Announcements

An Examined Life: Essays and Reflections by Karan Singh Edited by Raghav Verma

HarperCollins India

is proud to announce the publication of

An Examined Life: Essays and Reflections

by Karan Singh

Edited by Raghav Verma

The night of 8 August 1953, Gulmarg, Kashmir

‘Who is the Sadar-i-Riyasat to dismiss me? I made that chit of a boy Sadar-i-Riyasat,’ raged Sheikh Abdullah. But by then his house was surrounded by the police. He was given two hours to say his namaz and pack, during which, we later learnt, he burnt a number of documents …

An Examined Life is a collection of writings from politician and scholar Karan Singh. There are momentous events here drawn from Jammu and Kashmir’s history, as well as essays and letters on subjects ranging from politics and philosophy to spirituality and Hinduism. The essays, which are often anecdotal, feature important figures in contemporary history and offer insight into the years following Independence that set the tone for the world’s largest democracy. While his official correspondence with Jawaharlal Nehru over three decades casts light on the political turmoil in Kashmir post accession to India, his letters to Indira Gandhi address a dark period in contemporary history—the 1975 Emergency, and the events before and after.

The anthology includes select poems and excerpts from his travelogues and novel set in Kashmir. It also features an in-depth interview in which Karan Singh gives his perspective on the Kashmir issue, speaking unequivocally on the rising tide of intolerance in the country and how it fails us.

With seventy years of his public and personal life since 1949 condensed in this omnibus, his reflections will appeal to both the lay reader and the discerning scholar.

 ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

First patron of democracy among the pre-Independence royal families of India and last of the legions of the Nehruvian age, DR KARAN SINGH was born an heir apparent to Maharaja Hari Singh and Maharani Tara Devi of Jammu and Kashmir on 9 March 1931. He completed seventy years in public life in 2019 as a senior leader of the Indian National Congress.

A man of letters and recipient of the Padma Vibhushan award, he has authored over twenty books, including Bridge to Immortality; Essays on Hinduism; Population, Poverty and the Future of India; Humanity at the Crossroads and India and the World.

RAGHAV VERMA is a research scholar. He can be reached at examinedlavie@gmail.com.

Follow them on Twitter at @drkaran_singh and @raghavxverma

Print price: Rs 799

Category: Non-fiction/Politics & Government

Size/Format: Royal/HB

 

For publicity queries please get in touch with Aman Arora at aman.arora@harpercollins.co.in

HCI

View Comments

  • Can anybody imagine magnamity of this great man....Head of the State , when just in his teens, simultaneously Chancellor of the University of Jammu and Kashmir...ironically, a graduation student of the same university, at the same time...

  • Dr Karan Singh is a man of letters, respected not only by people of the State, but even by many across the world...a great Statesman, a great visionary, ruling over hearts of people...

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