Er. Prabhat Kishore
A multi-faceted personality, Dr. Sachchidanand Sinha was one of the makers of modern Bihar and Bharat. An extraordinary organizer, Dr. Sinha, apart from being an authority on Constitutional Law, was also a pioneer of journalism in Bihar in the early decades of 20th century. Born on November 10, 1871 in Ara Dr. Sinha took an active part in promoting and even directing for a number of years, several newspapers both weeklies and dailies. Prominent among them were The Indian People, Biharee, and The Searchlight. However, his main journalistic activity was concentrated on bringing out as well as editing the much appreciated “The Hindustan Review” for nearly forty-five long years. He was also the editor of Kayastha Samachar, a monthly magazine published from Prayag (Allahabad), which had been founded in 1899. Later, at the request of Maharaja of Darbhanga, Dr. Sir Kameshwar Singh, Dr. Sinha also acted as the Managing Director of The Indian Nation which was started from Patna in 1931.
Dr. Sachchidanand Sinha returned from England in early 1893 after being called to the bar. After settling down to practice at Patna, in which he was eminently successful, the idea of a daily paper, run and controlled totally by Bihari’s took hold of his imagination. He found a capable and valuable collaborator and with the active cooperation of Shaligram Singh and Bisheshwar of Kulharia Estate and otherlike minded persons, the Bihar Times started publication from Patna in 1894 for the cause of the sons of the soil.
For sometime The Bihar Times had to shift to Bhagalpur, but finally came back to Patna in 1906 and was re-organised as a weekly called Biharee. It was though The Bihar Times and the Biharee that Dr. Sinha and others carried on an agitation for the separation of Bihar from Bengal and its formation into a separate administrative unit. On 13thApril 1912,Biharee came out as full-fledged English daily. This was made possible when The Bihar and Orissa Newspapers Ltd, a limited liability company, was registered largely through the Banauli Estate in early 1912. However, the publication of Biharee ceased in 1916.
The Indian Mirror was started in 1903 by Dr. Sinha from Prayag. After six years of being published as a weekly, it was incorporated with The Leader, which was being published as a daily from Prayag since October of 1909. Dr. Sinha was its founder director. C.Y. Chutamani, who later distinguished himself as a front ranking journalist and editor, was brought to Prayag by Dr. Sinha in 1903 so that he could assist him in bringing out The Indian People. Bihar Times was started in 1894 by Dr. Sinha in collaboration with Mahesh Narayan. Bihar Times was later converted into the weekly Biharee and finally it merged with the daily Biharee in 1912.
Later as a result of Sachchidanand Sinha’s ceaseless endeavours and with the cooperation of such nationalists such as Dr. Rajendra Prasad, P.K.Sen, P.R. Das, Rai Bahadur Purnendu Narayan Sinha, Parmeshwar Lal and Hasan Imam a limited liability company was organized and registered under the name of “The Bihar Journals Limited” and the company brought out “The Searchlight” on August 15, 1918. The Searchlight had a stormy career during the days of the Non Co-operation and Civil Disobedience movements. The daily became an ardent supporter of the Swarajya Andolan. Due to its strong and outspoken criticism of the British rule and embarrassing exposed by it, the paper had to face several damage suits and contempt cases by the British administration. After seeing many ups and down this bold and doughty daily was incorporated into The Hindustan Times in 1986.
In October 1910, Dr. Sinha launched an English monthly magazine Modern Bihar which was extremely popular particularly amongst the youth and students. The magazine unfortunately folded up in 1912.
The motto on the first page of his highly acclaimed paper, The Hindustan Review, was these lines of William Lloyd Garrison:
“I will be as harsh as truth and
As uncompromising as justice;
I am in earnest, I will not equivocate
I will not excuse
I will not retreat a single inch; and
I will be heard.”
It must be said without any exaggeration that The Hindustan Review fully lived upto the principles enunciated in the above lines both in letter and spirit.
The Sinha Library, one of the historical landmarks of Patna stands as a fitting tribute to him and to his love for books and scholarship. Dr. Sinha was beyond and doughty a stalwart of the freedom movement and had become a legendary figure in his own lifetime. In 1920, he became a member of the Bihar and Orissa Legislative Assembly. He also served as a vice-chancellor of Patna University for nine years. On 9th December 1949, he became the interim chairperson of the Constitution Assembly of India. A prolific writer, Dr. Sinha has authored some well received books, “Iqbal: The poet and his message”, “Some problems of Bihar Aboriginals”, “Kashmir: The Playground of Asia”, “Some Eminent Indian Contemporaries”, “Some Eminent Bihar Contemporaries”. After about a month and a half of India being declared a sovereign republic Dr. Sinha passes away on March 3, 1950.
A man of great learning and erudition, Dr. Sachchidanand Sinha distinguished himself as a jurist, social reformer, educationist, writer, journalist, and administrator and most notably as a statesman. He was a big-man in everything; big in body, bigger in mind and biggest of all in heart.
(The author is a technocrat and educationist. He can be reached at [email protected])
