SAPRU, SIR TEJ BAHADUR ), Indian jurist and politician, was a Kashmiri Brahmin born on Dec. 8, 1875.
He was a successful advocate of the high court of Allahabad from 1896; a member of the United Provinces legislative council ( '913– 16) ; and a member of the Imperial legislative council (1916-2o).
When the Montagu-Chelmsford reforms were under consideration he served on Lord Southborough's committee to define the func tions of the central, and the two sides of the provincial govern ments under the dyarchial scheme, and he was a member of the Moderate deputation which supported the reforms before the joint committee of both houses of parliament in 1919. He had long been connected with the Indian national congress, and when the Liberal wing broke away in 1919-20 he became president of the United Provinces Liberal League. In Dec. 1920 he was ap pointed law member of the governor general's executive council, but resigned to resume his practice in February 1923. Later in
the year he was a representative of India at the Imperial confer ence in London. A member of the Reforms Inquiry committee set up on a vote of the legislative assembly in 1924, he encouraged a large portion of the Liberal wing to join hands with the Congress party in active promotion of the boycott of the statutory com mission under Sir John Simon. A man of great gifts of expres sion, he had a leading share in the drafting of the "Nehru Re port" of the so-called All-Parties Conference formulating a scheme of Dominion self-government for India approved at a conference held at Lucknow in August 1928. He was active in the promotion of education and was a member of the Benares Hindu university court, senate and syndicate. (F. H. BR.)