Hari Singh Gour - Legacy

Legacy

Besides being a great lawyer and jurist, Dr. Gour was also a great educationist. He organized the University of Delhi as its first Vice-Chancellor and was Vice Chancellor of Nagpur University for two successive terms. Of his most important contributions was the founding of the University of Sagar, now officially known as Dr. Hari Singh Gour University, the oldest university in the state of Madhya Pradesh, in 1946 for which he made a munificent donation. He started the University of Sagar with 20 lakhs and gave about two crores in property as a donation to the University. He became the first Vice Chancellor of the University of Sagar and occupied this position until he died on December 25, 1949. He bequeathed the greater part of his life's savings, a large fortune, to the University of Sagar. The new campus of this University, laid out on the summit of the Patharia Hills with a panoramic view of the town and lake, has been built largely through the benefaction of Dr. Hari Singh Gour and is a fitting memorial to this man of great vision.

He accomplished much, overcoming initial poverty and lasting discrimination. For example, in 1941 Gour was turned away by a hotel in England on account of his race. The Indian Posts and Telegraphs Department issued a commemorative stamp of Dr. Hari Singh Gour on November 26, 1976.