Charan Singh

Chaudhary Charan Singh
Official portrait, c. 1979
Prime Minister of India
In office
28 July 1979 – 14 January 1980
PresidentNeelam Sanjiva Reddy
Vice PresidentB. D. Jatti
Mohammad Hidayatullah
DeputyYashwantrao Chavan
Preceded byMorarji Desai
Succeeded byIndira Gandhi
Deputy Prime Minister of India
In office
24 January 1979 – 16 July 1979
Serving with Jagjivan Ram
Prime MinisterMorarji Desai
Preceded byMorarji Desai
Succeeded byYashwantrao Chavan
Union Minister of Finance
In office
19 October 1979 – 14 January 1980
Prime MinisterHimself
Preceded byHemwati Nandan Bahuguna
Succeeded byRamaswamy Venkataraman
In office
24 January 1979 – 16 July 1979
Prime MinisterMorarji Desai
Preceded byH. M. Patel
Succeeded byHemvati Nandan Bahuguna
Union Minister of Home Affairs
In office
24 March 1977 – 1 July 1978
Prime MinisterMorarji Desai
Preceded byKasu Brahmananda Reddy
Succeeded byMorarji Desai
Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh
In office
18 February 1970 – 1 October 1970
GovernorBezawada Gopala Reddy
Preceded byChandra Bhanu Gupta
Succeeded byPresident's rule
In office
3 April 1967 – 25 February 1968
GovernorBishwanath Das
Bezawada Gopala Reddy
Preceded byChandra Bhanu Gupta
Succeeded byPresident's rule
Personal details
Born
Chaudhary Charan Singh

(1902-12-23)23 December 1902
Noorpur, United Provinces of Agra and Oudh, British India
(present-day Uttar Pradesh, India)
Died29 May 1987(1987-05-29) (aged 84)
New Delhi, Delhi, India
MonumentsKisan Ghat
Political partyLokdal (own party; 1979–1984)
Other political
affiliations		Indian National Congress (before 1967)
Bharatiya Kranti Dal (own party; 1967–1974)
Bharatiya Lok Dal (own party; 1974-1977)
Janata Party (1977–1979)
Janata Party (Secular) (1979–1980)
Dalit Mazdoor Kisan Party (own party;1984-19)
Spouse
Gayatri Devi
​
(m. 1925)​
Children6; including Ajit Singh
EducationBachelor of Science (1923), Masters of Arts (1925), Bachelor of Laws (1927)
Alma materAgra University
NicknameChaudhary Sahab [1]

Chaudhary Charan Singh (23 December 1902 – 29 May 1987) was an Indian politician, peasant leader, author and an independence activist who briefly served as the prime minister of India from July 1979 to January 1980.[2][3] Singh was principally known for his land and agricultural reform initiatives, and was Member of Parliament (MP) for Baghpat. During his premiership, he was a member of the Janata Party (Secular). He served as the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh as a member of Bhartiya Kranti Dal. He also briefly served as the deputy prime minister of India from January 1979 to July 1979 as a member of the Janata Party. Singh is widely regarded as the "Champion of Farmers", dedicated to advocating for the well being and rights of farmers.[4]

Singh was born in Meerut district, United Provinces of Agra and Oudh. He graduated from Agra College in 1923 with a Bachelor of Science degree, and then pursued Master of Arts in history in 1925. In 1927 he completed his Bachelor of Laws (LLB) from Meerut College.

Singh entered politics during Indian independence movement motivated by Mahatma Gandhi. Singh followed Gandhi in non-violent struggle for independence from the British Government, and was imprisoned several times. In 1930, he was sent to jail for 12 years by the British for contravention of the salt laws. He was jailed again for one year in November 1940 for individual Satyagraha movement. In August 1942 he was jailed again by the British under Defence of India Rules (DIR) and released in November 1943. He was a Congress member for most of his life, he later founded his own Lok Dal party.[5][6] He is the first leader outside the Indian National Congress who formed government in northern India and became the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh.[7] He was posthumously awarded the Bharat Ratna in 2024.[4]

  1. ^ Kapil (9 February 2024). "चौधरी साहब के किस्से: ...जब 24 घंटे में बनवा दी थी कई गांवों की सड़क, श्रीपाल के भजनों के कायल थे चरण सिंह". Amar Ujala (in Hindi). Retrieved 31 January 2025.
  2. ^ "An architect of social justice: How Charan Singh's legacy can help address political issues today". The Indian Express. 16 January 2025. Retrieved 18 January 2025. "His rise as a 'peasant leader' in late colonial India was not delinked from the larger national anti-colonial politics, which considered peasants as a key mobilising force against foreign rule.”
  3. ^ "Shri Charan Singh | Prime Minister of India". www.pmindia.gov.in. Archived from the original on 26 December 2024. Retrieved 31 January 2025. “Chaudhary Charan Singh led a simple life and spent his spare time reading and writing. He was the author of several books and pamphlets, including ‘Abolition of Zamindari’, ‘Co-operative Farming X-rayed’, ‘India’s Poverty and its Solution’, ‘Peasant Proprietorship or Land to the Workers’ and ‘Prevention of Division of Holdings Below a Certain Minimum’."
  4. ^ a b
  5. ^ Byres, Terence J. (1 January 1988). "Charan Singh, 1902–87: An assessment". The Journal of Peasant Studies. 15 (2): 139–189. doi:10.1080/03066158808438356.
  6. ^ "Shri Charan Singh | Prime Minister of India". www.pmindia.gov.in. Archived from the original on 1 September 2020. Retrieved 4 August 2023.
  7. ^ "Chaudhary Charan Singh: Champion of farmers, first CM of non-Congress govt in northern India". The Economic Times. 9 February 2024. ISSN 0013-0389. Archived from the original on 10 March 2024. Retrieved 16 April 2024.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.