Sardar Swaran Singh

Sardar Swaran Singh
Born Swaran Singh Purewal
19 August 1907(1907-08-19)
Shankar Village, Punjab, India
Died 30 October 1994(1994-10-30) (aged 87)
New Delhi, India
Cause of death Cardiac Attack
Nationality Indian
Ethnicity Jatt Sikh
Citizenship India
Education Randhir College, Kpurthala, Government College Lahore
Occupation Politician
Years active 1952–1975
Religion Sikh
Spouse Charan Kaur
Children Param Panag, Sat Boparai, Iqbal Sidhu, Jasvinder Kaur
Parents Sardar Pratap Singh Purewal

Sardar Swaran Singh was an Indian politician. He was India's longest serving union cabinet minister.

Contents

Early life

Saradar Swaran Singh was born on 19th August 1907 in Shankar Village in Jallandhar District of Punjab. He was born into an agricultural family.

He completed his intermediate (High school) ar Rahdhir College in Kapurthala. He then joined Government College, Lahore and completed a degree in Physics with honors.

He then worked as a lecturer in Physics in Khalsa College, Lyallpur. After leaving this job he studied law in Government law college in Lahore and received his L.L.B in 1932.

He started a law practice near his birth village in the nearby town of Jallandhar - he specialised in criminal suits.

Political Career

The early days

In 1930s he joined the Akali Dal political party and by the mid forties he was a prominent leader in the mid 1940s. He played an important role in the compromise between the Indian national congress party and the Akali Dal in the early 1940s.

Just before the 1946 elections, the panthic party was formed with Baldev Singh as the leader and Sardar Swaran Singh was elected its deputy leader. In 1946 he was elected a member of the Punjab legislative assembly. He then became parliamentary secretary to the Punjab Coalition government.

He was a member of the Punjab Partition Committee where he played an important role.

On 15th August 1947, the day of Indian Independence he was sworn in as Home Minister in the cabinet of the state of Punjab. At the same time the capital of the Punjab was shifted from Shimla to Jallandhar.

On 13th May 1952 he resigned his position here when Jawaharlal Nehru included him in the central cabinet.

In the central government

He entered the cabinet of India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, in 1952, and was that government's last surviving member. He remained in successive governments until he resigned in November 1975.

He was elected to the Lok Sabha in 1957, 1962, 1967 and 1972.

Cabinet positions

To this date he is the longest-serving union cabinet minister in India.

Ministry Date
Works, Housing and Supplies 1952–1957
Steal Mines and Fuel 1957–1962
Agriculture 1962
Railways 1962–1963
External Affairs 1964–1966
Defense 1966–1970
External Affairs 1970–1974
Defense 1974–1976

He is best known for his role as India's foreign minister.

He was also president of the National Congress in 1969, and 1978.

External Affairs Minister

He visited the USSR in July 1966 along with then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

Swaran Singh Committee

Sardar Swaran Singh was chairperson of the committee entrusted with the responsibility of studying the Constitution of India in 1976 during the national emergency. Soon after the declaration of the national emergency, Indira Gandhi constituted a committee under the Chairmanship of Sardar Swaran Singh to study the question of amending the constitution in the light of past experiences. Based on its recommendations, the government incorporated several changes to the Constitution including the Preamble, through the Forty-second Amendment of the Constitution of India (passed in 1976 and came into effect on 3 January 1977)

Awards

He was awarded Padma Vibhushan award in 1992.[1] Sardar Swaran Singh was also the Uncle to Balbir Singh Purewal, former MP of Jalandhar and President of Lyallpur Khalsa College, Jalandhar.

Personal Life

He was married in 1925 to Charan Kaur and had four daughters.

External links

Preceded by
Lal Bahadur Shastri
Minister for External Affairs of India
1964–1966
Succeeded by
M C Chagla
Preceded by
Dinesh Singh
Minister for External Affairs of India
1970–1974
Succeeded by
Yashwantrao Chavan

[[Category:Indian politicians]