He was born in a Ghumman Jat Sikh family and was the only son of Tara Singh and Hukam Kaur, a couple from Ugoke village, near Sialkot (now in Pakistan).
His father died two months before his birth and his mother moved to her parents' home in Badiana in the same district, where Mohan Singh was born and brought up.
[4] The battalion was still carrying out intensive training at Secunderabad in December 1940 when he married Jasvant Kaur, the sister of a fellow officer.
Japan entered the War with her surprise attack on the American Naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on 7 December 1941 and overran the entire South East Asia within a few weeks.
Tasked with intelligence gathering and contacting the Indian independence movement, the overseas Chinese, and the Malayan Sultan with the aim of encouraging friendship and cooperation with Japan,[5] Fujiwara's staff included five commissioned officers and two Hindi-speaking interpreters.
The British force in the northern part of the Malaya Peninsula, including Mohan Singh's battalion, 1/14 Punjab Regiment, was fleeing towards the South.
Mohan Singh asked for volunteers who would form the Ajad Hind Fauj (literally translates to Free India Army) to fight for Indian independence from the British rule.
[8] A large number of men came forward to join what came to be termed as the Ajad Hind Fauj (National Army of independent India).
Though Mohan Singh had kept a good relationship with the members of Fujiwara Kikan, he was soon disenchanted with the headquarters of the Japanese Army and doubted their intentions based on their orders.
However, due to public pressure, roused by the INA Red Fort trials, Mohan Singh was only cashiered from the Army.
[12] The Sena's top brass consisted of all former Indian National Army soldiers like himself (the Senapati), Col. Naranjan Singh Gill, Capt.
as a beneficial force, Mahatma Gandhi, C. Rajagopalachari, Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Patel all gave their blessings and the Brigadier based in Amritsar at the time, Brig.
Mohindar Singh Chopra, had provided the organization with aid, ammunition and helped them train youth and women in the countryside.
In January 1948 Sardar Patel had made a speech which offended many Sikhs commenting about the turban and the beard; at this instance Mohan Singh took to arms.
[19] His main plans were to create a secular dictatorship in Punjab which came through the form of the Desh Sewak Movement, which played a dubious role in Operation Polo.
was abolished in 1948, he created the Desh Sewak Party as the successor- it was Socialist and Authoritarian in nature- though noted to be a personality cult of Mohan Singh.
[20][21] Mohan Singh had arrived as soon as he heard of the case and gathered a frenzied mob of his Sikh followers who beat the Kotwal to death on public display.
His followers, the swathes of military-minded youth, wished for Punjab to be soaked in bloodied revolution which Mohan Singh could not support.
[29] Although the Arya Samajist lobby would decry these efforts as a "consolidation of Sikh strength" and a steps towards a power seizure, and under such characterizations Kairon was told by the central government to merge the Punjab Raksha Dal with the Home Guard; factory plans were cancelled.
In and out of Parliament he strove for the recognition of the members of his Azad Hind Fauj as "freedom fighters" in the cause of the nation's independence.