Dr Mohinder Singh Randhawa

Dr Mohinder Singh Randhawa, usually called M.S. Randhawa, was a Sikh civil servant, scientist and scholar of Punjab's art. He was born on 2 February 1909 at Zira in Ferozepur district into a Randhawa Jatt family, studied at Khalsa High School, Muktsar, and took his MSc in Lahore in 1930. He joined the Indian Civil Service in 1934 and in 1955 earned a doctorate of science for his work on algae. Admirers called him "Punjab da chhewan dariya", the sixth river of Punjab.

Key moments

• 1946 to 1947: as Deputy Commissioner of Delhi, he organised the flag-raising and the function where Nehru gave his speech on the eve of independence. The Tribune says he was then appointed additional Deputy Commissioner during the Partition violence, met Muslim delegations and helped bring it under control. ETV Bharat adds that he banned kirpans, tridents and other sharp objects to head off bloodshed.
• 1949 onwards: he became Director-General of Rehabilitation, Punjab, and later development commissioner and custodian of evacuee property. He devised a land consolidation scheme, which ETV Bharat calls murabbabandi, to settle refugees from West Punjab, and wrote Out of the Ashes (1954) on their rehabilitation.
• 1955: he was made vice-president of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research. Wikipedia has him chairing the committee that planned Chandigarh that year, and the Tribune calls him chairman of its Landscape Advisory Committee; he led the greening of the city.
• November 1966 to 1968: after the reorganisation of Punjab he served as Chandigarh's first Chief Commissioner as a Union Territory. The Tribune credits him with the Rose Garden and the Government Museum and Art Gallery, and with naming Nek Chand's work the Rock Garden and urging that it be protected.
• He was the founding Vice-Chancellor of Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, and is counted among those who brought the Green Revolution to Punjab.
• His writing on Kangra and Basohli painting, rural life and agriculture runs to more than fifty books. In 1981 he set up the Punjab Arts Council.
• He died on 3 March 1986 at his farmhouse at Kharar. The Tribune named him among the trustees of The Tribune Trust.

Remembered for: giving Chandigarh its trees and gardens, resettling a displaced population, and recording Punjab's painting and village life. The Tribune and ETV Bharat also credit him with a key part in bringing the Green Revolution to Punjab.