Spedding Dinga Singh

Spedding Dinga Singh & Co. was a timber trading and forestry business associated with the Dinga Singh family. The firm operated in the Punjab region during the late 19th and first half of the 20th century and was involved in the supply and management of timber and forest resources.

The business was based in Lahore during the British Indian period. Historical records describe the Dinga Singh family as being involved in the timber trade, with the business later being reorganised and carried on through partnerships.

History

The business was originally operated by Bawa Dinga Singh and his family. Records from a later income-tax case state that Dinga Singh and his sons, including Bawa Arjan Singh, Bawa Gian Singh and Bawa Sunder Singh, formed an undivided family that was engaged in the timber business under the name Spedding Dinga Singh at Lahore.

Bawa Dinga Singh died in 1939. Following his death, the family business was divided among his three sons in 1940, after which the timber business continued in partnership.

The firm also became involved in the wider timber-supply industry in northern India. Parliamentary discussions in 1924 referred to Spedding and Company and its timber operations in Punjab, including leases of forests and the supply of railway sleepers. The discussions also mentioned Bawa Dinga Singh as a partner of the firm.

Post-Partition period

After the partition of British India in 1947, the business continued in a reorganised form. A 1953 judgment of the Himachal Pradesh High Court records the existence of Messrs. Spedding Dinga Singh & Co. and describes it as a registered partnership.

The firm was registered in Delhi on 28 February 1950 as a partnership at will. Its principal place of business was recorded as 15 Scindia House, New Delhi, with other places of business listed at Pathankot, Srinagar, Jammu, Lahore, Jhelum and Wazirabad. The partners recorded at that time were Bawa Sundar Singh and Frederick William Victor Ellvers O.B.E., who had joined the partnership on 1 June 1946.

The same case concerned a dispute involving the firm and also noted that Bawa Sundar Singh acted as a partner and general manager. Bawa Arjan Singh had become the most successful out of the brothers; but it is unknown why the company fell out of prominence so quickly in the late 1950s.

Business

The principal activity of Spedding Dinga Singh & Co. was the timber trade and forestry. Its activities included dealings in forest resources and the supply of timber, including timber used by railway authorities.

During the early 20th century, the timber industry in Punjab was an important part of the region's commercial economy. Parliamentary records from 1924 indicate that Spedding-related firms held forest leases and competed for railway timber contracts. The firm was criticised during parliamentary debate over the extent of its position in the timber market and its relationship with the railway authorities.

Legacy

One of the clearest forms of the legacy of Spedding Dinga Singh is the Bawa Dinga Singh Building in Lahore, which is now a heritage shopping complex in The Mall, Lahore’s pre-independence commercial core.