Sardar Swaran Singh

:"This article is about the Indian politician, not the Uncle of Bhagat SinghSardar Swaran Singh (August 19, 1907 - October 30, 1994) was an Indian politician. He was India's longest serving cabinet minister. 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 served as India's foreign minister from 1964 to 1966, and again from 1970 to 1974. He also served as the Indian defense minister from 1966 to 1970, and again from 1974 to 1975. He was also president of the National Congress in 1977, and from 1978 to 1979.

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 (passed in 1976 and came into effect on January 3 1977).

He was born into a farming family in the village of Shankar in the Jallandhar District of the state of Punjab. He was married in 1925 to Charan Kaur and had four daughters.

He entered politics in 1946, when he was elected a member of the Punjab legislative assembly.

He was awarded Padma Vibhushan award in 1992. [http://india.gov.in/myindia/padmavibhushan_awards_list1.php]

External links

* [http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian/tree/browse_frm/month/1994-11/a8c25e150ad162ed?rnum=191&_done=%2Fgroup%2Fsoc.culture.indian%2Fbrowse_frm%2Fmonth%2F1994-11%3F#doc_6b937a92b4bf28d6 Obituary]
* [http://www.sikh-history.com/sikhhist/personalities/swaransingh.html On Swaran Singh at Sikh-History.com]