Sachchidananda Sinha

Sinha was born on 10 November 1871 in Arrah, in Bengal Presidency (in present-day Bihar) into a well-to-do Ambasth Kayastha family. He was educated in Patni and City College, Calcutta. He studied law in London to become a barrister. Following his return from London, Sinha began a movement for a separate province of Bihar with a small group of others. It was realized in 1912 with the formation of the Bihar and Orissa Province.[1]

Sinha began his career as an advocate in 1893 practicing in the Calcutta High Court. He subsequently practiced in the Allahabad High Court starting 1896 and Patna High Court starting 1916.[2]

In his early years, Sinha was a member of the Indian National Congress, from 1899 till 1920, serving one term as secretary.[3] 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.[1][4]

He was a member of the Imperial Legislative Council from 1910 to 1920 and the Indian Legislative Assembly. He was Deputy President of the Assembly in 1921.[3] 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 as a Finance Member of a Province.[3] Later, he also was a member of the Bihar Legislative Assembly..

On 9th December 1946, After the first Constituent Assembly election, the first meeting of Constituent Assembly was held in which Dr. Sachchidananda Sinha was selected as the temporary President of Constituent Assembly as he was the eldest member.[5]

A constituent college in Aurangabad 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 before independence[6], in 1943, who named it after Sinha, as a living tribute to him, who was at that time 72 years of age.[7]

In January 2015, when US President Barack Obama 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 to Sinha.[8]

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