Manmohan Singh Age, Death, Caste, Wife, Children, Family, Biography

Some Lesser Known Facts About Manmohan Singh

• Dr Singh was born into a Sikh Family in a village named Gah in British India.
  

  Manmohan Singh Old House In Gah Pakistan

• After his birth, his parents had taken him to Panja Sahib, one of the most sacred of Sikh shrines, fifty kilometres from Rawalpindi. Following the custom, the priest opened the holy Guru Granth Sahib at random, the first word that appeared on the page began with “M,” and the baby was named “Manmohan.”
  

  Panja Sahib Gurudwara

• He was raised by his paternal grandmother; as he lost his mother when he was very young.

• His father, Gurmukh Singh was a Clerk in a firm of commission agents that imported dry fruits from Afghanistan to supply across India.

• He was first admitted to a village school in Gah, Chakwal; where his roll no. was 187. The schoolmaster’s name was Daulat Ram.
  

  Manmohan Singh’s School in Gah Pakistan

• According to sources, Singh’s father mostly remained outside the town and would rarely visit Gah.

• After his primary schooling, Manmohan Singh had to move to Chakwal, a town in Pakistan, where he was admitted to Khalsa High School for Boys. It was there that his father showed up after a long time; who had remarried a while ago. He took Manmohan to live with his second family in Peshawar. Manmohan was not very happy with this. Manmohan Singh was 11 years old at that time.
  

  Khalsa High School in Chakwal Where Manmohan Singh Did His Schooling

• After moving to Peshawar, the fears that Manmohan Singh had about his new family were soon banished; as his stepmother, Sitawanti Kaur was very warm and affectionate to him, and soon, he developed a good rapport with her.

• In Peshawar, Manmohan was admitted to the Khalsa High School for Boys, where he started taking part in debate competitions. Although he wasn’t good at athletics, he loved to play hockey and football.

• In 1945, he topped his school in class 8th examination, and it was then that Mr. Singh’s academic brilliance was acknowledged for the first time.

• The following year, i.e., in 1946, he quit history, geography, and civics; opting instead for chemistry, physics, and physiology.

• In 1946, his family moved into its own home in Guru Nanak Pura in Peshawar; after living in rented accommodation for several years.
  

  Guru Nanak Pura in Peshawar Where Manmohan Singh Had Lived

• The young Manmohan was very fond of exploring the city and would explore Peshawar on foot, by bicycle, or by Tonga.

• After the end of World War II on 14 August 1945, sweets were being distributed at Khalsa High School for Boys, to which, Manmohan had protested on the pretext that even though it was a victory over Fascism but Britain was yet to release India from bondage.

• By the age of 13, Manmohan Singh had developed a knack for politics.

• After the Partition of India, Mr. Singh’s family migrated from Peshawar to Amritsar, where he attended the Hindu College.
  

  A Portrait of Manmohan Singh in The Corridors of Hindu College Amritsar

• Thereafter, he went on to attend Panjab University (then in Hoshiarpur) to pursue his graduation and post-graduation in Economics.
  

  Government College, formerly Panjab University College, at Hoshiarpur where Dr Manmohan Singh was a student and then a teacher in the late fifties

• Throughout his academic life, Mr. Singh was a brilliant student.

• In 1958, Manmohan Singh underwent an arranged marriage with Gursharan Kaur. The couple has three daughters. In an interview, Gursharan Kaur revealed that the first thing that Manmohan Singh had asked her was about her division in her graduation, to which, she had replied- “second division.”
  

  Manmohan Singh With His Daughters

• In 1975, he attended the Commonwealth Prime Ministers Meeting in Kingston.

• He had also attended several international meetings as a member of the delegation from India. Some of these were the Cancun Summit on North-South Issues (1981) and the South-South Consultation in New Delhi (1982).

• He was directly elected as the finance minister of India by then Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao with no political experience under his belt. He played quite a vital role as the Finance Minister by pushing the nation towards a Market Economy after it suffered an economic crisis in 1991. It was the time when India could afford just 2 weeks of import; because the foreign reserves were just $1 Billion. For that, he freed the Indian Economy from Licence Raj, a source of slow economic growth and corruption in India.
  

  Manmohan Singh as The Finance Minister of India

• It was P. V. Narasimha Rao, who brought Manmohan Singh into active politics by making him a Rajya Sabha Member from Assam.
  

  Manmohan Singh With P V Narasimha Rao

• He had been representing Assam in the Rajya Sabha since 1991, which goes to a record five consecutive terms.
  

  This house in Guwahati officially belongs to Manmohan Singh

• Singh was the first Prime Minister of India since Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru to be re-elected after a full five-year term. He also became the first Sikh Prime Minister of India in May 2004.

• It was a surprise to his wife, Gursharan Kaur, when Mr, Singh’s name was chosen for the post of the Prime Minister of India in 2004.

• She revealed in an interview that for his swearing-in ceremony, Manmohan Singh wore his regular clothes and didn’t go for any special clothes, such as the traditional ‘sherwani.’

• India, in 2007, under the Prime Ministership of Manmohan Singh, achieved its highest Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate of 9% and became the second fastest-growing economy in the world.

• Singh was known to keep his friendships always vital, and even after becoming the Prime Minister of India, he received his childhood friend, Raja Mohammad Ali, who had come from Pakistan to meet Manmohan Singh in 2008.
  

  Manmohan Singh Meeting His Childhood Friend Raja Mohammad Ali

• Sales Tax was replaced by the Value Added Tax (VAT) in 2005 by the Manmohan Singh Government.

• After the 2008 Mumbai Terror Attacks, the need for a central agency to combat terrorism was realized. Manmohan Singh’s Government then created the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in 2009.

• Forbes ranked him #18 on the list of the world’s most powerful people in 2010. The magazine also described him as “Universally praised India’s Prime Minister since Nehru.”

• His public image was tarnished because of several corruption allegations since the start of his second term as the Prime Minister of India in 2009. The opposition demanded his resignation over his alleged indecisiveness in the Indian Coal Allocation Scam and 2G Spectrum Scam.
  

  A Caricature of Manmohan Singh of Coal Scam

• In 2016, Singh took up as the Jawaharlal Nehru Chair at Panjab University, Chandigarh.

• Singh had some serious health issues and had undergone multiple cardiac bypass surgeries; the last was in January 2009.

• In 2019, a film titled “The Accidental Prime Minister” was released, which was allegedly based on the life of Manmohan Singh, in which Anupam Kher appeared as Manmohan Singh and Akshaye Khanna as Sanjaya Baru. The film is based on a book having the same title; written by Sanjaya Baru. The film attracted controversy; soon after the launch of its official trailer.
  

  The Accidental Prime Minister Film 2019

• On 26 December 2024, Singh was rushed to AIIMS, New Delhi, after he lost consciousness at home. After he arrived at the hospital, doctors tried to revive him; however, the revival failed and he was declared dead at 9.51 pm.