Sachchidananda Sinha (10 November 1871 – 6 March 1950) was an Indian lawyer, statesman, administrator and educationist. He was the first President of the Indian Constituent Assembly which drafted the

Constitution of India The Constitution of India is the supreme law of India, legal document of India, and the longest written national constitution in the world. The document lays down the framework that demarcates fundamental political code, structure, procedures ...

. He also served as the vice chancellor of Patna University, secretary of the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party, or simply the Congress, is a political parties in India, political party in India with deep roots in most regions of India. Founded on 28 December 1885, it was the first mo ...

, and deputy speaker of the

Indian Legislative Assembly * Central Legislative Assembly * State legislative assemblies of India The State Legislative Assembly, also known as the Vidhan Sabha or the Saasana Sabha, is a legislative body in each of the states and certain union territories of India. Me ...

. He, along with Mahesh Narayan, is considered to be the main architects of the modern state of

Bihar Bihar ( ) is a states and union territories of India, state in Eastern India. It is the list of states and union territories of India by population, second largest state by population, the List of states and union territories of India by are ...

Early life

Sinha was born on 10 November 1871 in

Arrah Arrah (also transliterated as Ara) is a city and a municipal corporation in Bhojpur district, India, Bhojpur district (formerly known as Shahabad district) in the Indian state of Bihar. It is the headquarters of Bhojpur district, India, Bhojpur ...

, in

Bengal Presidency The Bengal Presidency, officially the Presidency of Fort William in Bengal until 1937, later the Bengal Province, was the largest of all three presidencies of British India during Company rule in India, Company rule and later a Provinces o ...

(in present-day

) into a well-to-do Srivastava Kayastha family who had served for several generations for

Dumraon Raj The Dumraon Raj was a feudal principality in the Bhojpuri region, Bhojpur region ruled by the Ujjainiya dynasty. The principality was founded when Raja Horil Singh founded a separate capital for himself in the town of Dumraon. The name Dumraon ...

estate. Sinha's grandfather, Bakshi Shiva Prasad Sinha, was the Chief Revenue office for the Dumraon Raj. Sinha's father sent him to be educated in Patna and later City College, Calcutta. Later, he moved to the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

and studied law in

Inner Temple The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional association for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practice as a barrister in England and Wa ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

to become a barrister. Following his return from London, Sinha began a movement for a separate

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

of Bihar with a small group of others. It was realized in 1912 with the formation of the

Bihar and Orissa Province Bihar and Orissa was a province of British India, which included the present-day Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand, and parts of Odisha. The territories were conquered by the British in the 18th and 19th centuries, and were governed by the then ...

Career

Sinha began his career as an advocate in 1893 practicing in the Calcutta High Court. He subsequently practiced in the

Allahabad High Court Allahabad High Court, officially known as High Court of Judicature at Allahabad, is the high court based in the city of Prayagraj, formerly known as Allahabad, that has jurisdiction over the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It was established o ...

starting in 1896 where he met Justice Khuda Bakhsh Khan who gave him the responsibility to run the Khuda Bakhsh oriental public library as its secretary from 1894 - 1898 and became one of his

mentor Mentorship is the patronage, influence, guidance, or direction given by a mentor. A mentor is someone who teaches or gives help and advice to a less experienced and often younger person. In an organizational setting, a mentor influences the perso ...

, He started practicing in

Patna High Court The Patna High Court of Judicature at Patna (commonly known as Patna High Court) is the High Courts of India, High Court of the Indian state, state of Bihar. It was established on 3 February 1916 by British colonial government and was later aff ...

starting in 1916. In his early years, Sinha was a member of the

, from 1899 till 1920, serving one term as secretary. He participated in the Home Rule League Movement. He was one of the vice-chancellors of Patna University and held the post from 1936 to 1944. He built the Sinha Library in 1924 in memory of his wife, Radhika. He was a member of the

Imperial Legislative Council The Imperial Legislative Council (ILC) was the legislature of British Raj, British India from 1861 to 1947. It was established under the Government of India Act 1858 by providing for the addition of six additional members to the Governor General ...

from 1910 to 1920 and the

. He became the first Deputy President (Deputy Speaker) of the Assembly in 1921, after the Government of India Act 1919 institutionalised President and Deputy President to preside over the meetings of Central Legislative Assembly, a role previously played by Governor-General of India over the proceedings of the unicameral Imperial Legislative Council (1861-1920). He also held the office of the President in the Bihar and Orissa Legislative Council. He was appointed Executive Councillor and Finance Member of the Government of Bihar and Orissa, and, thus, was the first Indian who was ever appointed a Finance Member of a Province.Constituent Assembly of India
Later, he also was a member of the Bihar Legislative Assembly.. On 9 December 1946, after the first Constituent Assembly election, the first meeting of Constituent Assembly was held in which Sinha was appointed as the temporary President of Constituent Assembly as he was the eldest member, following the French Practice. A constituent college in

Aurangabad Aurangabad (), officially renamed as Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar in 2023, is a city in the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the administrative headquarters of Aurangabad district and is the largest city in the Marathwada region. Located on a ...

is dedicated to him and was named Sachchidanand Sinha College, which was founded by Akhouri Krishna Prakash Sinha along with eminent Gandhian

Anugrah Narayan Sinha Anugrah Narayan Sinha (18 June 1887 – 5 July 1957), known as ''Honorary titles of Indian leaders, Bihar Vibhuti'', was an Indian nationalist politician, participant in Champaran Satyagraha, Gandhian & one of the architects of modern Bihar, wh ...

before independence, in 1943, who named it after Sinha, as a living tribute to him, who was at that time 72 years of age. Sinha died on 6 March 1950 at his residence in Patna. In January 2015, when US President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

visited India, he was presented with a copy of the first telegram sent from the US to India. It was sent by then acting secretary of state

Dean Acheson Dean Gooderham Acheson ( ; April 11, 1893October 12, 1971) was an American politician and lawyer. As the 51st United States Secretary of State, U.S. Secretary of State, he set the foreign policy of the Harry S. Truman administration from 1949 to ...

to Sinha.

Author

Sinha was a journalist and a writer. He was the publisher of the ''Indian Nation'' and editor of ''Hindustan Review''. His works include
''Some Eminent Indian Contemporaries''
an
''Iqbal: The Poet and His Message''
(1947).

Early life

Career

Author

References

Further reading