page_title: Baldev Singh
section_title: As defence minister
hierarchical_section_title: Baldev Singh / As defence minister
caption_attribution_description: English: Chakravarthi Rajagopalachari, Governor General of Dominion of the Dominion of India, and Baldev Singh India's first Defense Minister along with service chiefs (General Roy Bucher, Air Marshall Thomas Elmhirst and Admiral Edward Parry, )in 1948
context_page_description: Baldev Singh was an Indian Sikh political leader, he was an Indian independence movement leader and the first Defence Minister of India. Moreover, he represented the Punjabi Sikh community in the processes of negotiations that resulted in the independence of India, as well as the Partition of India in 1947.
  After independence, Baldev Singh was chosen to become the first Minister of Defence, hence becoming the "First Sikh Defence Minister" of any country in the world, and served in this post during the first Kashmir war between India and Pakistan. He is addressed often with the title of Sardar, which in Punjabi and Hindi means leader or chief.
context_section_description: On 15 August 1947, India became an independent nation and Baldev Singh  became India's first Minister of Defence, under the first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru. Singh was also a member of the Constituent Assembly of India.
  Along with  Vallabhbhai Patel, the Home Minister, Singh became responsible for leading the Indian Army's efforts to provide security, relief and refuge to over 10 million Hindus and Sikhs who were leaving the newly created Pakistan. Terrible violence broke loose on both sides of the frontier along the Punjab and Bengal, and to date it is estimated that over 1 million people were killed, with millions more suffering from usual acts of cruelty and great physical and personal trauma from the migration.
  The Army was caught unprepared, and itself was torn apart by the conflict. Thousands of Muslim officers were leaving for Pakistan. Riots had broken out in Calcutta, Delhi and Bombay. Patel and Singh led from the front, and despite a heavy toll, the Army finally re-asserted peace and rule of law all over India and the borders of Punjab and Bengal. They organized massive relief and aid operation for the millions of people arriving in India.
  Defence Minister Singh also led the preparations and planning for war in Kashmir, which had broken out with Pakistani tribesmen and some military officers had incursed into the state with the aim of annexing it into Pakistan. Over almost two years, the Indian Army would wage battle with the militants and the Pakistan Army at the highest altitudes in the world. The Army succeeded in pushing back the raiders from Srinagar and beyond the Baramulla Pass, but with Nehru's declaration of a cease-fire under the supervision of the United Nations, a considerable portion of territory now lay under the firm control of the Pakistani Army, and the Kashmir conflict was born.
  In September 1948, under the instructions of the Home Minister Vallabhbhai Patel, Baldev Singh and his commanders prepared plans for Operation Polo, a week-long operation that annexed the princely state of Hyderabad into the Indian Union. Singh remained a close advisor to Patel on managing the Kashmir conflict and the issues of political integration of India.
  Baldev Singh was removed from the post of defense minister "As Nehru lost confidence in the political integrity of Baldev Singh."
caption: Baldev Singh with C. Rajagopalachari and Chiefs of Staff
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