The Man Who Built New Delhi

Sir Sobha Singh was a principal contractor during the reconstruction of New Delhi. He is also known for being one of the witnesses in the Assembly bomb case where he testified against Bhagat Singh and his associates.

Sir Sobha Singh- The Man who built Delhi but broke and entire nation; Source: Modern School

India was very dear to the Britishers. Its riches had made it a particularly fertile ground for colonial exploitation but it was no mean task to shackle the country by the chains of colonialism; the Britishers dealt with everything that was thrown their way. If anything, the painstaking process of seizing control made the victory sweeter. Now that they had topped off their massive empire with a crown jewel, they ought to polish it every now and then.

Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens was the man who had been chosen by the Raj to build Delhi, their capital in India. The style of architecture was to be clean yet grandiose (much more of the latter, of course), an encapsulation of every quality that Britishers (foolishly) thought they represented.

Lutyens chose Laurie Baker to be his closest aide in this mammoth task, but he still needed a few locals who'd assist him in infusing a hint of Indian-ness to Delhi, so that the ruled would think of the alien as their own- a psychological control mechanism of sorts.

Sobha Singh, born and brought up in the village Lura Hadali of Khushab, was one of the four men who were chosen for this job. Sobha Singh's life was about to flip on its head. A person who hadn't seen the riches in his early years, Singh spent years to make a career for himself in the contracting business.

As soon as the news of Britishers shifting their capital to New Delhi fell on his ears, he left everything he had been working on and immediately went to New Delhi in order to receive building contracts. The investment was worth every penny and more - especially after he had become the owner of vast chunks of land at throwaway prices, he saw commercial opportunities grow by leaps and bounds.

While the Britishers built a magnificent throne for themselves in the heart of Delhi, Sobha too, made an empire for himself. But it isn't his architecture that he's most famous for- but his betrayal to the cause of an Independent India stands out as a blot of nasty ink on his remarkable life.

Rich Indians who had benefitted from the Raj often worked in cahoots with them. Why wouldn't they, morals didn't earn them any money, but collaborating with the Britishers did. Sobha Singh didn't think any differently either and he gave a shady testimony against soon-to-be national heroes Bhagat Singh and B.K. Dutt in the infamous Assembly bomb case in 1929.

His image in the eyes of the common man would took an irreparable hit. He left much of his estate to a charitable trust built in his name, but the damage done was beyond repair. His testimony against the cause of an Independent India became his lament for the ages and that speck of dirt he could never really wipe off his conscience.