Satya Prakash Singha

Dewan Bahadur Satya Prakash Singha (1893–1948) was a politician of colonial India, and later, Pakistan, who served as the Speaker of the British Indian Punjab assembly. He was member of the Punjab Assembly between 1947 and 1948.

Early life and family

He was born to a Christian family in Pasrur, Sialkot in 1893 with ancestry of a Bihari grandfather and a Bengali grandmother. His mother was a Punjabi and he married a woman from the United Provinces (UP) of British India.

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 colonial India. In his recognition for his services, he was awarded the distinction of Dewan Bahadur by the British Indian government.

The majority of Indian Christians, represented by the All India Conference of Indian Christians, were allies of the Indian National Congress, and opposed the partition of India. However, 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 his own All-Indian Christian Association, and in November that year when the Muslim League held its annual convention in Faisalabad, it assured Jinnah of Indian 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.” In November of 1946 at another gathering in the Punjab, Singha declared that “Jinnah is our leader”, and Jinnah responded by saying: “We will never forget the favors and sacrifices of Christians.” In Punjab, a "rival Christian group led by Mr Banerjee argued that they wanted a united India but, if partition took place, then they would want to be in India." In reality, "Christians of the Punjab [were] demographically hamstrung, as regardless what side they wanted to support, they were mainly present in Muslim majority areas."

With partition imminent, Singha was appointed as Speaker of the Punjab Assembly, who advocated that Punjab be included with Pakistan. The Assembly met in June of 1947 to decide the question, and an armed Sikh leader announced that he would attack anyone who voted in favor of Punjab uniting with Pakistan. Ishtiaq Ahmed writes that:

Accordingly the members of the Punjab Legislative Assembly, organised separately into the Muslim-majority western bloc and Hindu-Sikh majority eastern bloc (based on a notional basis in accordance with the 1941 census), voted on June 23 on the question of partitioning the province. The voting of the western bloc was presided over by the Christian speaker of the assembly, Diwan Bahadur S P Singha, while Deputy Speaker Sardar Kapur Singh presided over the vote of the eastern bloc. The western bloc (comprising 17 districts of Punjab) rejected a motion to partition the Punjab by 69 votes to 27 while the eastern bloc (comprising 12 districts) rejected by 50 votes to 22 a motion by the Muslim League leader, the Khan of Mamdot, to keep the province united. Therefore, no tie occurred in the Punjab Assembly that S P Singha’s vote could tilt decisively in favour of Pakistan.

Being the Speaker of the Assembly of British India's Punjab Province, Satya Prakash Singha himself did not cast a vote.

Later Life

After the creation of Pakistan in 1947, Singha was told that only a Muslim could serve as the Speaker of the Assembly, and a motion of no confidence was passed against him; Singha was ousted from his post. Singha died in 1948 in disgrace. In 1958, Singha's family left Pakistan after years of humiliation and oppression and moved to independent India in sharp contrast to what diwan bahadur had imagined would happen.

Legacy

In 2016, a Pakistani postal stamp was issued in his honour.