Manmohan Singh was born on September 26, 1932, in Gah village of Punjab, which now falls in Pakistan. After the partition, his family moved to India in 1947. Surprisingly, the former PM’s ancestral village in Pakistan’s Gah has kept the pre-partition Sikh house preserved as a community centre. As the news of Singh’s demise spread, local residents of the village held a meeting to condole the death of ‘village boy Manmohan who became prime minister next door’. It is being reported that Manmohan Singh’s friends used to call him ‘Mohna’.
Speaking to PTI, one of the locals said, “We feel that someone from our family has died today.”
Gah, Manmohan Singh’s ancestral village
Manmohan Singh’s village is about 100 km southwest of the capital Islamabad and was part of the Jhelum district when Singh was born. But it was included in Chakwal when it was made a district in 1986.
Surrounded by lush green fields, the place can be reached from the M-2 motorway linking Islamabad to Lahore, as well as from Chakwal City.
The former prime minister died at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi on Thursday night. He was 92.
Singh’s rise brought to spotlight his forgotten ancestral village, surrounded by lush fields. The most iconic place in the village is perhaps the school where Singh got his early education.
His admission number in the register is 187, and the date of admission is April 17, 1937, reports PTI.
Local people credit Singh being from the village for the renovation of the school, and say there was some talk about naming it after the Indian politician. Singh’s rise in India prompted local authorities to concentrate on the development of the village, they believe.
He shifted to Chakwal after class 4. Shortly before Partition, the family moved to Amritsar, according to the villagers.
Singh invited one of his friends, Raja Muhammad Ali, to visit him in Delhi in 2008. Ali died in 2010, and so did a couple of other friends in the years that followed.
Remembering ‘Mohna’
‘Mohna’ never came back to Gah and finally, the news of his passing arrived, severing the bond with the village.
“Dr Manmohan Singh could not come to Gah in his lifetime. But now when he is no more, we want someone from his family should come and pay a visit to this village,” the schoolteacher said.
(With inputs from PTI)
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