Hari Singh Gour

Hary Singh Gour

Sir Hari Singh Gour

1889–92

Hari Singh Gour was a member of the Legislative Assembly for the Central Provinces in the 1920s. He was a prominent barrister and reformer in favour of increasing the age of consent. In 1924 he proposed a bill that raised the age from 12 to 14; this was eventually raised to 13 in an amended bill in 1925. Gour also established a university in Saugar, Madhya Pradash in 1946, now known as Dr Harisingh Gour University.

Aged 18, Gour went to England to study at Cambridge University. He joined Downing College, Cambridge and in 1891 he took the degree of philosophy and economics. In 1892 he took the degree in law, after which he returned to India. In 1905 he was awarded a DLitt degree from London University and then from Trinity College.

When a student at Cambridge in 1890, Gour published an anthology of poems entitled Stepping Westward and Other Poems. He became a member of the Royal Society of Literature after his poems were published. In 1930 he published a novel in London entitled His Only Love. The hero of the novel, Himmat Singh, was a state scholar at King's College, Cambridge, who was called to the Bar and had published prize poems.