Bruhat Katha kosha

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

Page 17

[A6]
Babu Bahadur Singhji Singhi is a prominent leader of the Swetambar Jaina community. He was elected President of the Jaina Swetambar Conference held in Bombay in 1926. He is also connected with many other Jaina conferences and institutions either as president, patron or trustee.
Though thus a leading figure in the Jaina community, Babu Bahadur Singhji Singhi has always maintained a truly national and non-sectarian spirit and helped also many institutions which are outside the Jaina fold. For example, he has donated Rs. 12,500 for constructing a building at Allahabad for the Hindi Sahitya Parishat. In fact his generosity knows no distinction of caste or creed.
Really speaking, he does not in the least hanker after name and fame even though he is a multi-millionaire and a big Zamindar, and even though he is a man of superior intellect and energy. He is by nature taciturn and a lover of solitude. Art and literature are the pursuits of his choice. He is very fond of seeing and collecting rare and invaluable specimens of ancient sculpture, painting, coins, copperplates, inscriptions, manuscripts etc. He spends all his spare time in seeing and examining the rarities which he has collected in his room as well as in reading. He is seldom seen outside and he rarely mixes with the society and friendly circle. Wealthy persons like himself usually have a number of fads and hobbies such as seeing the games and races, visiting clubs, undertaking pleasure trips etc., and they spend enormously over them, but Singhiji has none of these habits. Even the managers of his colliery and zamindari travel in first class while he, the master, travels mostly in the second class. Instead of wasting money on such things, he spends large sums on collecting old things and valuable curios and on the preservation and publication of important literature. Donations to the institutions and charities to the individuals are for the most part given anonymously. I know it from my own experience that these gifts, donations and charities reach a very high figure at the end of every year. But he is so modest that on his being requested so often by me he did not show the least inclination to part with the names and whereabouts of the individuals and institutions that were the recipients of such financial aid from him. By chance I came to know of a very recent example, just now, indicative of this characteristic of his nature. Last year he shifted, like other innumerable inhabitants of calcutta, his headquarters to Azimganj (Dist. Murshidabad) when the fear of the Japanese invasion was looming large, and decided to stay there with his whole family during war time. Taking into consideration the present grievous condition of the country as well as the excessive scarcity of the grains in Bengal, he had hoarded grains in large quantities with a view to distributing them gratis according to his capacity. Thereafter the problem of food became rather more serious and at present the prices have risen inconceivably high. Babu Bahadur