By Ravi Rohmetra
The great city of Jammu is well known as the City of Temples. It has witnessed the lives of many great men and women. There were kings and emperors known for their heroism and conquests. There have been great thinkers and scientists, while saints and sages have helped people to live a civilized life. Social reformers have also appeared from time to time. Risking their own lives, these great men selflessly fought against several social evils. They took the lead in putting an end to many cruel and outmoded customs in society. Our Jammu has also, from time to time, produced sons and daughters of the noblest kind. Among them was Dina Nath Mahajan.
Dina Nath Mahajan was a leading advocate in criminal as well as civil law and a highly respected personality of Jammu and Kashmir. He had many firsts to his credit. He was born on 30 December 1898 in Mirpur, now in the occupied area of the former State of Jammu and Kashmir. His father’s name was Hira Nand Shah. He qualified the examination of pleadership after matriculation from Punjab University and started his practice in Rajouri. He stayed in Rajouri for ten years and earned a distinguished name in the legal profession. Due to the ill health of his wife, he migrated to Jammu in the early thirties.
He and his brother Ayudha Nath, who was also a leading lawyer of Bhimber, became members of the then Praja Sabha during the regime of Maharaja Hari Singh. During the cow slaughter agitation, the Maharaja ordered his extradition from the State. He went to Lahore and stayed there for six months. When his extradition order was revoked, he returned to Jammu.
In the early forties, Jammu was witnessing communal disturbances. He, along with three other members of the Peace Committee, after meeting the then Prime Minister, was returning via Urdu Bazar (now Rajinder Bazar) when some mischievous elements locked them inside a shop and immediately set it on fire. By chance, Choudhary Hamid Ullah Khan, Advocate, reached the spot and rescued them.
In 1933, he became President of the All India Mahajan Sabha (Akhil Bhartiya Mahajan Shiromani Sabha). He remained a leading advocate in criminal as well as civil law. Late Girdhari Lal Dogra, former Finance Minister, and Justice Jaswant Singh, a retired Judge of the Supreme Court of India, started their legal practice under his guidance.
During the Partition, he lost his parents and forty other members of his family. He became the first President of the Jammu Municipal Committee. He was later elected as a Member of the Legislative Council from the Local Bodies constituency.
In 1957, late Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad, the Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir State, invited him to join his Cabinet, and he was appointed Revenue and Rehabilitation Minister. Mr. Dina Nath Mahajan used his influence and good offices with Mehar Chand Khanna, Union Minister for Rehabilitation, and Dharamvir, Rehabilitation Secretary, Government of India, to secure cash payments along with constructed houses at Bakshi Nagar, Gura Rehari Colony and other places for the refugees who had come from the Pakistan-occupied areas of the State in 1947.
He served in the State Cabinet up to 1964. Thereafter, during the regime of late G.M. Sadiq, he was appointed Chairman of the Commission for Local Bodies and submitted his recommendations within the stipulated time. After successfully completing this assignment, he spent his remaining years in retirement, ever ready to help those in need.
He remained in good health up to the age of 92 years. On 29 September 1990, at 7 a.m., he breathed his last peacefully.
(Ravi Rohmetra is a freelancer and a social activist and can be reached at Mob: 9419652999)
