A representative of Partition survivors, Manmohan Singh had ‘painful memories’ of ancestral place in Pakistan
Manmohan Singh was first officially invited to visit Pakistan when he was the prime minister of India. Later, when the Kartarpur Sahib Corridor was opened in 2019, he was offered a visit to the neighbouring country.
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Born on September 26, 1932, in Gah village of Punjab, which is now in Pakistan, Manmohan Singh’s family left everything behind and moved to India in 1947 following the Partition. (Express Archives)For a brief period in history, Dr Manmohan Singh, born in what is now Pakistan, was the prime minister of India while Nawaz Sharif, who was born in what later became the Indian state of Punjab, was the prime minister of Pakistan. Though Sharif visited India during his tenure, Singh never went to Pakistan despite the neighbouring country’s invitation.
Seen by some as a representative of those who survived the horrors of Partition, Singh was often hailed for having managed to start life anew and achieve success.
Born on September 26, 1932, in Gah village of Punjab, which is now in Pakistan, Manmohan Singh’s family left everything behind and moved to India in 1947 following the Partition. They settled in Amritsar, Punjab. After completing Class 10, Singh attended Hindu College in Amritsar.
He was first officially invited to visit Pakistan when he was the prime minister of India. Later, when the Kartarpur Sahib Corridor was opened in 2019, he was offered a Pakistan visit.
Asked why he never visited Pakistan, Manmohan Singh had once replied, “I still have not given up the hope of going to Pakistan before I complete my tenure as prime minister. I would very much like to go to Pakistan. I was born in a village which is now part of West Punjab but as prime minister of the country I should go to visit Pakistan when conditions are appropriate to achieve solid results.”
Award-winning filmmaker Danial Kublai Khan once wrote about Singh’s native village, “Before the great partition, the village Gah Begal was predominantly inhibited by Hindus and Sikhs, but afterwards their homes, lands and cattle were allocated to the exodus of Muslim refugees flowing in from the other side of the border. Gah lies about eighty kilometers south from the federal capital, Islamabad. The village was unknown, only until Manmohan Singh became the prime minister of India.”
Touching upon Singh’s experience of the Partition, Punjabi writer and poet Gurbhajan Gill wrote, “What Dr Manmohan Singh achieved is not ordinary. He suffered Partition. He saw that blood bath but still managed to start a new life after moving to Amritsar. He remained focused on studies and went on to become a great economist and the prime minister of India. Dr Manmohan Singh represents all Hindus and Sikhs who were forced to migrate from now Pakistan and reach India. His becoming the prime minister was a proud moment for all Partition survivors.”
In 2019, Punjab finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal mentioned why Singh had not visited his ancestral place in Pakistan. “I once asked Manmohan Singh when he was the prime minister whether he wanted to visit his ancestral place at Chakwal in Pakistan. He said he did not go as there are painful memories associated with the place,” Badal had said.
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