Eminent Bihari : Sir Ganesh Dutta Singh (1868 – 1943)

Sir Ganesh Dutt Singh

Here is the first biographical essay from Dr. Sachidanand Sinha’s “My Eminent Behar Contemporaries”. This is not the first biography in the Book. The book has biographies in the chronological order with older men coming first. But I am posting Sir Ganesh Dutta’s biography first. There are many reasons.

First, I have a family connection with him. He was my granmother’s granduncle. That’s close enough for being partial to some one. Isn’t it? :-). 

Second, he was a late bloomer in his life. I like late bloomers and envy the precocious. Late bloomers give me hope, the precocious, a sense of inadequacy.  

Sir Ganesh Dutta started studying english only when he was 18 in an era when you could not take ICS entrance examinations after you were 19. There is an interesting family story about how he took to english. He was at is in-laws place when a telegram came. Someone asked him to read it. His father-in-law tersely remarked “oh If only i was that fortunate that my son-in-law could read english”. The remark hurt Sir Ganesh Dutta’s pride. He devoted himself to studies and matriculated five years later with first division and a scholarship for proficiency in maths . He did not stop there and went on to become a modestly successful lawyer and later a minister in the government of Bihar and Orissa from 1923 to 1937, the longest tenure for any minister anywhere in the whole British empire. The story reminds me of Kalidasa, the poet. There are some similarities and like that story this one may be aprocryphal too, it is inspiring nevertheless.

Third reason I like him so much is his austerity and philanthropy. He was no Gandhian. In fact he was a British loyalist but he led, what Dr. Sinha calls, a severely simple and stern life marked even by hardships to  advance the cause of education and to help the deserving poor in Bihar. He donated 4 lakh rupees to Patna University. Raj Darbhanga and Banaili Raj might have donated much bigger sums to build educational institutions, but he remains unmatched in philanthropy if we looked at the share of earnings and wealth dedicated for a cause by any person. He earned to donate.

Not less valuable was his inspiration to young men to acquire modern education. He was the tallest leader of Bhumihaars in his time. Bhumihaars in early 20th century were an incredibly inward looking community obsessed with land ownership and zamindari. They dominated rural Bihar and owned disproportionate amount of farmland but were mostly uneducated and unrepresented in professions and public life. He pushed them, inspired them to acquire modern education. Story goes that whenever young men approached him for jobs, he would encourage them to get more education and offered to sponsor their studies.

Lastly, Sir Ganesh Dutt was a great institution builder. As a minister, he helped build and fund some of the best educational and research institutions of Bihar like Prince of Wales Medical College and Hospital (now known as Patna Medical College and Hospital or PMCH), Darbhanga Medical College, Kanke Mental Health Center, Lac Research Instituite at Namkum and many more. Our generation needs another institution builder like Sir Ganesh Dutt to create and nurture institutions of excellence that our state sorely needs.