Chaudhary Charan Singh (23 December 1902 – 29 May 1987) was an Indian politician, peasant leader, author and an independence activist who briefly served as the prime minister of India from July 1979 to August 1979.

[5][6] He is the first leader outside the Indian National Congress who formed government in the northern India and became the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh.

He did his Matriculation and Intermediate from the Government High School in 1921 and then he went to Agra College to pursue Bachelor of Science in 1923, Masters of Arts in History (British, European and Indian) in 1925.

Singh have knowledge about European and Indian history as well as civil laws of British India as it affected the lives of village peoples.

But they shifted to Bulandshahr district of the present-day Uttar Pradesh after their downfall due to one of their prominent Raja Nahar Singh Ballabhgarh opposition to the British during the Indian Rebellion of 1857.

Before independence, as a member of Legislative Assembly of the United Provinces elected in 1937, he took a deep interest in the laws that were detrimental to the village economy and he slowly built his ideological and practical stand against the exploitation of tillers of the land by landlords.

He became visible on the national stage from 1959 when he publicly opposed the unquestioned leader and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's socialistic and collectivist land policies in the Nagpur Congress Session.

Though his position in the faction-ridden Uttar Pradesh Congress was weakened, this was a point when the middle peasant communities across castes in North India began looking up to him as their spokesperson and later as their unquestioned leader.

It is also worth noting that within the factional Uttar Pradesh Congress, his ability to articulate his clear policies and values made him stand out from his colleagues.

Following this period, Charan Singh defected from the Congress on 1 April 1967, joined the opposition party, and became the first non-Congress chief minister of UP.

As leader of the Bharatiya Lok Dal, a major constituent of the Janata coalition, he was disappointed in his ambition to become Prime Minister in 1977 by Jayaprakash Narayan's choice of Morarji Desai.

[15] In 1938 he introduced an Agricultural Produce Market Bill in the Assembly which was published in the issues of The Hindustan Times of Delhi dated 31 March 1938.

In the 1977 general elections, the Indian populace voted her out, and the opposition party, of which Chaudhary Charan Singh was a senior leader came into power.

Charan Singh for the first time, became Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh on 3 April 1967 with the help of Samyukta Vidhayak Dal coalition.

[22] The disputes between Charan Singh and Samyukta Socialist Party became public when SSP decided to launch an agitation of Angrezi Hatao (get rid to English) and during this movement two of its ministers courted arrest.

[26] On 18 February 1970, Charan Singh became Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh for the second time with the help of Indira Gandhi's Congress (R).

[27][28] After three Rajya Sabha members of Bharatiya Kranti Dal voted against the decision of Indira Gandhi to eliminate the Privy Purse, Kamalapati Tripathi announced the withdrawal of the support of Congress (R) for the Singh's government.

[47][15] Following the Janata Party victory in the 1977 general election, its MPs delegated the selection of a prime minister to Jayaprakash Narayan and Acharya Kripalani.

Following significant defections from the Janata Party to Singh’s faction, Morarji Desai resigned as prime minister in July 1979.

In his speech, he emphasised the importance of integrity, stating: ‘To be able to achieve noble objectives, your means should also be equally noble…A country where people are corrupt, will never be able to progress whosoever may be the leader of the party or whatever be the sound programme he might follow.’[52]However, Charan Singh government soon faced a major setback.

Janata Party leader Jagjivan Ram contested this move and sought time to gather support, but the dissolution proceeded.

[55][56] In August 1982, a major split occurred in Lok Dal, with one faction of Charan Singh and another consisted of Karpoori Thakur, Madhu Limaye, Biju Patnaik, Devi Lal, George Fernandes and Kumbha Ram Arya.

[61] His son Ajit Singh was the president of a political party Rashtriya Lok Dal and a former Union Minister and a many times Member of Parliament.

On 28 May 1987, Dr Jai Pal Singh along with other senior doctors from RML Hospital, New Delhi arrived at his residence around 11:35 p.m. (IST), after his respiration was found "unsteady".

[65] Singh was then given oxygen support but efforts to revive him failed and was declared dead at 2:35 a.m. (IST) on 29 May 1987, due to "cardiac arrest" at the age of 85.

[67] Singh, often hailed as the ‘Champion of Farmers,’ left behind a rich legacy that continues to inspire and shape the agricultural landscape of India.

[68] Singh was the chief architect of land reforms in Uttar Pradesh, where he played a pivotal role in the formulation and finalisation of the Debt Redemption Bill 1939.

[68] This legislation brought significant relief to rural debtors, easing the burden of debts that had long plagued the agricultural community.

[73] On 30 March 2024, Singh was posthumously honoured with the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian award by President Droupadi Murmu, for his exceptional service and contributions to the agricultural sector, particularly in Uttar Pradesh.

'Prime Minister'), which covers the tenures of Indian PMs,[78] by Sundaram in the 2019 film NTR: Mahanayakudu which is based on the life of Indian actor-politician N. T. Rama Rao.,[79] and by Govind Namdeo in the 2021 film Main Mulayam Singh Yadav which charts the life of former Uttar Pradesh CM Mulayam Singh Yadav.