Ganesh Dutt

Sir Ganesh Dutt Singh KCSI, KCIE (1868-1943) was a Indian freedom fighter, administrator and educationist. He did much to improve education and health services in the state of Bihar and Orissa in the pre-independence era.[1][2] Dutt made generous donations from his earnings and personal property for the development of educational institutions, such as the radium institute in Patna Medical College, Darbhanga Medical College, Ayurvedic College and schools for the blind and deaf.[3] A short film based on the life and works of Dutt has been made by Prakash Jha.[4] He was Minister for Local Self Government of Bihar and Orissa and one of the major public figures of the province of Bihar.[5] Sir Ganesh Dutt had donated his house Krishna Kunj to Patna University to start the the Patna University Institute of Psychological Research and Service, one of the oldest psychological service centres in Eastern India in 1945 at the initiative of Sir Chandeshwar Prasad Narayan Singh Sinha, who was the then Vice Chancellor of Patna University.[6]
He took keen interest in Patna University’s development.[7] He donated some of his valuable assets to the varsity and worked hard to dispense the practice of appointing former judges as vice-chancellors.[8] Dr Sachchidanand Sinha became the first VC of Patna University who was not a judge.[9]

Biography

Sir Ganesh Dutta started studying English only when he was 18 in an era when you could not take ICS entrance examinations after you were 19. There is an interesting family story about how he took to English. He was at is in-laws place when a telegram came. Someone asked him to read it. His father-in-law tersely remarked “oh If only i was that fortunate that my son-in-law could read english”. The remark hurt Sir Ganesh Dutta’s pride. He devoted himself to studies and matriculated five years later with first division and a scholarship for proficiency in maths . He did not stop there and went on to become a modestly successful lawyer and later a minister in the government of Bihar and Orissa from 1923 to 1937, the longest tenure for any minister anywhere in the whole British Empire,[10]. Sir Ganesh Dutt was the Minister of Local Self Government from 1923 till 1937 when the Provincial Government was established.[11]