Jainti Dass Saggar (1898-1954) was a medical practitioner and Labour politician. Born 6 September 1898 in Deharru, Punjab, India, he was one of six children to parents Ram Saran Dass Saggar (1870-1943) and Sardhi Devi Uppal (1873-1960). Studying medicine at Lahore Medical College, he made the lengthy, 26-day journey to Scotland in 1919 to continue his medical studies at University College of Dundee, then part of the University of St Andrews.
He entered the third year of medical school in 1920 and went on to graduate in 1923. Two years later in 1925, he completed a diploma in public health, and in 1935 he journeyed to London to study ophthalmic medicine.
In the 1921 Scottish census released last year, Saggar is enumerated as living on 274 Blackness Road as a boarder in the home of Davina Craig and her son James. He was 22 at the time and is recorded as a ‘medical student’.
In 1925, Dr Saggar established his medical practice, initially at 8 Bryon Street, Hilltown, a working-class area of Dundee, and later at his own home, Ahimsa, 26 Byron Street.
At some point after opening his practice, Saggar was introduced to Jane (or Jean) Boyd Quinn, who was a boot shop assistant at the time, and daughter of Thomas Quinn, an insurance agent.
They were married on the 16th May 1931 at 27 Bank Street, Dundee in the presence of Dhani Ram Saggar (Jainti’s brother) and [Amelin?] Cameron, and honeymooned in India. The couple went on to have two daughters, Jean Susheila (b.1932) and Kamala Marguerite (b.1939).
Known for his compassion and concern for those in poverty, Dr Saggar often provided his services free to the unemployed and poor. His concern for social welfare led him into politics and he joined the Labour Party. He was elected town councillor in 1936, becoming the first South Asian local authority councillor in Scotland and went on to serve as a Labour councillor in the area for 18 years.
In 1954, his wife Jean was also elected as a Labour candidate and they became the first husband and wife team on the council.
Dr Jainti Saggar died at the Royal Infirmary, Dundee on 14 November 1954 from a ‘subarachnoid haemorrhage’. His death was widely mourned and the significance of his contributions to Dundee, and more widely Scotland, were acknowledged; in the words of the Lord Provost William Hughes:
“He was a man full of compassion for everyone in need, who never spared himself in his work for the community. He came to Dundee from halfway across the world, but no son of Dundee had greater love for its people, or worked harder in their interests.”
Dundee Courier, Monday 15 November 1954
Today, Dr Saggar is immortalised in Dundee with Greenback Rise renamed Saggar Street in his memory in 1960 and in 1974 a public library was opened in his, and his brother’s, Dhani Ram Saggar (1906-1973, who took over the Byron St. surgery upon Jainti’s death), name. Most recently, the University of Dundee launched a new scholarship in Dr Saggar’s memory.
Jocelyn Grant
Archivist
Sources
- Dundee City Archives
- Dundee’s South Asian Stories, Historic Environment Scotland
- A Dundee family affair, http://www.Scotland.org
- Jainti Saggar, The Open University
- Jainti Dass Saggar (1898-1954), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
- The amazing story of Dr Jainti Dass Saggar, Colourful Heritage
- National Records of Scotland, www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk
- University launches scholarship in honour of Dr Jainti Dass Saggar, 4 November 2019, University of Dundee
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