Dewan Bahadur Singha

Dewan Bahadur Singha (1893–1948) was a Pakistani politician who served as the Speaker of the British Indian Punjab assembly.^[1] He was member of the Punjab Assembly between 1947 and 1948.^[2]

Early life and family[]

He was to a Christian family in Pasrur, Sialkot in 1893 with ancestry of Bihari grandfather and Bengali grandmother. His mother was a Punjabi and he married to British Indian United Province women.^[1]

Career[]

He served as registrar in the Punjab University. Due to his efforts matric examination system and intermediate level degrees were introduced to education system in Pakistan. In his recognition for his services, he was awarded the distinction of Dewan Bahadur.

As Singha gained more political influence, he was determined to see a land where the rights of all religious minorities were honored and where people were treated equal, no matter their beliefs or traditions. It was because of this desire that Singha became a vocal supporter of a politician named Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Singha was present when the Lahore Resolution was passed in March of 1940; a resolution which called for British-India to be divided into independent states. In 1942, Singha created the All-Indian Christian Association, and in November that year when the Muslim League held its annual convention in Faisalabad, the Christian Association assured Jinnah of Christian solidarity in the creation of Pakistan. Soon after this, Singha said in a public statement: “At the time of partition of the sub-continent of India, in the entire country, the Christians should be counted with Muslims.” As 1947 drew closer, Singha worked tirelessly to increase support for Jinnah and his cause amongst the Christian population. In November of 1946 at another gathering in Punjab, Singha declared that “Jinnah is our leader”, and Jinnah responded by saying: “We will never forget the favors and sacrifices of Christians.” ^[1]

With partition imminent, Singha was appointed as Speaker of the Punjab Assembly and forcefully demanded that Punjab be included with Pakistan. The Assembly met in June of 1947 to decide the question, and when an armed Sikh leader announced that he would attack anyone who voted in favor of Punjab uniting with Pakistan, Singha confronted the man and declared that he would indeed cast his vote in favor of Punjab’s inclusion. A fight broke out but no one was seriously wounded, and when the final vote was tallied, the result was 88 to 91 in support of Punjab joining Pakistan, with Singha and two other Christian Assembly members casting the deciding votes. They strongly believed that Pakistan would be a more just and equitable society for Christians to assimilate into, rather than remaining in the heavily caste-determined India.

Two months later, Pakistan became a separate nation; thus the dream of Jinnah and Singha was fulfilled. Both men died in the autumn of 1948, just one month apart from each other.

In 2016, a postal stamp was issued in his honour.^[3]

References[]

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