Sir Hari Singh Gour FRSL (26 November 1870 – 25 December 1949) was a distinguished lawyer, jurist, educationist, social reformer, poet, and novelist.

Hari Singh Gour was born on 26 November 1870 to a poor Rajput family near Sagar, in the state of Madhya Pradesh.

At the age of ten, Hari Singh won a scholarship of two rupees per month which enabled him to attend a night school in Sagar.

In Jabalpur, he went for his matriculation but he failed in the first time as he was deeply disturbed as someone stole his gold ring which he brought by saving 10 rupees from all his scholarships.

He passed his Intermediate examination from Hislop College, Nagpur, a free church institution, standing first in the whole province.

He wrote a book of poetry entitled Stepping Westward and Other Poems due to which he became somewhat of a celebrity and was thereby selected a Member of the Royal Society of Literature.

By his determination and industry combined with a gift of oratory, Gour rose to an eminent position in the political scene.

As a lawyer and revenue officer in Jabalpur District Court in 1893, he successfully managed to dispose of 300 pending cases in one year only.

The Indian Penal Code was passed by the Legislative Council of India on 6 October 1860 on which date it received the assent of the Governor-General.

Gour vehemently opposed such measures, stating: No civilized country today imposes such heavy sentences as does the [Indian] Penal Code.

Solitary confinement had been abolished in England and Gour claimed that it would be in keeping with the civilised culture of India to wipe out this kind of punishment.

After amendments and the appointment of a select committee, Gour's Bill was passed to raise the age of consent within marriage to 13 for girls in 1925.

In March 1928, Gour, who had always been a steadfast proponent of age of consent bills, appealed to the importance of realising standards of modern clinical psychology and pointed out the emotional problems of early marriage, such as the incidence of polygamy as grooms grew up and decided they desired more compatible partners, possible occurrence of suicide and early death, and generally marital unhappiness for both partners.

The Indian Posts and Telegraphs Department issued a commemorative stamp of Dr. Hari Singh Gour on 26 November 1976.