Bruhat Katha kosha

Author(s): Harishen Acharya,
Publisher: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan

Page 15

[A4]
Having thus brought his jute business to the most flourishing condition, Babu Dalchandji Singhi diverted his attention to the mineral resources of India and spent many lacs of rupees in prospecting the coal fields of Korea State (C. P.), limestone deposits of Sakti State and Akaltara, and the bauxite deposits of Belgaum and Sawantwadi and Ichalkaranji States. His scheme for the Hiranyakeshi Hydro-Electric Project and manufacture of aluminium from bauxite ores, the first of its kind in India, is yet to be developed. His mining firm, Messrs Dalchand Bahadur Singh is reputed to be one of the foremost colliery proprietors in India. While so engaged in manifold business, he also acquired and possessed vast Zamindary estates spreading over the districts of 24-Perganas, Rangpur, Purnea, Maldah, etc.
But the fame of Babu Dalchandji Singhi was not confined to his unique position in commercial circles. He was equally well-known for his liberality and large-heartedness, though he always fought shy of publicity attached to charitable acts and often remained anonymous while feeding the needy and patronizing the poor. A few instances of his liberality are given below.
When Mahatma Gandhi personally visited his place in 1926, for a contribution to the Chittaranjan Seva Sadan, Babu Dalchandji Singhi gladly handed over to him a purse of Rs. 10,000.
His War contribution consisted in his purchasing War Bonds to the value of Rs. 3,00,000; and his contribution at the Red Cross Sales, held in March 1917, under the patronage of H. E. Lord Carmichael on Government House grounds, Calcutta, amounted to approximately Rs. 21,000, in which he paid Rs. 10,000 for one bale of jute which he had himself contributed. His anonymous donations are stated to have amounted to more than one lac of rupees.
In his private life Babu Dalchandji Singhi was a man of extremely simple and unostentatious habits. Plain living and high thinking was his ideal. Although he had been denied a long academic career, his knowledge, erudition and intellectual endowments were of a very high order indeed. His private studies were vast and constant. His attitude towards life and world was intensely religious, and yet he held very liberal views and had made a synthetic study of the teachings of all religions. He was also wellversed in the Yoga-darśana. During the latter part of his life he spent his days mostly in pilgrimage and meditation. Noted throughout the district and outside for his devoutness, kindness and piety, he is remembered even now as a pride of the Jaina community.
During the last days of his life, Babu Dalchandji Singhi cherished a strong desire to do something towards encouraging research into important works of Jaina literature and publishing their editions scientifically and critically prepared by eminent scholars. But fate had decreed otherwise; and before this purpose of his could become a reality, he expired.