Daya Singh Bedi
{{Short description|British Indian Army officer and diplomat (1899–1975)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2016}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name = Ambassador Col. Baba Daya Singh Bedi
| office1 = Chief Commissioner of Coorg State
| term_start1 = 1951
| term_end1 = 1956
| predecessor1 =C. T. Mudaliar
| successor1 = Position abolished
| office2 = {{flag|India}}n Ambassador to Australia
| term_start2 = 1948
| term_end2 = 1951
| office3 = Indian Civil Service
| term_start3 = 1937
| term_end3 = 1948
| office4 = Indian Political Service
| term_start4 = 1928
| term_end4 = 1937
| office5 = Military {{army|British Raj}}
| term_start5 = 1921
| term_end5 = 1928
| birth_date = 27 January 1899
| birth_place = Kallar, Rawalpindi
| death_date = 1975
| death_place =
| alma_mater =
| profession = Military, Civil Service and Indian Foreign Service
| spouse = Bibi Anand Kaur Dhall
| children = Tika Aridaman Singh Bedi, Bibi Manmohini Kumari, Bibi Sheilla Kumari
}}
Ambassador Lieutenant-Colonel Baba Daya Singh Bedi (1899–1975) was an Indian diplomat, Civil Servant and a Cavalry officer in the British Indian Army with the 6th Duke of Connaught's Own Lancers (Watson's Horse). After the partition of India he served as India's First High Commissioner to Australia{{cite web|url=http://www.hcindia-au.org/previous-high-commissioners.htm|title=Previous High Commissioners - About High Commission - The High Commission of India in Australia|access-date=17 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160816173243/http://www.hcindia-au.org/previous-high-commissioners.htm|archive-date=16 August 2016|url-status=dead}} from 1948 to 1951 and Chief Commissioner of Coorg State from 1951 to 1956.
Personal life
Daya Singh Bedi (1899–1975){{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DU85AQAAIAAJ&q=daya+singh+bedi|title=The India Office and Burma Office List|year=1922}}{{cite web|url=http://www.worldstatesmen.org/India_states.html|title=Indian states since 1947}} was born to Raja Sir Gurbaksh Singh Bedi K.B.E., Kt., C.i.E., (1862–1946){{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NwJXAgAAQBAJ&q=baba+gurbaksh+singh+bedi&pg=PA8|title=Pool of Life|isbn=9781845196028|last1=Puri|first1=Kailash|last2=Nesbitt|first2=Eleanor|date=October 2013}} an extremely influential Sikh spiritual and political leader{{citation needed|date=January 2016}} who was the direct descendant, in the fifteenth place of Sri Guru Nanak, a member of the Legislative Council of the Punjab Province (British India) and the Raja of Kallar{{citation needed|date=January 2016}} (Jagir){{cite web|url=http://www.dawn.com/news/1205167|title=The Sikh palace of Kallar Syedan|author=Muzammil Shah}}{{cite web|url=http://www.sikhfoundation.org/article-lostPalace.html|title=The Sikh Foundation - Sikh Arts and Heritage}} near Rawalpindi (now in Pakistan).
Daya Singh Bedi was married to Bibi Anand Kaur Dhall.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2ZmgAAAAMAAJ&q=daya+singh+bedi|title=Good Company|isbn=9780702224430|last1=Gullett|first1=Henry|year=1992}}{{cite web|url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bengaluru/The-Guru-Nanak-trail-goes-cold/articleshow/49966258.cms|title=The Guru Nanak trail goes cold|work=The Times of India}}
Career
Bedi was commissioned as a second lieutenant in July 1921 as a King's Commissioned Indian Officer (KCIO){{Cite book |last=Sharma |first=Gautam |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KHAWlzQdxxcC&dq=daya+singh+bedi&pg=PA237 |title=Nationalisation of the Indian Army, 1885-1947 |date=1996 |publisher=Allied Publishers |isbn=978-81-7023-555-2 |language=en}} and rose to the rank of lieutenant before he was transferred in September 1928 to the Indian Political Service. He was subsequently given the honorary rank of lieutenant colonel in 1947 during his military assignment in Nepal.{{citation needed|date=January 2016}}
He achieved promotions from 1928 till 1937 as Political Agent (1931, Southern States and Central India) / Undersecretary (1932, States of Western India) / Assistant Commissioner in the Princely states of Rajputana (1933), Travancore (1935) and Orissa Province (1937). Bedi also had responsibilities inherited with his title in Pashtunistan and the Punjab region and he combined his professional and personal roles after the 1935 Quetta earthquake. He served with distinction as an officer of the Indian Civil Service (British India) in the regions where his family patronage existed and had a record of reconstruction and administrative efficiency in the aftermath of the earthquake. Bedi was the Political Resident in Quetta-Pishin District till 1938, Political Resident of Loralai, Balochistan, Pakistan, from 1939 to 1941, Political Resident and Deputy Commissioner of Hazara, North-West Frontier Province from 1942 to 1944{{citation needed|date=January 2016}}, Political Agent Kurram in 1945, Political Agent Orissa States from 1946 to 1947, Regional Commissioner Rajputana in 1948.
At Indian independence, Bedi joined the newly formed Ministry of External Affairs and Commonwealth Relations which was later renamed Ministry of External Affairs (India) in the Indian Foreign Service department. His negotiation was instrumental in the amicable division of weapons, equipment, regiments and rights of the Gurkhas in military service and he was a signatory to the Britain-India-Nepal Tripartite Agreement.{{cite web|url=http://dla.library.upenn.edu/dla/ead/ead.html?id=EAD_upenn_rbml_PUSpMsColl935&|title=British Gurkha Mission to Nepal photograph album}} The following year in 1948 he was appointed as the Indian High Commissioner (Commonwealth) and Plenipotentiary{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KjkNAAAAIAAJ&q=daya+singh+bedi|title=Current Notes on International Affairs|year=1948}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ccj8j9wl3b0C&q=daya+singh+bedi&pg=PA88|title=Australia and the World|isbn=9781743320150|last1=Beaumont|first1=Joan|last2=Jordan|first2=Matthew|date=20 May 2013}} to Australia and served till 1951. On his return to India, Bedi was appointed as Chief Commissioner of Coorg State where he served till 1956 when the province was dissolved and merged with the neighbouring Mysore State.{{citation needed|date=January 2016}}
Death
On retirement, Baba Daya Singh Bedi studied Sufi poetry. He died in 1975.{{citation needed|date=January 2016}}
References
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Category:Commissioners and Chief Commissioners of Coorg
Category:Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst
Category:British Indian Army officers
Category:High commissioners of India to Australia