Satyendranath Sen went to America in 1914. He was the only Bengali member of Gadar Party there. He contacted with Bagha jatin afyter coming to Calcutta from America with a plan of armed revolution with the help of Germany.
SINHA SADAN: A Brief Look Into History
SINHA SADAN: A Brief Look Into History
The name ‘Sinha Sadan’, built in 1926, links the building to the Sinha family of Raipur, the then Jamindars, or to be more specific, the building should be linked with Lord Satyendra Prasanna Sinha. This has a bit of a background story related with.
A member of Sinha family, Sri Pratap Narayan Sinha , converted to Bramhaism and was a disciple of Maharshi Debendranath Tagore since the year 1856. Maharshi once decided to visit the Sinha family of Raipur in 1862. On way Maharshi found a great spiritual bond with the place now called Santiniketan, and the Sinha family didn’t hesitate to transfer the land around Chatimtala to Maharsi on his request. Thereafter to keep Santiniketan a perpetually spiritually active place, Balendranath Tagore conceived establishment of a Bramha-Vidyalaya, literarily meaning, a school to teach primarily according to the doctrine of Bramhaism. Maharshi agreed to the idea.
Meanwhile, two members of the Sinha family, namely the brothers Narendra Prasanna Sinha & Satyendra Prasanna Sinha, got a bit alienated with their family, as they embarked on a long visit to England. The brothers bought the Kuthibari abandoned by John Cheap, British East India Company’s commercial resident in Bengal, near Surul, and used to stay there instead of at their family mansion whenever they visited Raipur. Now, Dwipendranath Tagore (in association with Balendranath Tagore) was interested to buy this Kuthi at Surul as a part of the proposed Bramha-Vidyalaya, but the price of Taka 11000/- was not acceptable to him. Dwipendranath offered a price of Taka 8000/- to which the elder brother Narendra Prasanna Sinha did not agree. Very soon Balendranath Tagore, the original floater of the idea of a Bramha Vidyalaya at Santiniketan died a very untimely death, and in consequence the idea of establishing a Bramha-Vidyalaya at Santiniketan was shelved for the time being.
Later, we all know, in 1901, Rabindranath revived the idea of Bramha-Vidyalaya at Santiniketan. But this time the school was more oriented towards imparting education, rather than sticking steadfastly to prefessing the doctrines of Bramhaism. Rabindranath, at around 1912, developed a keen interest to set up a tiny organization to work on agriculture related problems of surrounding areas and expressed his interest to buy the Chip Kuthi from Narendra Prasanna Sinha, who was then residing at London. Narendra Prasanna agreed to sell Cheap Kuthi to Rabindranath via a handnote selling the property at Taka 8000/- and with an annual rate of interest of 6 percent till the full payment was made.
This particular transaction was kept secret to Satyendra Prasanna Sinha. When Satyendra Prasanna Sinha came to know of it, he wanted to return the money to Rabindranath. That was in the year 1926,i.e. almost 14 years after the deal was made for sale of Cheap Kuthi. Satyendra Prasanna Sinha returned back around Taka 10000/- (Taka 8000+ interest) to Rabindranath in 1926 and with that money the Sinha Sadan was built. As far as the donation of Taka 10000/- by Satyendra Prasanna Sinha in 1926 is concerned it is stated clearly in Rabindra Jibani (Part-3) by Prabhat Kumar Mukhopadhyay, but the reason behind this donation is only recorded at ‘Bansa Latika and Satyendra Smaran’ published by the Sinha family of Raipur.
Short Note on Lord Satyendra Prasanna Sinha
1. He passed entrance test from Zilla School of Suri at the young age of 14 and was admitted to Presidency College at Kolkata.
1. He passed entrance test from Zilla School of Suri at the young age of 14 and was admitted to Presidency College at Kolkata.
2. He, along with elder brother Narendra Prasanna and the chief of Silk business at Illambazar Mr David Askin, invested jointly in various business activities and earned considerable amount of money. With the help of Mr David Askin and the wealth acquired, both the brothers set off for England.
3. From 1886, he and his wife became followers of Sadharan Brahmo Samaj, becoming leading members of the Brahmo community.
4. Satendra Prasanna Sinha completed his study of law at England, and coming back to India, started practicing law at Calcutta High Court from 1886. He was appointed the Advocate General in the year 1906 to 1909. In 1909 he was appointed a member of “Viceroy’s Executive Council”.
5. In 1915, Satyendra Prasanna Sinha presided as the chairman of the Bombay Conference of the Congress Party. He was appointed as a “Member of Bengal Executive Council” of Congress Party.
6. The British inducted Satyendra Prasanna Sinha as an representative of India in “Imperial War Conference’ at the time of the World War-I. He was also the first & only Indian signatory to the ‘Treaty of European Peace’ signed after the end of World War-I.
7. Satyendra Prasanna Sinha was then appointed a member of the “House of Lords” at England. Subsequently, Lord Satyendra Prasanna Sinha became the ‘Under Secretary of State’ and the main coordinator of the ‘India Act’. In 1920 & 1921 he acted as the Governor of Orissa and Bihar, respectively. In the year 1921 he joined as a member of ‘British Privy Council’.
8. Born in 1864, Lord Satyendra Prasanna Sinha died in 1928, at the age of 64.
Lord Satyendra Prasanna Sinha had a deep respect for Rabindranath Tagore, he was a constant companion of Rabindranath whenever he was at England. Satyendra Prasanna was instrumental to help Rabindranath acquire a large tract of land at Purva Palli through a land acquisition act in favour of Visva Bharati University at around 1926/27.He also arranged finance for Santiniketan several times from various sources.
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