That is where my grandfather was killed: What Manmohan Singh said about visiting his ancestral village in Pakistan | India News


NEW DELHI: Former Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh once offered a moving answer when asked about returning to his ancestral village in Pakistan. Born in Gah, a village now in Punjab’s Chakwal district, Singh’s connection to the place was irrevocably marked by tragedy. When one of his daughters asked him if he wanted to visit her, Singh replied softly: “No, not really. “That was where they killed my grandfather.”
Singh’s journey from a modest village boy to India’s 14th Prime Minister brought global attention to Gah, where locals fondly remember his connection with “Mohna”, as they called him.
Daman Singh, the daughter of the former Prime Minister, wrote a book titled “Strictly Personal: Manmohan and Gursharan”, which was published by HarperCollins in the year 2014. The publication aimed to present a detailed narrative about the “story of her parents” .
The village school, where Singh studied till fourth standard, holds a symbolic place in their hearts. His admission number, 187, remains recorded in his register, dated 17 April 1937. The school was renovated during his premiership and there were discussions about renaming it in his honour. However, despite Gah’s pride in him, Singh never returned.
In 2008, he invited his schoolmate, Raja Muhammad Ali, to Delhi, an event appreciated by the villagers. Ali passed away in 2010 and the remaining ties between Singh and Gah weakened. With the passing of Singh at the age of 92 in Delhi, villagers mourned deeply and described him as family. “The whole town is in mourning. We feel that someone from our family has died today,” Altaf Hussain, a teacher at Singh’s old school, told news agency PTI.
“All these villagers are deeply moved… They were eager to attend his last rites in India, but it is not possible. So they are here to mourn,” Raja Ashiq Ali, who was a fellow student, took a trip to Delhi in 2008 for a meeting with him.
Pakistan’s former foreign minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri also reflected on Singh’s legacy. He recalled Singh’s desire to visit Gah and his vision of regional harmony, imagining a day when one could “have breakfast in Amritsar, lunch in Lahore and dinner in Kabul.” Kasuri credited Singh for fostering trust and progress in Indo-Pak relations, particularly through initiatives to resolve the Kashmir dispute.
Singh’s passing breaks the tangible bond between Gah and his most famous son. While the man who once sang about the pain of partition at family picnics is no more, his legacy as a statesman and reformer lives on, fondly remembered on both sides of the border.





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