Sardar Mohan Singh, Founder of Modern Senior Secondary School, Patiala (MSSSP), born on 8 January 1904, son of Sardar Ram Singh, was one of India’s most distinguished and successful bankers of his generation. He was a great visionary - well ahead of his times. He started the school in 1948, within months of the Independence of India, passionately believing that education was the key to India’s future success as a modern nation state. In fact, MSSSP (then known as Modern High School) was the very first private school of Patiala.
The purpose of the school was not just to provide excellent education to students in and near Patiala, but also to provide them with strong values and a noble vision. In fact, Sardar Mohan Singh himself lived those ideals. He is still remembered for his 100% impeccable integrity, ever helpful nature towards everybody, cheerful disposition – and for being a very handsome personality!
Sardar Mohan Singh got a B.Sc (Hons.) from Punjab University in 1925, standing first in the university. He also obtained a C.A.I.B. (London) and F.I.B. (London).
Sardar Sahib made a success of whatever he did. In 1926, he joined the Imperial Bank of India, one of the first Indians to do so. He held charge of some of the most important branches of the bank in North India. The Jalandhar and Ludhiana branches under him, for example, broke all previous records in terms of business, profits and areas served. However, in early 1944, he resigned from the bank on both principle and policy over the discrimination of Indians in the bank’s senior appointments.
In 1944, Sardar Mohan Singh became Managing Director of the Patiala State Bank (which during his time in 1948, was renamed as Bank of Patiala, and which later was rechristened as State Bank of Patiala, and then merged with the State Bank of India in 2017). During his nine years at the helm of the bank, he led it to its most blazing period of growth. The bank’s deposits, for example, rose from Rs. 1,67,49,000 in the financial year ending 31 March 1944 to Rs. 8,53,76,000 by 31 December 1953.
Under Sardar Sahib’s leadership, the bank became the first in India to introduce a mobile banking service, ‘The Bank on Wheels’, carrying banking facilities to the very door of the villager. He was also responsible for the bank becoming the first bank in the country to introduce a compulsory insurance policy scheme for its employees.
Concurrently, from 1944 to 1948 (till the post was abolished following amalgamation of Princely States into the Union of India), Sardar Mohan Singh was also Chief Economic Advisor to the Maharaja of Patiala. In this role, he successfully organised co-operative associations in all market towns of the state, and federalized them at the top into a syndicate, for handling the export and import of grains, cloth, sugar and other controlled commodities. He also introduced a system of permits to these co-operative bodies only, which resulted in the complete elimination of corruption in the department which had otherwise been notorious for corrupt practices. Sardar Sahib also introduced several radical agrarian reforms, which were widely appreciated by the peasantry.
Sardar Sahib was also Secretary, Relief & Rehabilitation Committee, set up in Patiala in 1947. During this time of Partition of the country, he organized all the refugee camps and was responsible for settling thousands of refugees from Pakistan into useful vocations.
Further, Sardar Mohan Singh also founded the Patiala Insurance Corporation as a state owned enterprise in 1948. He was also Convenor of the Sikh Research Academy, Patiala. And Governor of Rotary International (District 52) in 1952-53.
After Patiala, from 1954 to 1955, Sardar Sahib was Special Advisor to the New India Insurance Company in Bombay. Thereafter, in 1956, he became Deputy General Manager of Punjab National Bank which, at that time, was the no. 2 position in the bank. From the headquarters of the bank in Parliament Street, New Delhi, he played a major role in the financing and growth of several of India’s largest companies.
In his later years, he founded the firm of Industrial and Financial Consultants Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi, to advise and help business enterprises in the country.
Sardar Mohan Singh was also Chairman of the Panipat Woollen and General Mills Co. Ltd. and was on the Board of Directors of several large companies including National Buildings Construction Corporation Ltd., Mohan Meakin Breweries Ltd., Bharat Steel Tubes Ltd. and The Prestolite of India Ltd. He was also on the Board of Directors of the Institute of Home Economics, New Delhi.
Sardar Sahib was also Treasurer of the Guru Nanak Foundation, New Delhi. There are a large number of old records which show his highly proactive role in the advancement of Sikh religion and culture.
In the field of education, besides founding MSSSP, Sardar Mohan Singh also founded Khalsa Girls Middle School, Jalandhar, in 1938; New High School, Ludhiana, in 1940; Khalsa Girls High School, Ludhiana, in 1941; and Mohindra Kanya Maha Vidyalaya, Patiala, in 1949. He was also one of the two Founder Trustees of Patiala Education Trust, and Founder of Guru Nanak Vidyak Society, Patiala.
Sardar Mohan Singh also co-founded the Guru Harkrishan Public Schools, New Delhi. He was a founding member of the Guru Harkrishan Public Schools Society. He helped start other educational institutions as well, including Gurmat College, Patiala. He was also Vice President of Guru Nanak Engineering College, Ludhiana, Vice President for Life of Malwa Educational Society, Ludhiana, Member of the Managing Committee of Khalsa College, Amritsar, and Member of the Executive Committee of S.S. Khalsa Senior Secondary School, New Delhi.
Sardar Mohan Singh passed away on 8 November 1968 at the age of 64 in New Delhi, leaving behind a highly distinguished and hugely enduring legacy that is transforming lives till today. MSSSP pays respectful homage to its Founder and remains ever grateful to him. His birthday - 8 January - is celebrated as Founder’s Day in the school.
The Founder was passionately supported by the first Principal of the school,MRS. JAI CHOPRA. Sardar Mohan Singh and Mrs. Chopra led the school to become the most prestigious school in Patiala. Mrs. Chopra was associated with the school, as Principal and then Director, till her passing away in 1998.
Meanwhile, after Sardar Mohan Singh, from 1968 to 1987, his wife SARDARNI RAJ MOHAN SINGH, daughter of Sardar Bahadur Sardar Kishan Singh, was the Chairperson of Saraswati Vidyak Trust (SVT), which the Founder had established to control the school. She was also the President of the Managing Committee (MC) of the school. Thereafter, from 1987 to 2017, her son DR. RAVI SINGH, who was a legal and industrial consultant, provided leadership to both SVT and the MC of the school.
Since 2017, his son MR. JUJHAR SINGH, who is a well-known television journalist and founder & director of Chidanjali Creations Pvt. Ltd., is serving as Chairman of SVT and President of the MC. Mr. Jujhar Singh’s sister, MS NANKI SINGH, a writer and compiler of several spiritual books, serves as a Trustee of SVT and Vice President of the MC of the school.
