Born heir apparent (Yuvaraj) to Maharaja Hari Singh and Maharani Tara Devi of Jammu and Kashmir, Dr Karan Singh was catapulted into political life at the early age of eighteen when, in 1949, he was appointed Regent by his father on the intervention of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Thereafter he was head of the Indian State of Jammu & Kashmir for the next eighteen years as Regent, as elected Sadar-i-Riyasat and lastly as Governor. His was a unique instance of the last representative of the old order becoming, by the will of the people, the first representative of the new. During these years he fulfilled his delicate and onerous duties with commendable success.
In 1967, Dr Karan Singh was inducted as a member of the Union Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. At 36, he was the youngest person ever to become a Central Cabinet Minister in India. He was elected soon thereafter to the Lok Sabha from the Udhampur Parliamentary Constituency in Jammu and Kashmir on behalf of the Indian National Congress by an overwhelming majority, and was re-elected from there in 1971, 1977 and 1980. He is now a member of the Rajya Sabha (the Upper House of Parliament) from Jammu & Kashmir.
Dr Karan Singh assigned the portfolio of Tourism and Civil Aviation, which he held for six years and where he created a marked impact by his vision and dynamism. In 1973 he moved to the Ministry of Health and Family Planning. Family Planning emerged as major national commitment after he announced the National Population Policy in 1976. In 1979 he assumed the portfolio of Education and Culture. During these tenures as minister, Dr Karan Singh neither drew any salary nor lived in government accommodation.
Dr Karan Singh was the only former ruler of a princely state to voluntarily surrender his privy purse. He put the entire sum into the Hari-Tara Charitable Trust, named after his parents, in the service of the people of India. He converted his Amar Mahal Palace in Jammu into a Museum and Library containing a priceless collection of Pahari miniatures and modem Indian art, as well as his personal library of over twenty thousand volumes. Dr Karan Singh also looks after several other trusts in Jammu and Kashmir including the Dharmarth Trust which administers over a hundred Hindu shrines and temples.
Dr Karan Singh passed the Senior Cambridge examination from the Doon School, Dehra Dun in the first division, and later graduated from the Jammu and Kashmir University, of which he was himself the Chancellor. In 1957 he took the M.A. degree of the Delhi University in Political Science with a first class first, creating a university record which is still unbroken. He then earned his doctorate from the Delhi University by writing a thesis on the "Political Thought of Sri Aurobindo", thus reaching the apex of a brilliant educational career.
Dr Karan Singh was for many years Chancellor of Jammu and Kashmir University as well the Benaras Hindu University, Chairman of the Central Sanskrit Board, President of the Authors Guild of India, the Commonwealth Society of India and the Delhi Music Society. He was President of the India International Centre, Chairman of the Auroville Foundation and member of the UNESCO International Commission on Education for the Twenty-first Century. He is Vice Chairman of the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund and Chairman of the Temple of Understanding, a major global interfaith association.
He founded the International Centre of Science, Culture & Consciousness, which is emerging as an important centre of creative thought. He is Co-Chairman of the recently established World Commission on Global Consciousness & Spirituality. He has set up the India Forum, consisting of concerned citizens from all parts of the country, which acts as a think tank on contemporary issues. He was recently named Co-Chairman of the Indo-French Forum with personal status of Cabinet Minister.
Dr Karan Singh is associated with many other cultural and academic institutions. He has received honorary doctorates from the Benaras Hindu University, the Aligarh Muslim University and the Soka University, Tokyo. He is member of the prestigious Club of Rome and the Club of Budapest and has been lifelong conservationist, having been Chairman of the Indian Board of Wildlife for many years and head of the spectacularly successful Project Tiger. He is President of the People's Commission on Environment and Development India, and Trustee of the Green Cross International.
Dr Karan Singh is an author of distinction, having written a number of books on political science, religion, philosophical essays, travelogues and poems in English. His fascinating Autobiography, his book on Sri Aurobindo entitled Prophet of Indian Nationalism, important collections of his writings entitled One Man's World and India and the World and his Essays on Hinduism have been widely acclaimed.
He has composed and recited devotional songs in his mother tongue, Dogri, and is a connoisseur of Indian classical music. He has travelled extensively throughout the country and abroad, having represented India at many important international conferences.
With his deep insight into the Indian cultural tradition, as well as his wide exposure to Western literature and civilisation, Dr Karan Singh is recognised as an outstanding thinker and leader in India and abroad. He is a renowned orator, and has lectured in five continents on philosophy and culture, politics and the environment. His tenure as Indian Ambassador to the United States, though brief, received extensive and extremely favourable media coverage in both countries and won many friends for the country.
Dr Karan Singh is married to the gracious Princess Yasho Rajya Lakshmi, grand-daughter of' the last Rana prime minister of Nepal, Maharaja Mohun Shumsher. She is an eminent social worker. As President of the Delhi Society for the Welfare of Mentally Retarded Children (Okhla Centre), she has built up an excellent centre at New Delhi which provides day-care, vocational training and other facilities to the mentally disabled.
