SUJAN SINGH SODHI

SUJAN SINGH SODHI (1870-1915), educationist and reformer, was born in 1870, the son of Sodhi Kishan Singh of Patiala. He took his intermediate examination at Mohindra College, Patiala, from where he went to Government College, Lahore, to receive his B.A. In 1980, he joined Mohindra College as professor of philosophy, a post he held for the next 20 years, doing between whiles short stints as principal of Khalsa College at Amritsar (1900) and as senior inspector of schools, Patiala. In 1910, soon after assumption of the reins of government on attaining his majority, Maharaja Bhupinder Singh of Patiala (1891-1938) appointed Sodhi Sujan Singh his foreign minister, but he laid down office three years later owing to failing health.

Sodhi Sujan Singh took a leading part in the Sikh educational movement at the turn of the century. He was a member of the committee set up by the Khalsa College Council on 13 May 1900 to frame rules of business for its functioning. He was also nominated a member of the committee appointed on 8 March 1902 to manage the College on behalf of the Council. Of the Chief Khalsa Diwan, Sodhi Sujan Singh was a founding member. He was one of the committee that framed its constitution in 1900, and during the first session of the Diwan, held at Amritsar on 30 October 1902, he was named additional secretary of the executive committee.

According to Bhai Jodh Singh`s Oral History transcript preserved in Nehru Memorial Museum, New Delhi, Sodhi Sujan Singh was one of those Sikh leaders who attended the Muhammadan Educational Conference at Karachi in December 1907, and it was he who first suggested that there should be a similar conference setup for the Sikh community. The idea was promptly taken up by the Chief Khalsa Diwan and this led to the establishment of Sikh Educational Conference which held its first session at Gujrahwala in April 1908. In May 1909, Sodhi Sujan Singh became secretary of the Diwan`s education committee which planned, controlled and coordinated its educational activities and organized the annual sessions of the Sikh Educational Conference. But his poor health did not permit him to continue in this office for long. The end came at Patiala on 23 July 1915.

References :

1. Jagjit Singh, Singh Sabha Lahir. Ludhiana, 1974