Talk:Sobha Singh (builder)

"Sir" Sobha Singh?

I have not been able to find any specific and reliable evidence for Sobha Singh's purported knighthood. The only British honour on record for him is an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) which does not confer knighthood; only a Knight Commander or higher does. Until some reliable citation support for Sobha Singh's knighthood is found, he should not be referred to as Sir Sobha Singh. Aumnamahashiva (talk) 13:14, 25 April 2014 (UTC)

On 2 June 1944, British Raj awarded Shoba Singh 1944 King's Birthday Honours: Knight Bachelor (check his entry under India subheading), wikipedia says Knight Bachelor can use honorific "sir". Padma Shri by the government of independent India was given to Sobha Singh (painter) in 1983 and not to Sobha Singh (builder) who had already died in 1978. Being.aussie (talk) 11:07, 6 July 2017 (UTC)

Sobha Singh's controversial role in conviction of Bhagat Singh

There is a controversy about Shoba Singh's role in the trial of famous Indian revolutionary Bhagat Singh, who has a more recognizable higher profile than Sobha Singh. Bhagat Singh faced two trials, the first one on charges of attempt to murder and conspiracy for the bombing of the Indian Central Legislative Assembly (CLA) where Shoba testified for the prosecution in court and Bhagat was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment. Bhagat Singh was also given death sentence in second case for the murder of British Raj assistant superintendent of police John Saunders.

• A. Causes of concerns - please take note:

1. Conflict of interest of editors and vested interests of fans: Shoba Singh was related to these people: brother Sardar Ujjal Singh (1895–1983) who later became a parliamentarian and Governor of Tamil Nadu (1966–71), journalist and author son Khushwant Singh, Rukhsana Sultana (grand daughter-in-law), Rukhsana's daughter and great-granddaughter of Sobha Singh flim actress Amrita Singh and Amrita's daughter Sara Ali Khan, and many more. Different standards apply for the wiki articles on dead versus living people. Most of Shoba and Khuswants relatives are rich and powerful people with plenty of fans and supporters. Someone or group of people keep reverting edits and eliminating any reference to Shoba Singh's controversial role in Bhagat's case. Facts of national importance with international historic ramifications, however inconvenient and unpleasant, must be included in the article in an unbiased and objective manner, without ignoring, diminishing or neutralizing. Any editor, who is related to these people, to avoid the conflict of interest must stay out of editing this page. Please declare your 'conflict of interest" here on this talk page.
2. "Colonial glorifiers and family apologist views" versus "Nationalist views": Rejecting the harsh truth, reported by the multiple prominent media sources, with terse baseless comments "nationalist propaganda" is unacceptable. It can only be refuted with more verifiable counter facts of equal or better quality sources and with due "balance of weight". Also, colonial masters and winners rewrite the history to suit themselves. Any attempt to bring forth the lesser known harsh truth will be met with the resistance, dilution and reverts from apologists. Please continue to watch this page. Which view is more valid: colonial glorifiers and family apologists (Shoba only identified the witness) versus nationalists (Shoba had conflict of interest, vested interest of being a British govt contractor, he was already appointed by British as honorary judge before the trial, later he was rewarded with OBE honor in 1944 after he provided "coached testimony" in 1929-30 against the national heroes). Let the verifiable facts decide that. From now on, this fact can not be kept buried. It is already on the talk page, and soon going into the article once my research and this discussion has progressed.
3. Collaborative edits and no disruptive edits: No intend to preach or hold high moral ground, but let me still remind in a humble way. Let us use the "good faith edits" (consider edits in good faith), enhance the previous edits instead of reverts (do not revert if you disagree, discuss here first, evolve consensus and then rephrase, do not get into avoidable revert wars) and no rudeness please (for example, "its rude nonsense to call others edits 'nonsense', practice civility"). Thanks.
4. Research-based facts: I have no preconceived views. For my research, I have started to collect the material below. Please contribute your own material below, both pro and anti views, as well as any original court case documents, news reports of that era and verifiable research-based books by the historians on this topic, are welcome. Khushwant Singh was not a scientifically trained historian. He had conflict of interest. He merely had POV out of loyalty to own blood, specially he was living in a nation that reveres Bhagat Singh and any truth tumbling out about traitors who betrayed (if that happened) national heroes will be bad for the family who only want to usurp the glory while conveniently keeping the harsher facts buried. Hence, it is understandable why would he defend his father, but it does not make a compelling and acceptable argument. It remains just another opinion of a beloved family member. Let us find the facts on both sides.
5. Add this page and his relatives pages to your watch list: I request everyone, from all sides of the views, to please watch these related pages too.

• B. Material on Bhagat Singh trial and Shoba's role

Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt planned to throw a bomb in the Legislative Assembly and, get arrested, not to kill anyone but to create awareness about India's freedom struggle. Sobha Singh was at that time had been appointed a honorary judge by British, he was also one of three contractors appointed by British to build Lutyen's Delhi, he attended the Central Assembly in the morning to hear the debate of the Congress members when Bhagat Singh threw bomb in the assembly. According to the prominent weekly national new magazine India Today, Shoba's son Khushwant Singh was also accused of twisting facts to shield his father's role in Bhagat Singh case where Shoba appeared as friendly witness for the British Raj prosecutor who were trying to convict Bhagat. As per Zee News, Khuswant always defended his father by claiming, "his father Sobha Singh's act was not that of betrayal but he was in fact only speaking the truth" by identifying the Bhagat Singh.

Another prominent national news magazine, Outlook (magazine) published an article on 23 March 2017 outlining how Bhgat Singh was sentenced based on the testimony of Kushwant Singh's father Shoba Singh, where Shoba Singh was the "witness for prosecution" against Bhagat Singh. Indian Law Journal also noted that all the prosecution witnesses had been coached and that Bhagat Singh had put the gun on a table before surrendering and British were out to get Bhagat Singh, “Bhagat Singh and Dutt were irked by the allegation that they had fired shots from a gun. It was apparent that the government was not limiting the case to the bombs thrown in the Assembly. It was introducing extraneous elements to ferret out more information about the revolutionary party and its agenda.”

Outlook and Indian law Journals note that Shoba Singh had a motive and conflict of interest as the civil construction contractor for the British Raj for building Lutyens' Delhi, and he was later even honored by British with the Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) medal for his services to the colonial masters. Outlook, India Today, Indian Law Journal and other sources assert that Bhagat Singh had put gun on table before arrest and they were irked at false testimony of gunshots being fired by them and Shoba Singh testified that he heard gunshots. Outlook observed, "Based on the sketchy testimony of Sobha Singh, the magistrate had convicted Bhagat Singh and Dutt and sentenced them to 14 years despite it being a low-intensity bomb, meant to shake things up and not kill people." "Sobha Singh did the British government proud by appearing as a prime witness against Shaheed Bhagat Singh. Eventually, and mainly on the basis of his testimony Bhagat Singh was sentenced."

Counter arguments by wikipedia editors in favor of Shoba's Singh, with assertion such as "nationalist Hindu propaganda" have been dispelled by the secular Muslim legal experts, such as A. G. Noorani, a Supreme Court lawyer and constitutional expert who describes himself as a secular Muslim, and mentions BJP and RSS as "innately communal" in his book "The RSS and the BJP: The Division of Labour". Noorani wrote a book solely dedicated to his investigation of Bhagat's trial, "The Trial of Bhagat Singh: Politics of Justice", essence of which is "On 23 March 1931, Bhagat Singh and two of his associates were hanged at the Lahore Central Jail. This was the culmination of the Lahore Conspiracy Case, one of the most controversial, not to say notorious, trials to take place in India under the Raj. In this book A.G. Noorani argues that Singh and his comrades were the victims of a travesty of justice that amounted to nothing short of judicial murder. With a lawyer's insight, Noorani chronicles the miscarriages of justice by which Bhagat Singh was brought to the gallows."

Chaman Lal writes in his book, The vanishing empire, "Sardar Sobha Singh, one of the three contractors who built New Delhi, was then President of Dehi Municipal Committee and an honorary magistrate. He sat to my right. Bhagat Singh aimed his pistol at Sir Johon Simon."

Swarajya print and online magazine, writes, "The skeleton in the cupboard of the KS family is the role played by his father Sobha Singh in betraying Bhagat Singh and Batukeswar Dutt, the two revolutionaries who were involved in a bomb attack in the Delhi Assembly in 1929. During their trial, Sobha Singh identified the two revolutionaries as the persons who threw the bombs. KS, of course, put up a feeble defence of his father many years later, but it is clear that good old SS was a prototype Quisling who sold his countrymen down the river. The knighthood later bestowed on Sobha Singh was a just reward for his services to the British crown. In some other countries that shook off colonial rule, like the USA for example, the likes of Sobha Singh were despatched fairly quickly. The Americans, in fact, were quite ruthless; after 1776, they expelled the Empire Loyalists in their thousands to Canada in the north, which was a British colony."

• C. Note:

I started with a clean slate, with no prior view or knowledge of this topic. I did online research of reputed newspapers, megazines, books, etc. I found multitude of sources criticising Shoba and KS for covering up for his father. I have struggled to find any reputed and qualified source, not even British colonial apologists sources, except KS and family, that defend or refute Shoba's role as star witness for prosecution that lead to prosecution of Bhagat Singh. Several sources noted that Shoba was later rewards by British, he had strong motives and conflict of interest. He was building British India Capital of Delhi (inaugurated 1931) and Connaught Place (1929-31) for the British during the time he became prosecution's witness in the trial against Bhagat. Thus he was prone to being coached. Even judge had found some of the prosecution testimony hard to digest. Yet, Bhagat was sentenced. The only book solely dedicated to the investigation of this case, by a anti-BJP secular-Muslim notable supreme court lawyer and constitutional expert, who is definitely neither a fringe element nor a Hindu nationalist trying to invent negative role of Shoba Singh, points out Shoba to be complicit in the British farce of trial and constitutional murder of Bhagat Singh.

Here is the Complete Judgement and Other Documents, let me know if you can find online readable version.

• D. Timeline of greed, guts, gyp, gallows, glutton, glory, guile and getting-the-truth-out:
  • 1911 onward, Shoba Singh became one of only three contracts building British India Capital of Delhi (inaugurated 1931)
  • 1929, Shoba Singh started to build Connaught Place (completed 1931)
  • 8 April 1929, Bhagat and Batukeshwar threw bomb in the assembly, while honorary British Judge and contractor Shoba was present there and he became star prosecution witness.
  • 7 October 1930, death sentence to Bhagat Singh announced, India Times
  • 23 March 1931 at 7:30 p.m, Bhagat Singh hanged to death by British
  • 24 March 1931, scheduled day of hanging, Bhagat was hanged a day earlier than the approved date
  • 2 June 1944, British Raj awarded Shoba Singh 1944 King's Birthday Honours: Knight Bachelor.
  • Note, Padma Shri by the government of independent India was given to Sobha Singh (painter) in 1983 and not to Sobha Singh (builder) who had already died in 1978.

• E. What next:

It is time for righting the wrong. Let me hear from others. After few days, I will start making appropriate edits on his page and on the pages of people related to him. Being.aussie (talk) 11:15, 6 July 2017 (UTC)