Born in 1857, Deewan Daya Ram Gidumal was among those dedicated men and women who became an icon of service to their people. During the days of the British Raj, Gidumal was known to be the ‘godfather’ of Sindhi Hindus.

A primary student in the days when the official language of Sindh was Persian, and later having had the opportunity to study in an English school since the age of 10, Daya Ram began planning on improving the education facilities for the people of Sindh. His first idea was to build a higher education institute.

For this, he took his brother Mitha Ram and his friend Jethmal, both of them advocates, on board. Together, they laid the foundation of the famous D.J. Science college in Karachi. They expanded their efforts and built a college in Hyderabad as well – the National College. Daya Ram was not only good at Persian, but was also a master at Gurmukhi and Arabic. He was a judge by profession. His decision-making was appreciated throughout the law community.

An impartial judge

Pir Ali Muhammad Shah Rashidi writes in his book Uhay Ddeenh Uhay Sheenh on page 714:

"Daya Ram was transferred from Ahmedabad to Shikarpur in 1889. During his service as a judge there, a case was presented in his court wherein a Hindu business owner, namely Seth Meval Das, had allegedly raped a poor woman. Since it was the time of the British rule, the seth was arrested immediately. When the Hindu community of Shikarpur came to know that the case had gone to their Hindu brother judge’s court, they hoped the seth would not be punished in order to save the Hindu community from being disgraced. Daya Ram gave the criminal the maximum: seven years of imprisonment. A big hue and cry followed."

Also read: 'Traitor of Sindh' Seth Naomal: A case of blasphemy in 1832

Sindh has been known for its religious and mystic saints. There are others who claim to be saints, but are merely frauds fooling the innocent masses. They have been responsible for a number of cases in which their followers, on orders of the unsaintly ones, have caused grievous harm to themselves or their loved ones.

One such case was admitted for proceedings into Daya Ram’s court. Not even for a minute did Daya Ram consider the risks involved in a Hindu judge passing the legal sentence in this case.

Rashidi writes about the case:

"A man committed a murder and claimed it was revealed unto him through God’s word that he should kill the man, and so he did. The case, as soon as its proceedings began in Daya Ram’s court, caused a lot of hue and cry. Daya Ram did not have any regard for the rant and rave. He only understood the law. In his sentence, he wrote that if this man is let loose, who knows how many others he will murder in the name of holy revelation. There are thousands of such people across Sindh and they may also start killing thousands only because they believe God has told them to do so. The man was given life imprisonment. God’s revelations to kill people suddenly ceased in the region."

Hindu-Muslim communal feuds over property, especially those related to lands on which places of worship were built, were a common thing even back then. Mostly, such cases were dragged by the benches or the judges.

The judges, hearing these cases, would often hesitate in making any decisions. If a judge was Hindu, how could he favour the Muslims? And vice versa.