| About | SK Datta received his education from Forman Christian College in Lahore. He then studied Medicine at Edinburgh University, and while in Britain became involved with the Student Christian Movement of Great Britain and Ireland, serving as its Secretary from 1906-1908. In 1909 he returned to teach at Forman Christian College. During WWI he served as YMCA welfare officer with the Indian army in France, and after the war he became YMCA national secretary for India, Burma and Ceylon, from 1923–26 representing Indian Christians in the Legislative Assembly. In 1928 he joined the Staff of the World’s Committee of YMCAs in Geneva.
Datta was a member of the British Indian delegation, speaking for Indian Christians at the conference.
For additional biographical information, see the official delegate Who's Who for the Second Session.
Pre-Conference
- 1928: Datta relocated to Geneva from Calcutta, working with the World’s Committee of the YMCA, including work on a permanent commission on race relations.
- 1928: Submitted information to the Simon Commission
- 1928, October 11th and 17th: travelled to China and Japan to attend 11th National Convention of YMCAs of China.
- Member of the British Delegation at Institute of Pacific Relations, Kyoto, Japan, 1929
Second Session
- KT Paul had died since 1st session of RTC. Datta was invited by the Viceroy to join the Minorities SubCommittee
- September 26th 1931 Jawaharlal Nehru had asked Datta to go and support Gandhi in the Minorities Committee if he could.
- On arrival in London 24 hotels refused to offer him accommodation, claiming to be adjusting themselves to the views of their largely American and colonial clientele (Barns, British Library C576)
- October 6th 1931: wrote to Lord Lothian pleading for support for Gandhi’s negotiation with Muslim delegates.
- Dr Datta and his wife took responsibility for ordering Gandhi’s central London base at 88 Knightsbridge, Mrs Datta running the household and managing the guests.
- Early November AT Pannir Selvam, the other Indian Christian delegate, published a letter requesting separate electorates for Indian Christians, which Datta distanced himself from
- 7-9th November 1931: Attended discussions over the possible staging of constitutional development (provincial autonomy first, federation second) at Balliol College, Oxford. In attendance were the Master of Balliol, AD Lindsay, the Prime Minister’s son and advisor, Malcolm MacDonald, the Beit Professor of the History of the British Empire, Reginald Coupland, HS Polak, Sir Geoffrey Corbett, and Datta. (Moore, 1974:234)
- 18th November 1931: Moonje noted that he had lunched with the Prime Minister and, amongst others, Sir Shah Nawaz Bhutto, Dr Datta, Lord & Lady Hailsham. “After dinner we were talking and smoking at the Dinner Table. I was smoking a cigar. Dr Dutta said used to smokebut gave up on advice of MG until independence” (NMML Moonje Diary)
- From Barns’s unpublished biography
- “There was another coterminous activity about which nothing hitherto has been said; the intense social programme in which the delegates were expected to engage. Organisations, society hostesses, the visitors themselves – especially the Maharajas – entered into a severe competition to exploit the occasion. According to his mood, Doc would be either amused or irritated by what he called ‘the circus’ as it foregathered, arrayed in all the variety and splendour of oriental costume, for a government reception or in one of the most exclusive hotels. Arms folded across his chest, shoulders bowed, he would chuckle at the irony of it all. As he would say, a rich Indian, everything dubious about him except his wealth, would be welcomed in any hotel. A poor Indian, maybe a pedlar in the East End of London, was assured of shelter. But what happened to all those thousands in between, of whom he was one? It gave him no satisfaction, only dismay, to think that he had only become acceptable because he was tacked on to some bejewelled, polygamous, self-indulgent despots. He went, of course, to the reception given by the King-Emperor at Buckingham Palace but otherwise so far as possible avoided other private social engagements.” (British Library C576)
Post-Conference
- Principal 1932-1942 at Forman Christian College, Lahore
- Visiting Lecturer in USA under the International Institute of Education (Carnegie Foundation), 1935; Vice-President of the World’s Committee of YMCAs
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| Sources | Sources used
- British Library: Mss Eur F178; IOR/Mss. Eur/C576
- Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi: Dr BS Moonje papers.
- Margarita Barns, S.K. Datta and his People, Margarita Barns Papers, British Library, Mss Eur C576
- R.J. Moore, The Crisis of Indian Unity, 1917-1940 (Oxford: Clarendon Press; 1974)
Selected publications
Secondary literature
- Stanley J. Samartha, “Datta, S(urendra) K(umar)”, in Gerald H. Anderson (ed.) Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions (Grand Rapids, MI/Cambridge, UK: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company; 1999), p. 169: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=oQ8BFk9K0ToC&lpg=PA604&vq=datta&pg=PA169#v=snippet&q=datta&f=false
- Jane Haggis, “The politics of friendship and cosmopolitan thought zones at the end of empire: Indian women’s study tours to Europe 1934–38”, History Australia, Vol. 15:3 (2018), pp. 559-577, https://doi.org/10.1080/14490854.2018.1485507
Online resources
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