Author: Karan Singh
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 2003
Language: English
Pages: 343
ISBN/UPC (if available): 019 5636368
Description
This autobiography covers a tumultous period in Indian history, including the dawn of freedom, the momentous politics of Jammu and Kashmir, the conflicts with China and Pakistan, and the period of Jawaharlal Nehru and Lal Bahadur Shastri’s prime ministership.
It also describes the author’s spiritual quest and inner growth in his search for the more profound truths of life.
Dr Karan Singh was born in 1931 as heir to the then princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, and was appointed regent at the age of eighteen by his father Maharaja Hari Singh. He was head of Jammu and Kashmir for a further eighteen years-as Regent up to 1952, as elected Sadar-i-Riyasat from 1952 to 1965, and as Governor from 1965 to 1967. In 1967 Dr Karan Singh became the youngest ever Central Cabinet Minister in India. He was Member of Parliament for the next eighteen years, and has held several major Cabinet posts. He has lectured on Indian culture and philosophy across the world, and is known internationally as a thinker and statesman of modern India.
EXCERPTS FROM REVIEWS
Karan Singh writes well. His autobiography…is a personal account of a life which cannot have been easy. It is a historical record of the Kashmir Question, and is a fascinating study of the change from feudalism to democracy.
-Asian Affairs
His recounting of most of the events in the fifties and sixties will help us understand the impasse in Kashmir even better.
-Free Press Journal
Karan Singh’s Autobiography gives a very readable account of the drama of accession to India.
-The Indian Post