Jogendra Singh

Who was Jogendra Singh?

Sir Jogendra Singh, KCSI, Kt. was a member of Viceroy's Executive Council in India. He served as Chairman of the Department of Health, Education and Lands. He was a figure in the Sikh community and one of several delegates chosen to represent the Sikh community before the Cripps' mission of 1942. He is also considered responsible for setting up a committee in 1946 that led to the formation of Indian Institutes of Technology.

Of old Sikh lineage, and counted among the politest and most accomplished men of his day, was born the second son of Javala Singh on 25 May 1877 at Aira Estate, in Kheri district of what then used to be the United Provinces. His ancestors belonged to the village of Rasulpur in Amritsar district of the Punjab. In old family records he was usually referred to as Jogendra Singh Rasulpuria. His grandfather, Punjab Singh was a soldier in Maharaja Ranjit Singh's ghorcharas, irregular cavalry. He was awarded a jagir in Oudh in recognition of military service rendered by him after the annexation of the Punjab to the British dominions.

Jogendra Singh inherited in 1898 an area of over 12,000 acres of land known as Aira Estate. Self-educated, he was a man of high intellectual calibre and culture. His introduction to public life was through journalism. Besides publishing articles on farming and allied subjects in papers in India and abroad, he edited for some time his own journal East & West which he had taken over from Behramji Malabari, a noted Parsi journalist.