Born in a village in undivided Punjab, now in Pakistan, former prime minister Manmohan Singh's family witnessed first-hand the tragic Partition and he often spoke of communal harmony in his long public life. Dr Singh, the architect of India's economic reforms, died on Thursday night. He was 92.
He was born in Gah in Punjab province's western region, which now falls in Pakistan.
Dr Singh was a noted economist and a respected figure in India and abroad.
According to his profile on the government website, "Dr Singh completed his matriculation examinations from the Punjab University in 1948. His academic career took him from Punjab to the University of Cambridge, UK, where he earned a First Class Honours degree in Economics in 1957." Singh followed this with a D.Phil in Economics from Nuffield College at Oxford University in 1962.
His book, 'India's Export Trends and Prospects for Self-Sustained Growth' was an "early critique of India's inward-oriented trade policy", the profile reads.
He served two terms as India's prime minister from 2004 to 2014.
A man of few words, but immense wisdom, he often spoke of communal harmony and democratic values that are at the core of India as a nation.
At an event in Amritsar in 2004 marking the 400th anniversary of the installation of Guru Granth Sahib, he had recalled his roots.
"The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, touched an emotional cord while addressing a mammoth gathering in Amritsar, recalling his roots and paying tributes to the teachings of Guru Garnth Sahib," reads a September 2004 statement carried on the website.
In his speech, then then prime minister had underlined that there could be "no better way" to honour the holy text than to abide in practice by its teachings of "living in peace with one another".
"In celebrating the 400th anniversary of the Adi Granth's installation, we pay homage and tribute to these values as much as to the scholarly and devout men and women who have helped preserve this sacred text, and have disseminated its tenets to generations of people.
"There can be no better way to honour the Guru Granth Sahib than to abide in practice by its teachings of living in peace with one another, and in harmony with nature. We must also learn to solve our problems through dialogue, while learning to respect our fellow men, irrespective of status, creed or caste," he said.
In these troubled times, the wisdom of the Gurus "provided us with simple truths from which we much learn", he said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
