Prof JD Sethi says that he has known Charan Singh since 1977. What he was most impressed with was Singh’s intellectual capability and the strength of his argument especially regarding agriculture and reorganisation of rural society. He introduced land reforms in his state of Uttar Pradesh which became as a model for regions where zamindari system was established by the British. Subsequently his approach became controversial because a section criticised him for being the leader of the kulaks. Sethi thinks that the ideas of Charan Singh should be understood in the context of the rise of the new peasant power. It’s here that Charan Singh’s ideas and contradictions become relevant.

HN Bahuguna further notes that it is the lessons that Charan Singh imbibed during the freedom struggle, and the inspiration he took from Arya Samaj and Gandhi that enabled him to rise above casteism and strive towards a new social order. Along with this, the effect of the poverty and the simple family in which he was born in the village stayed with him throughout his life.