Gursharan Kaur

Who is Gursharan Kaur?

Gursharan Kaur is the wife of the 13th and current Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh. Gurusharan was born to Sardar Chattar Singh Kohli, an employee of Burmah-Shell, and Sardarni Bhagwanti Kaur on the 13th of September 1937 in British India. Her ancestral village was Dhakkam, near Chakwal, Pakistan. She has four sisters and a younger brother. She was educated in Guru Nanak Kanya Pathshala, the Government College for Women in Patiala, and Khalsa College, Amritsar. She married Dr. Manmohan Singh in 1958.

Mrs. Singh is known in the Sikh community of Delhi for her kirtan singing, and has also appeared on Jalandhar Radio.

Since her husband 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 Singh is a professor of history at Delhi University. She has written six books, including Ancient Delhi and A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India. 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.