temple on 26 January 1893 and returned to India in March. On his return he was asked by his relations to perform prayaschitta which he firmly refused to do. On this he was given a hero's welcome at Allahabad where the main speaker on the occasion was Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya.
During his stay in England and on his way back home Sachchidananda observed that the name of Bihar was unknown everywhere-even to educated Indians from other parts of the country. He also found that Bihar was politically and educationally very backward, and felt that it was so because it had no distinct political identity and individuality and because, as an unimportant part of the Bengal Presidency, it received inadequate official attention and care.

To agitate for the creation of a separate Province of Bihar he started a journal, the Behar Times, at Patna in 1894 with Mahesh Narayan as its Editor. The movement gained momentum by 1896 and more particularly after the partition of Bengal in 1905. In 1906 he reconstituted the management of the Behar Times and changed its name to the Beharee to serve the local interests best.
Sachchidananda organised the Bihari Student's Conference (1906), the Bihar Provincial Conference (1908) and the Bihar Provincial Congress Committee (1908) to popularise the demand for the creation of a Bihar Province and to mobilize all-India support for it. The Calcutta Press opposed him tooth and nail and very selfish motives were attributed to him. But he remained steadfast.

In 1910 he was elected to the Imperial Legislative Council and managed to get his friend, Ali Imam, appointed as the Law Member in the Viceroy's Executive Council. After this, with the help of Ali Imam, it became comparatively easy for him to secure Provincial status for Bihar when the Government decided to revoke the Curzonian partition and redemarcate the territorial boundaries in eastern India in 1911. Mainly as a result of Sachchidananda's leadership and efforts the new Province of Bihar

and Orissa came into being on 1April 1912.
After this Sachchidananda became the recognised spokesman of the Bihari people and was chosen Secretary of the Reception Committee of the Congress session at Bankipore (Patna) in 1912. He was the President of the Bihar Provincial Congress Committee during 1916-20, but resigned when the majority of its members decided to follow Gandhiji's non-cooperation scheme at a meeting on 5 October 1920. He was a constitutionals and belonged to the Gokhale school of philosophy. But he never severed his connection with the Congress, and his house was a popular rendezvous of all nationalists of every denomination.
Earlier, in 1895, on medical advice Sachchidananda lived in Allahabad for a few years. There he came in intimate contact with Ramananda Chatterjee, Motilal Nehru and Tej Bahadur Sapru. He was the Secretary of the Kayastha Pathsala for some years and when Ramananda Chatterjee left permanently for Calcutta he became the Editor of the Kayastha Samachar. He founded the Hindustan Review in 1901, which he edited till his death except during the years 1921-26 when he was an Executive Councillor of Bihar and Orissa in charge of Jails, Judiciary and Finance. He was the first Indian to hold the Finance portfolio in a Province.

In 1909, along with Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya and Motilal Nehru, he organised The Leader and brought C. Y. Chintamani from Vizianagram to Allahabad as Joint Editor; the Editor, being Negendranath Gupta, the former Editor of the Tribune, of Lahore. In fact, C. Y. Chintamani was Sachchidananda's find and gift to the people of the U. P.
In April 1913 Sachchidananda presided at the Agra and Oudh Provincial Conference held at Kanpur and acted as a member of the Patna University Committee (Nathan Committee). Next year he visited Europe as a member of the Congress Delegation. With the help of P. R. Das (younger brother of C. R. Das), Hasan Imam, Dr. P. K. Sen, and Rajendra Prasad, he started on 15 August 1918. The Searchlight at Patna, which is still one of Bihar's leading journals with progressive views. He was also the Managing Director of the Indian Nation (Patna) during 1931-32.
Sachchidananda's wife Radhika Devi died on 30 July 1919. As she was without any issue, she and her husband adopted a few weeks before her death the second son of Bhubaneshwar Prasad (alias Bachcha Babu of Patna) and gave him the name of Radhakrishna Sinha (1918-69). On her husband's advice she made a will to dispose of her properties by which a Chair of Mathematics and Physical Sciences at the Punjab University and a Chair of Economics at the Kayastha Pathsala (College), Allahabad, and a fund of about Rs. 1,50,000/- to house the Radhika Sinha Institute and Sachchidananda Sinha Library at Patna, were created.
In September 1919 Sachchidananda was elected to the Imperial Legislative Council and was its first elected Deputy President. In 1921 at the request of Lord Sinha, Governor of Bihar and Orissa, he became an Executive Councillor (1921-26) and also acted as President of the Bihar and Orissa Legislative Council from July 1921 to November 1922.
In 1927 Sachchidananda toured extensively in Europe and represented India at the International Press Conference at Geneva. He also addressed the East India Association London on the working of the Dyarchy in Indian Provinces.
Sachchidananda presided over the 35th session of the All India Kayastha Conference at Delhi in 1929. Next year he was elected unopposed from his home constituency of Shahabad to the Bihar and Orissa Legislative Council and became the leader of the opposition until 1937.
In 1933 he again toured extensively in Europe and was a prominent witness deposing before the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Indian Reforms. In 1936 Sachchidananda was appointed the first non-official Vice-Chancellor of the Patna University and held that office until December 1944. During his Vice-Chancellorship postgraduate reaching and research received great encouragement. Twice (in 1937 and 1946) he was elected to represent the Patna University Constituency in the Bihar Legislative Council.
He delivered the Convocation address of the Lucknow University in 1935, the Nagpur University in 1937 and the Utkal University at its first Convocation in 1944. He was the Chairman of the Benares State Reforms Commission in 1939.
In 1946 he was elected by the Bihar Legislative Council to the Constituent. Assembly of India and he presided over its inaugural session.
Because of his valuable services to the nation honours began to pur profusely on him. The degree of Doctor of Letters (honoris causa) was conferred on him by the Allahabad University in 1937, by the Patna University in 1947 and by the Benares Hindu University in 1948. Earlier, in 1944, the Governor of Bihar, Sir Thomas Rutherford, proposed his name for Knighthood, but he declined to accept it because he considered democratic ideals and acceptance of official titles incompatible.
Almost the last act of Sachchidananda was his signing on 14 February 1950, at a special function arranged by President Rajendra Prasad, of the India Constitution after it had been finally adopted by the Constituent Assembly. He was then lying seriously ill. He passed away peacefully in the early hours of 6 March 1950, after living a fairly long, active and full life.
Sachchidananda combined in himself rare qualities of leadership. As a journalist and orator he ranked high among the literary men of his time in India. His criticism of Iqbal and his works revealed his deep knowledge of Persian thought and Urdu literature. He also wrote an excellent travel-guide on Kashmir, which ran into three editions in course of only five years, from 1942 to 1947.

His book, 'Some Eminent Behar Contemporaries' (Himalaya Press, Patna, 1944), is indispensable to any serious student of the history of modern Bihar. All his mature and considered opinions and ideas are contained in his `Speeches and Writings' (first published in 1935; second enlarged edition, Thacker Spink & Co. Ltd., Calcutta, 1942), which is also a remarkable piece of literature.
A spirit of rationalism and nationalism pervaded all the political and social reform activities of Sachchidananda, and he carried with him the people who came in touch with him and read or heard his speeches. Even those who differed from him on matters of principle admitted the soundness of his arguments and admired his liberal constitutional approach to various problems. He had a host of Muslim friends, such as Ali Imam and his brother Hasan Imam, Mazharul Haq and Mirza Ismail, the most important result of which was that so long as he was active communal tension could not raise its head in Bihar.
In administration-whether in the Government, in the University or in any other public organisation-he endeared himself to the people all the more by his boldness, impartiality, punctuality and hard work, and throughout his public life all sections of the public were attracted to him by his charity, hospitality and personality.