The Rt Hon. Satyendra Prasanno Sinha, 1st Baron Sinha of Raipur, KCSI, PC, KC, was a prominent lawyer and statesman in British India.^[1]

Background and education [edit]

Lord Sinha was born in Raipur, Birbhum in Bengal, British India into a wealthy family of the Hindu Kayastha caste. He was the youngest son of Sitakanta Sinha, zamindar of Raipur. He married Gobinda Mohini Mitter on 15 May 1880 at Mahata, Burdwan, Bengal and later studied in Presidency College, Calcutta and then studied law in England from 1881 to 1886 at Lincoln's Inn, returning to Calcutta as a barrister.

From 1886, he and his wife became followers of Sadharan Brahmo Samaj, becoming leading members of the Brahmo community.

Career [edit]

After returning to India in 1886, Sinha established a successful legal practice in Calcutta. He was a member of the Indian National Congress from 1896 to 1919, when, along with other moderates, he left the organisation. He was elected to preside over the Bombay session of the Congress in 1915.

Sinha became Standing Counsel to the Government of India in 1903. He was the first Indian to be appointed as Advocate-General of Bengal in 1908, and the first Indian member of the Governor-General's Executive Council in 1909. He went to England in 1914 as a member of the War Conference following the outbreak of the First World War, and represented India in Europe's Peace Conference in 1919.

He was knighted in the New Year Honours on 1 January 1915. He was the first Indian to be appointed as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for India in 1919. In the same year he was elevated to the peerage as Baron Sinha of Raipur in the Presidency of Bengal, becoming the first Indian member of the British House of Lords, taking his seat in February 1919. After his ennoblement, he navigated a bill through the House of Lords, which became the Government of India Act 1919; the Act transferred legislative power from the Viceroy of India to an Indian Legislature as a step towards self-government. Lord Sinha also became a member of the Imperial Privy Council.

He became Governor of Bihar and Odisha in 1920, the first Indian to be appointed to such a high rank in the administration. But he retired on grounds of health in 1921. He became a member of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in 1926.

Styles [edit]

• 1863–1886: Satyendra Prasad Sinha
• 1886–1915: Satyendra Prasad Sinha, KC
• 1915-10 February 1919: Sir Satyendra Prasad Sinha, KC
• 10–19 February 1919: The Right Honourable Sir Satyendra Prasad Sinha, PC, KC
• 19 February 1919 – 1920: The Right Honourable The Lord Sinha, PC, KC
• 1920-1921: His Excellency The Right Honourable The Lord Sinha, PC, KC
• 1921–1928: The Right Honourable The Lord Sinha, KCSI, PC, KC

Notes [edit]

External links [edit]

• Biographies:
  • www.movinghere.org.uk
  • Banglapedia
  • www.indiannationalcongress.com
• Portraits at the National Portrait Gallery

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