India's oldest Air Force pilot Dalip Singh Majithia passes away

The country's oldest fighter pilot and entrepreneur, Squadron Leader Sardar Dalip Singh Majithia, passed away late night on 15 April 2024 at the age of 103. He was cremated with full military honours at Rudrapur in Udham Singh Nagar on the afternoon of 16 April 2024.

Took command of IAF in Burma in World War II:

• Sardar Dalip Singh Majithia commanded the Indian Air Force in present-day Myanmar and then Burma during World War II.
• As soon as the news of the demise of Sardar Dalip Singh Majithia was received, a wave of mourning ran among the intellectuals, entrepreneurs and academicians of Gorakhpur including Sardarnagar. Sardar Majithia, who held the post of Squadron Leader in the Air Force in British India, spent five decades of his life in Sardar Nagar, Gorakhpur.

Madan Mohan Malaviya University of Technology (MMUT) Established:

• While living in Gorakhpur, Sardar Dalip Singh Majithia made the land of Purvanchal industrially fertile. Rather, it also played an important role in laying the foundation of technical educational institutions like Madan Mohan Malaviya Technological University. Sardar Dalip Singh received commission in the Royal Air Force in the year 1940.
• During the Second World War, he commanded a fighter-bomber aircraft in the Indian squadron in the war in Burma.
• Due to family responsibilities, he soon took voluntary leave from the army, but his passion for flying continued. After taking leave from the army, he came to Gorakhpur around 1947 and started looking after the work of his family's Saraiya Sugar Mill already established in Sardar Nagar.

Role in Saraiya Sugar Mill Management:

• He remained the chairman of this sugar mill for a long time. Under his supervision, many other industries including Saraiya Steel Company and Rolling Mill also flourished. Due to ill health in the 90s, he started living in Delhi with his wife Jan Sanders.
• Born in Shimla in 1920, Dalip Singh Majithia studied at Khalsa College in Amritsar and later in Lahore where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree. He then joined the Air Force in November 1939 during World War II.
• During his tenure in Australia, Dalip Singh Majithia met Joan Sanders, a member of the Women's Royal Australian Naval Service. Both of them got married in 1948 and settled in Sardarnagar, Uttar Pradesh. The couple have two daughters, Kiran Sandhu and Mira Akoi. Joan Sanders died in 2021.

317 acres of land donated to MMM University of Technology:

• There was a land problem regarding opening a technical institute in Gorakhpur. When the matter reached Sardar Dalip Singh, he himself took the initiative and donated 317 acres of his land in 1970. MMUT is established there.

Management of many institutions of the region Edited by Majithia:

• Apart from this, Buddha PG and Inter College of Kushinagar and Lady Prasanna Kaur Inter College Sardarnagar of Gorakhpur are also run under the management of Dalip Singh Majithia.