Gursharan Kaur Kohli (born 13 September 1937) is an Indian history professor and author who is the spouse of the former prime minister of India Dr. Manmohan Singh, the 13th

Prime Minister of India The prime minister of India (IAST: ) is the head of government of the Republic of India. Executive authority is vested in the prime minister and their chosen Council of Ministers, despite the president of India being the nominal head of the ...

Early life

Gurusharan was the youngest of seven siblings born to Sardar Chattar Singh Kohli, an engineer of

Burmah-Shell The Burmah Oil Company was a leading British oil company which was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. In 1966, Castrol was acquired by Burmah, which was renamed "Burmah-Castrol". BP Amoco (now BP) purchased the company in 2000. Histor ...

, and Sri Bhagwanti Kaur in

Jalandhar Jalandhar is the third most-populous city in the Indian state of Punjab and the largest city in Doaba region. Jalandhar lies alongside the Grand Trunk Road and is a well-connected rail and road junction. Jalandhar is northwest of the state ...

on 13 September 1937 in

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

. She has four sisters and two brothers. Her ancestral village was Dhakkam in

Jhelum district Jhelum District (Urdu and pnb, ), is partially in Pothohar Plateau, and partially in Punjab Plain of the Punjab province of Pakistan. Jhelum is one of the oldest districts of Punjab. It was established on 23 March 1849. According to the 1998 ...

(now in

Punjab, Pakistan Punjab (; , ) is one of the four provinces of Pakistan. Located in central-eastern region of the country, Punjab is the second-largest province of Pakistan by land area and the largest province by population. It shares land borders with the ...

). Mrs. Singh is known in the Sikh community of

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...

for her ''

kirtan Kirtana ( sa, कीर्तन; ), also rendered as Kirtan, is a Sanskrit word that means "narrating, reciting, telling, describing" of an idea or story, specifically in Indian religions. It also refers to a genre of religious performance arts ...

'' singing, and has also appeared on Jalandhar Radio.

Personal life

Since Manmohan Singh became Prime Minister in 2004, she has accompanied him abroad on state visits. However, the family has largely stayed out of the limelight. Their three daughters - Upinder, Daman and Amrit, have successful, non-political, careers. Upinder Kaur is a professor of history at

Delhi University Delhi University (DU), formally the University of Delhi, is a collegiate university, collegiate Central university (India), central university located in New Delhi, India. It was founded in 1922 by an Act of the Central Legislative Assembly and ...

. She has written six books, including ''Ancient Delhi'' (1999) and ''A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India'' (2008). Daman Singh is a graduate of St. Stephen's College, Delhi and Institute of Rural Management, Anand, Gujarat, and author of ''The Last Frontier: People and Forests in Mizoram'' and a novel ''Nine by Nine''. Amrit Singh is a staff attorney at the

ACLU The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". T ...

References

External links

* https://web.archive.org/web/20060210003303/http://pmindia.nic.in/photo_gallary/GetPhoto.asp?id=112 * https://web.archive.org/web/20070304090056/http://www.hinduonnet.com/gallery/0372/037202.jpg {{DEFAULTSORT:Kaur, Gursharan Living people Indian Sikhs Punjabi people 1937 births People from Chakwal District Spouses of prime ministers of India Manmohan Singh 20th-century Indian women writers 20th-century Indian writers St. Stephen's College, Delhi alumni American Civil Liberties Union people