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Our Inspiration :: Prof. G. P. Sinha
Click to view Publications of Prof. G. P.
Sinha
 Dr. G.P. Sinha, one of the most
brilliant products of Patna University, a professor of
national repute and a distinguished scholar of Cornell
University of U.S.A. was born on the 1st day of September
1921 in Kala Dumra, a village in the district of Siwan,
Bihar. His father Late Shri Sita Ram Sinha was a farmer. His
Mother Late (Mrs.) Tetri Devi was a pious household lady.
Right from early childhood he was interested in learning. He
had a curious mind and was eager to know about everything,
which he could find new within his surroundings. On his own
initiative he started attending a primary school in the
village at the age of seven years. His first teacher was
Late Shri Ram Baran Tewari.
Once, the school inspector, Late
Mr. Gaya Ojha visited the school for inspection purposes.
During the course of inspection he was very much impressed
by the responses of a little boy ‘Ganesh’ (Nick name of
Prof. G.P. Sinha) and decided to take him to Atauli Rampur
for proper education. He persuaded his parents and thus he
was allowed to go along with the school inspector. He was
admitted into the Rampur Atauli High School from where he
passed the matriculation examination securing first
division.
The head master of the school, Late Shri Sakal
Prasad, was so happy by his result that he himself managed
for his admission into Rajendra College Chapra for further
studies. He graduated from this college in 1944, which was
then a unit of Patna University. He obtained his M.A. degree
in Economics from Patna University in 1946 and in the same
years he was appointed a Lecturer in the Department of
Political Science of Patna University on adhoc basis. In
1947 he was appointed a lecturer in the Department of
Economics in Ranchi College, Ranchi.
 Immediately after the
passing of the Factories Act of 1948 which provided for the
appointment of Labour welfare officer in establishments
registered as factories the need was felt to establish a
separate post graduate department which could prepare
competent personnel for appointment to the post of welfare
officers. On the initiative of Late Shri Jagjeewan Ram, the
then union minister for Labour & Employment, Government of
India, a decision to this effect was taken by Sir C.D.P.N.
Sinha the then vice-chancellor of Patna University and Dr.
G.P. Sinha who was working in Ranchi College at that time
was approached by Prof. Gorakh Nath Sinha, the then D.P.I.
Government of Bihar and Sir C.P.N. Sinha the then
Vice-Chancellor of Patna University to come back to Patna
University and take the headship of the newly created
department of Labour and Social welfare. Thus, Dr.
 G.P.
Sinha became the founder head of this department. Under his
able leadership the department grew over the course of time
and attained great heights. His assiduity in shaping the
department and giving proper direction to the careers of its
students yielded necessary results and the very first batch
of students whom he taught produced three I.A.S. officers.
They included Mr. Ishwari Prasad, Mr. Kamta Prasad and Mr.
J.C. Kundra. Subsequently, Mr. S.K. Dutt of the same batch
was also elevated to the rank of I.A.S. Very soon Dr. G.P.
Sinha became popular in the university and began to be
considered as the guiding Star of the Department. In 1954 he
left for Cornell University of U.S.A. from where he obtained
his Ph. D. degree. In 1956 he came back and joined the
department which he served as professor and head till
February 1983 when he was appointed the Vice Chancellor of
Patna University.
Through his lectures, articles and
scholarly researches he acquired on outstanding position in
the academic world. For the students and teachers of the
Department he was a symbol of inspired versatility and an
epitome of illimitable energy. |
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| A TEACHER PAR EXCELLENCE |
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| Dr. G.P. Sinha was
a teacher in true sense of the term. He had a forceful
personality creative methods with a high sense of
dedication. As he was himself an ideal person he had
wholesome influence upon his students. Despite having
engagements of diverse nature he used to engage maximum
number of classes in the department himself. He was very
punctual and used to motivate all his colleagues to be good
time managers. His professional ability provided him the
faith in the nobility of the students. His sympathy, love
and equable temper created such qualities in the students as
well. He used to encourage them to rely upon themselves by
initiating them into the scientific methods of analysis and
synthesis. They used to develop self-confidence and ability
to solve many of their problems themselves. He strongly
believed that education must result in the perfection of
humanity. Besides giving his students insights into various
issues relevant to their course he strived hard to inculcate
in them the eternal values of morality, righteousness,
justice, truth, goodness and beauty. He engaged classes even
after relinquishing the post of vice-chancellor honourarily.
Even a day before he died he came to engage classes when the
weather was very foggy and temperature was considerably low. |
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| A FIRM BELIEVER IN
SECULARISM, SOCIALISM AND DEMOCRACY |
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| Dr. G.P. Sinha was
a strong believer in secularism, socialism and democracy. He
carried forward the rich traditions and glorious heritage of
his teacher Dr. Gyanchand and gave his students and friends
the desired orientation towards secularism, socialism and
democracy. Inside classrooms and outside Dr. Sinha’s
commitment to these values inspired generations of students
and carried in them an urge to uphold these values in their
lives. In close cooperation with Dr. A.K. Sen, a famous
physician of Patna and several other prominent persons of
Bihar he established the Citizens Forum, ‘Ekta Manch’
(Centre for Communal Harmony); ‘Pustak Manch’ and ‘Centre
for Secularism, Socialism and Democracy’. Adult Literacy
centers were also established under his guidance in
different localities in Patna. He had a strong conviction in
the desirability of social and national integration, which
he thought to be crucial to the creation of a strong and
united country and an essential pre-condition for all
progress. According to Dr. Sinha promotion of mutual
understanding, respect for the culture, traditions and ways
of life of different sections of the Society was the prime
need of the nation. He used to lay great emphasis upon the
need to develop ‘responsible and alert citizenship and
growing identification of people not with sectional
loyalties. |
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| A PERSON SENSITIVE TO
DISASTERS & NATURAL CALAMITIES |
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Dr. G.P. Sinha was
highly sensitive to disasters and other crisis situations,
such as floods, draughts, industrial accidents, earthquakes
etc. He used to give quick response in proportion to his
capacity wherever and wherever the situation so demanded. In
1967 he formed the Patna University Relief Committee and
mobilized the teachers and students of Patna University to
engage themselves in relief operation for the sufferers of
draught in Bihar. He and his associates also collaborated
with Late Shri Jai Prakash Narain at whose initiative the
Bihar Relief Committee was formed and relief work was taken
up on a massive scale. The city of Patna witnessed the fury
of floods twice i.e.; in 1966 and again in 1975. The whole
southwest portion of the city was inundated. Under the
leadership of Dr. G.P. Sinha and Dr. A.K. Sen rescue work
was started immediately in all the concerned areas. Relief
materials were collected and proper distribution was made
among the sufferers specially those who were the slum
dwellers and needy persons of other localities. During the
period of Bihar Sharif riot of 1981 continuous efforts were
made to re-establish peace and harmony in the affected areas
and to identify such persons of Bihar Sharif and its
adjoining areas who had saved the lives of persons of other
communities at the risk of their own lives. On the eve of
Gandhi Jayanti all such persons were invited and were
publicly honored in Gandhi Sanghralya, Patna. The idea of
identifying and publicly honoring the persons concerned was
given by Dr. G.P. Sinha himself.
Immediately after the holocaust of Bhopal Gas Disaster in
1984 Dr. G.P. Sinha decided to launch a P.G. Diploma course
in Industrial Safety Management in Patna University. He
realized the need to prepare a group of young students who
have the necessary skill to identify and evaluate process
hards for the purposes of taking control measures which
otherwise may lead to disasters. This course is effectively
being run and the students after completing this course are
serving not only in India but in Turkey, Iran, Egypt and
other Middle East Countries.
He also introduced a P.G. Diploma Course in Rural Management
and Development in the university which is now a full
fledged Master’s Course of two years duration with the
approval of the University Grants Commission.
Dr. G.P. Sinha used to say that disaster situations cannot
be handled by government machineries alone. The whole
community should involve in the process and should take part
in the activities undertaken to meet the crisis situation.
He used to lay great emphasis on the need to evolve some
permanent mechanism to meet the challenge. He was of the
view that the existing system of education was responsible
for increasing the gulf between the educated and un-educated
classes. He used to say that the intellectuals should try to
become a real service group striving to uplift the masses
and should resist from mere protecting and promoting their
self-interests and privileges. He used to emphasis the need
for community services and called upon the teacher and
students of Patna University to play a crucial role in
organizing such services wherever possible. He strongly
supported the idea of making N.S.S. a compulsory part of the
curriculum in educational institutions. |
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| A PASSIONATE LOVER OF SPORTS
AND GAMES |
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Dr. G.P. Sinha was
a passionate lover of sports & games. Being the in charge of
games and sports in Patna University he did his best to
promote sportsmanship among the students and teachers of the
university. This is why he used to have a galaxy of sports
loving teachers like Dr. A.K. Ganguli, Dr. S.N. Sinha, Dr.
Suresh Prasad, Dr. Prem Kumar, Dr. Shamshad Hussain etc.
around him who were always ready to act as per his advice.
They used to encourage students to take part in games and
were able to identify the talented sportsmen from among the
students of various colleges and departments. In those days
Patna University teams of various disciplines such as
cricket, hockey, football, table tennis, badminton etc used
to comprise very smart and talented students and bagged
trophies at various tournaments organized at the state and
the zonal levels.
 Patna University had the distinction of
holding inter-university and inter-zonal meets of football,
hockey, volleyball, badminton and cricket at frequent
intervals. The people of Patna used to have the opportunity
of watching players of national teams in action. Some
prominent players who participated in such inter-university
and inter-zonal meets included Prakash Padukune, Ashok
Mankad, Vengsarkar, solkar, Parsanna etc. When Dr. G.P.
Sinha became the Vice-chancellor of Patna University he
decided to form two separate Boards one for sports and games
and the other for fine arts. These boards were constituted
on sound lines and were provided necessary financial
assistance to build strong teams of various disciplines.
Boys and girls were motivated to take part in dance, drama,
vocal and instrumental music and other areas of fine arts
such as photography, sculpture etc. The special measures
taken yielded fruitful results and the Patna university team
at the National Youth Festival bagged highest number of gold
medals, consecutively in two years. His love for sports and
games culminated in his death in Moinul Haque Stadium of
Patna where he had gone for his morning walk and received a
massive heart attack. Thus he took his death also sportingly
on a sports ground. |
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| HOLDER OF DISTINGUISHED
POSITIONS |
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Dr. G.P. Sinha, by
virtue of his scholarship became a professor of
international repute. He was invited to deliver a series of
lectures in the School of Industrial and Labour Relations of
Cornell University U.S.A . He was also invited to deliver
lectures by the whittmore school of Business and Economics
and The Centre of International Studies Chio University. He
visited France, German Democratic Republic (GDR),
Yugoslavia, North Korea, Soviet Union, Japan, China,
Philipines and Libya where he presented papers and presided
over the sessions of international Seminars. He also visited
some other countries as member of friendship delegation
under the Cultural Exchange Programme of the Government of
India.
He was one of the founders of the Indian Society of Labour
Economics and acted as its secretary cum treasure for
several years. He was elected the conference President of
the Society consecutively for two years i.e.; in the year
1969 and 1970. He was a member of the study Group of The
First National Labour Commission, Central Wage Board, Bihar
State Labour Advisory Committee, Board of Directors of the
United Commercial Bank, Zonal Committee of the Life
Insurance Corporation at India and the International
Industrial Relations Association. In all capacities he
discharged his responsibilities most gracefully. |
| A CRUSADOR FOR TEACHERS'
CAUSE |
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| Dr. G. P. Sinha
firmly believed that the effectiveness of the educational
systems primarily dependent on the quality of teachers. He
was of the view that Endeavour must be made to have a set of
highly competent teaching personnel dedicated to the sacred
task of imparting knowledge, skill, ability and insights. He
pleaded that the Society should pay to them whatever it can
afford for them very gracefully and teachers also must work
with a high sense of commitment and sacrifice, but,
subsequently it was experienced that the policies of the
Government were just reverse. They were not paid whatever
were recommended for them by the UGC, other pay commissions
and committees. In view of the injustices, done to them we
decided to form teachers' organizations on university and
State levels. He was elected the President of PUTA (Patna
University Teachers' Association) and of FUSTAB (Federation
of University Service Teachers' Association of Bihar).
Several times led the university teachers' movement
successfully in a grand manner. He also strived hard to
infuse among the teachers a sense of commitment and
sacrifice. He was a widely respected teacher and was
considered to be one of the pioneers of the University
Teachers' Movement in India. |
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| A FAIR AND STRICT
ADMINISTRATOR |
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Though Dr. G.P.
Sinha acted in various administrative capacities during the
period of his service but his administrative acumen was best
demonstrated when he became the Vice-Chancellor of Patna
University in 1983. The post of vice-chancellor was offered
to him by the then Chief Minister of Bihar Dr. Jagannath
Mishra himself. Initially, he was reluctant to accept the
offer but on the repeated requests of the Chief Minister he
gave his consent on the condition that he should be given
complete freedom to manage the University in his own style
and if in the larger interest of the university he felt it
necessary even to violate the order of the Chief Minister he
should be allowed to do so. As Dr. Jagannath Mishra had
great regards for him he agreed to give him full freedom. He
managed the affairs of Patna University for about 3 years
nicely. He is still remembered for his openness in the sense
of having wide contact with the people administered; for his
sense of justice fair play and impartiality in dealing with
men and matters; for his sensitivity and responsiveness to
the urges, feelings and aspirations of the teachers,
employees and students; for his extra-ordinary care for
securing and preserving the honors and grace of the post of
vice-chancellor. He succeeded in creating and sustaining an
atmosphere conducive to development, growth and change
maintaining his honesty and integrity in thought and action.
Dr. G.P. Sinha breathed his last on the 26th of January 1990
and left a large group of mourners. But he continues to be a
source of inspiration and hope for all those who are
struggling against the forces which frustrate the progress
of humanity. |
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