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Captain Bhagwan Singh (1916 – 1995) was an Indian diplomat, army officer, and administrator, who served as High Commissioner of India to Fiji, and subsequent to his retirement was prominent in Jat causes.

Childhood[link]

Captain Bhagwan Singh was born on 1 April 1916 in a Jat family of the Chahar clan Agra district of Uttar Pradesh in India. His father, Bere Singh was in the Fiji colonial service.

Education[link]

He was admitted to missionary-run Victoria High School in Agra, where his lack of proficiency with English, the medium of instruction, caused him to absent himself and led to his first involvement with student politics outside the school. He subsequently matriculated at the Government High School in Agra in 1934.

After passing out from High School he joined Agra College. While at college Bhagwan Singh joined the mass movements and the Arya Samaj, and wrote for Hindi newspapers. He came in contact with Vijay Singh Pathik - known as the organiser of the Bijaulia Kisan Satyagraha fame in Mewar and started working for his weekly ‘Sangharsh’, launched in collaboration with Acharya Narendra Dev.

Bhagwan Singh completed his MA degree in History from Agra College, Agra in 1940. Later during the Second World War, at the behest of Sir Chhotu Ram, he accepted a commission in the army.

Indian Administrative Service[link]

Subsequent to his selection in the war-reserved vacancies in the Indian Civil Service he was posted as Assistant Magistrate, Allahabad, in 1945.

As a civil servant he served as:

• 1948: Collector Bulandshahr
• 1950: Deputy Commissioner Rae Bareli
• 1953: Chairman Central Tractor Organization, Delhi
• 1957: Joint Secretary, Rehabilitation Ministry, Branch Secretariat, Calcutta
• 1959: Managing Director, Jammu and Kashmir Minerals Ltd.
• 1964: Commissioner of the New Delhi Municipal Corporation
• 1965: Chairman Indian Tea Board Calcutta
• 1971 - 1976: High Commissioner of India to Fiji, Tonga, Nauru and other South Pacific countries.

High Commissioner of India to Fiji[link]

In 1971, Captain Bhagwan Singh was Additional Secretary in Government of India’s the then Foreign Trade Ministry, was posted to Suva in Fiji as High Commissioner. Captain Bhagwan Singh was also accredited to the other South Pacific island countries. The Indian Foreign Service saw in the posting as an intrusion into their well fortified preserve at the high levels of High Commissioner and Additional Secretary.

His appointment was significant in Oceania as his grandfather and grandmother were amongst the first group of Indian indentured labourers to arrive in Fiji, which still has a large ethnically Indian minority. His father, Bere Singh, was born there and after receiving his education in India went back to serve in Fiji for 25 years. He was a symbol of pride not only to the Indians of Fiji whose forefathers had come as indentured labourers, but also to the people of different Pacific nations who were themselves emerging as free citizens of independent nations.

For five crucial years, 1971 – 1976, Captain Bhagwan Singh carried the name of India to almost every village of Fiji, and adjoining islands of South Pacific. In one of the last areas to emerge from western colonial rule, Captain Bhagwan Singh’s unorthodox blend of quiet diplomacy and high visibility in public relations, and his own flair to win friends and influence people, made him win the hearts of Pacific Islanders for his country.

The Prime Minister of India, Mrs. Indira Gandhi, appreciated his role in cementing the relationship between the two major ethnic groups of Fiji. As a bonus, she granted him unprecedented awards of two extensions in the service of Fiji, which was unpalatable to his colleagues in the Indian Foreign Service. This enabled him to act as the Dean of the growing diplomatic corps in Fiji.

Social Services[link]

Captain Bhagwan Singh retired from Indian Administrative Service in 1976 and settled in Delhi. He remained active and served as an executive director for Shri Ram Fibres, and at Maharaja Suraj Mal Institute, Delhi, as well as the President of All India Jat Mahasabha where.

As author[link]

As part of his duties for the Jat Mahasabha he wrote historical articles on Veervar Gokula, Amar Shahid Chaudhari Shahmal, Raja Mahendra Pratap etc. The important books written by him are:

• Ratangarbha, Bharat Bhumi
• Indian Tea
• My Father's Land Fiji
• Ujale apani yadon ke
• Safal Prashasak Govind Ballabh Pant

Family[link]

Bhagwan Singh's son, Ajay Singh, has continued the family tradition of maintaining links with Fiji, when he was appointed the Indian High Commissioner to Fiji in 2005.^[1] He has three daughters Abha Singh (married to K P Singh of Ford Motor Company in USA), Vibha Singh (married to Maharaja Digvijay Sinh of Wankaner) and Shubha Singh (married to Yatindra Kumar of Air India).

Bibliography[link]

• Bhagwan Singh: My Father’s Land Fiji, Tamavua Enterprises, 64 Poorvi Marg, Vasant Vihar, New Delhi, 1984
• Nav Jat – veer Patrika, Jat Samaj Kalyan Parishad, Gwalior, 1995

References[link]

1. ^ "India names descendant of semi-slaves as diplomat in Fiji". http://www.rnzi.com/pages/news.php?op=read&id=14632.