Zail Singh was born at Sandhwan in Faridkot state in 1916, was jailed by the state authorities for agitating against princely rule, and rose through Congress politics to become Chief Minister of Punjab, Union Home Minister, and President of India from 1982 to 1987.
He was the first Sikh to hold the presidency. He was in office during Operation Blue Star in June 1984, the assassination of Indira Gandhi in October, and the killings of Sikhs in Delhi in November.
His position during those events, as a Sikh head of state who was not consulted about the army operation and who had limited constitutional power to act, is the defining and most argued-over part of his career.
He later fell out with Rajiv Gandhi and considered dismissing him, which is one of the sharpest constitutional confrontations in Indian history and did not happen.
He died in a road accident in 1994.
He is judged very differently in Punjab and outside it, and both judgements are about the same eighteen months.
He was chief minister of Punjab from 1972, home minister in 1980, and President of India from 1982 to 1987, the first Sikh to hold the office.
He was President during Operation Blue Star and during the killings of November 1984, and his position in both is the subject of a long and unresolved argument.
He came from a carpenter family in a Faridkot village, was jailed by the state administration before independence, and made his career entirely inside the Congress.