Karan Singh (born 9 March 1931) is an Indian politician and philosopher. He is the son of the last ruling

Maharaja Mahārāja (; also spelled Maharajah, Maharaj) is a Sanskrit title for a "great ruler", "great king" or " high king". A few ruled states informally called empires, including ruler raja Sri Gupta, founder of the ancient Indian Gupta Empire, an ...

of the

princely state A princely state (also called native state or Indian state) was a nominally sovereign entity of the British Raj, British Indian Empire that was not directly governed by the British, but rather by an Indian ruler under a form of indirect rule, ...

of Jammu and Kashmir, Sir Hari Singh. He was the

prince regent A prince regent or princess regent is a prince or princess who, due to their position in the line of succession, rules a monarchy as regent in the stead of a monarch regnant, e.g., as a result of the sovereign's incapacity (minority or illness ...

of Jammu and Kashmir until 1952. From 1952 to 1965 he was the ''

Sadr-i-Riyasat Sardar, also spelled as Sardaar/Sirdar ( fa, سردار, , 'commander', literally 'headmaster'), is a title of royalty and nobility that was originally used to denote princes, noblemen, chiefs, kings and other aristocrats. It has also been ...

'' (President) of the state of Jammu and Kashmir in the Republic of India. He is the chairperson trustee of the Dharmarth Trust of Jammu and Kashmir which maintains 175 temples in north India and works in other areas such as historical preservation. Singh was a member of India's Upper House of Parliament, the

Rajya Sabha The Rajya Sabha, constitutionally the Council of States, is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of India. , it has a maximum membership of 245, of which 233 are elected by the legislatures of the states and union territories using si ...

, representing the national capital territory of

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...

. He is a senior member of the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Em ...

party who served successively as President (''

'') and Governor of the former state of Jammu and Kashmir. He was a life trustee and president of

India International Center The India International Centre (IIC) is a non-official organisation situated in New Delhi, India. Membership of the IIC includes artists, academicians, senior government officials, judges, jurists, parliamentarians, doctors, ministers, governors ...

. He was elected chancellor of

Banaras Hindu University Banaras Hindu University (BHU) IAST: kāśī hindū viśvavidyālaya IPA: /kaːʃiː hɪnd̪uː ʋɪʃwəʋid̪jaːləj/), is a collegiate, central, and research university located in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India, and founded in 1916 ...

for three terms until 2018 when he was succeeded by

Giridhar Malaviya Giridhar Malaviya (born 1936) is the chancellor of Banaras Hindu University and a retired judge of Allahabad High Court. Personal life and education Malaviya is the grandson of Madan Mohan Malaviya (founder of Banaras Hindu University) and ...

. He has been a prospective presidential candidate over the years.

Early and personal life

Yuvraj Yuv(a)raj(a) (Sanskrit: युवराज) is an Indian title for the crown prince, and the heir apparent to the throne of an Indian (notably Hindu) kingdom or (notably in the Mughal Empire or British Raj) princely state. It is usually applied t ...

'' Karan Singh was born at the Martinez Hotel,

Cannes Cannes ( , , ; oc, Canas) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a communes of France, commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions I ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, into the

Dogra dynasty The Dogra dynasty of Dogra Rajputs from the Shiwalik Himalayas created Jammu and Kashmir when all dynastic kingdoms in India were being absorbed by the East India Company. Events led the Sikh Empire to recognise Jammu as a vassal state in 1820 ...

. He was the only son of Sir Hari Singh,

Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir The Dogra dynasty of Dogra Rajputs from the Shiwalik Himalayas created Jammu and Kashmir when all dynastic kingdoms in India were being absorbed by the East India Company. Events led the Sikh Empire to recognise Jammu as a vassal state in 1820 ...

. His mother, Maharani Tara Devi, who was the fourth wife of his father, was the daughter of a landowning

Katoch Katoch is a Chandravanshi Rajput clan. Their traditional area of residence was in the Trigarta Kingdom, based at Jalandhar and at Kangra Fort in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. They descent from the Trigarta dynasty mentioned in the Mahabha ...

Rajput Rajput (from Sanskrit ''raja-putra'' 'son of a king') is a large multi-component cluster of castes, kin bodies, and local groups, sharing social status and ideology of genealogical descent originating from the Indian subcontinent. The term Ra ...

family and came from (Vijaypur near Bilaspur) in

Kangra district Kangra is the most populous district of the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. Dharamshala is the administrative headquarters of the district. History Kangra is known for having the oldest serving Royal Dynasty in the world, the Katoch. In 175 ...

Himachal Pradesh Himachal Pradesh (; ; "Snow-laden Mountain Province") is a state in the northern part of India. Situated in the Western Himalayas, it is one of the thirteen mountain states and is characterized by an extreme landscape featuring several peaks ...

. Singh was educated at

Doon School The Doon School (informally Doon School or Doon) is a selective all-boys boarding school in Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India, which was established in 1935. It was envisioned by Satish Ranjan Das, a lawyer from Calcutta, who prevised a school mode ...

Dehra Dun Dehradun () is the capital and the most populous city of the Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous district and is governed by the Dehradun Municipal Corporation, with the Uttarakhand Legislativ ...

, a boarding school, which represented a departure from the usual practise of princes being educated by tutors at home. The school was very elite, but it nevertheless meant that Karan Singh shared the classroom (though not the hostel) with boys from non-royal backgrounds, and received a standard education. Unusually for the scion of an Indian royal family, he then enrolled in a college for a graduate degree, receiving first a

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

degree from

Jammu and Kashmir University Jammu is the winter capital of the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. It is the headquarters and the largest city in Jammu district of the union territory. Lying on the banks of the river Tawi, the city of Jammu, with an area of , ...

Srinagar Srinagar (English: , ) is the largest city and the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, India. It lies in the Kashmir Valley on the banks of the Jhelum River, a tributary of the Indus, and Dal and Anchar lakes. The city is known for its natu ...

, and subsequently an

M.A. A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

degree in Political Science and a PhD degree from

University of Delhi Delhi University (DU), formally the University of Delhi, is a collegiate central university located in New Delhi, India. It was founded in 1922 by an Act of the Central Legislative Assembly and is recognized as an Institute of Eminence (IoE) ...

. In 1950, the 19-year-old Karan Singh was married to 13-year-old Yasho Rajya Lakshmi, daughter of a nobleman belonging to the

Rana family Rana dynasty ( ne, राणा वंश, IAST=Rāṇā vaṃśa , ) is a Chhetri dynasty that imposed totalitarianism in the Kingdom of Nepal from 1846 until 1951, reducing the Shah monarch to a figurehead and making Prime Minister and other ...

Nepal Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...

. Her father, General Sharada Shumsher Jung Bahadur Rana, was a senior army officer and the son of

Mohan Shumsher Jang Bahadur Rana Field-Marshal Shree Shree Shree Maharaja Sir Mohan Shumsher Jung Bahadur Rana ( ne, मोहन शम्शेर जङ्गबहादुर राणा), GCB, GCIE, GBE (23 December 1885 – 6 January 1967) was the prime minister a ...

, the last Rana Prime Minister of

. The match, arranged by their families in the usual Indian way, was entirely harmonious and lasted all their lives. The couple had three children: *''

'' Vikramaditya Singh, elder son and crown prince; married Chitrangada Scindia, the daughter of

Madhavrao Scindia Madhavrao Jivajirao Scindia (10 March 1945 – 30 September 2001) was an Indian politician and a minister in the Government of India. He was a member of the Indian National Congress party. Scindia was the son of Jiwajirao Scindia, the last rul ...

of Gwalior, in 1987. * Ajatshatru Singh, second son; took to politics, was elected to the state assembly from the Nagrota constituency and became a minister in the state government. His wife is the daughter of an army officer. * Jyotsna Singh, only daughter, married to Dhirendra Singh Chauhan, from a Chauhan family belonging to

Mainpuri Mainpuri is a city in Mainpuri district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is the administrative headquarters of Mainpuri district and is situated to the north-east of Agra and is 270 km from New Delhi. Mainpuri forms part of the an ...

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

Political career

In 1949, at age of eighteen, Singh was appointed as the Prince Regent of Jammu and Kashmir state after his father stepped down as the ruler, following the state's accession to India. From that point, he served successively as regent, the ''Sadr-i-Riyasat'', and the first governor of the state of Jammu and Kashmir from 1965 to 1967. On August 8, 1953 as the President (

) of Jammu and Kashmir, Karan Singh backed a coup d'etat against the elected Prime Minister

Sheikh Abdullah Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah (5 December 1905 – 8 September 1982) was an Indian politician who played a central role in the politics of Jammu and Kashmir Abdullah was the founding leader of the All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference (later re ...

, allegedly for harboring independent ambitions for Kashmir, which led to the imprisonment of Abdullah for eleven years following the

Kashmir Conspiracy Case Kashmir Conspiracy Case was the legal case filed by Government of Kashmir and Investigations Department of the Government of India, by which Sheikh Abdullah and others were arrested and jailed. Abdullah along with Mirza Afzal Beg and 22 others, w ...

. In 1967, he resigned as

Governor of Jammu and Kashmir The governor of Jammu and Kashmir was the head of the Indian state Jammu and Kashmir. When India became independent, Hari Singh was the Maharaja of the Princely State of Jammu and Kashmir. Technically he remained so until 17 November 1952, al ...

, and became the youngest-ever member of the Union Cabinet, holding the portfolios of Tourism and Civil Aviation between 1967 and 1973. Two years later, he voluntarily surrendered his privy purse, which he had been entitled to since the death of his father in 1961. He placed the entire sum into a charitable trust named after his parents. In the 26th amendment to the

Constitution of India The Constitution of India (IAST: ) is the supreme law of India. The document lays down the framework that demarcates fundamental political code, structure, procedures, powers, and duties of government institutions and sets out fundamental ri ...

promulgated in 1971, the Government of India, of which Karan Singh was a

Union cabinet The Union Council of Ministers Article 58 of the ''Constitution of India'' is the principal executive organ of the Government of India, which is responsible for being the senior decision making body of the executive branch. It is chaired by t ...

minister, abolished all official symbols of princely India, including titles, privileges, and remuneration ( privy purses). During the conclusion of the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

, he was India's ambassador to the

USA The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. Singh received the

Padma Vibhushan The Padma Vibhushan ("Lotus Decoration") is the second-highest Indian honours system, civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is given for "exceptional and distinguished service" ...

in 2005.In 1971, he was sent as an envoy to the Eastern Bloc nations to explain India's position with regard to East Pakistan, then engaged in civil war with West Pakistan. He attempted to resign following an aircraft crash in 1973, but the resignation was not accepted. The same year, he became the Minister for Health and Family planning, serving in this post until 1977. Following the Emergency, Karan Singh was elected to the Lok Sabha from Udhampur in 1977 on a Congress ticket he party had not split into Congress(I) and Congress(U) factions till then and became Minister of Education and Culture in 1979 in Charan Singh's cabinet, representing Congress(U), which had split from Indira's Congress. Notably, Charan Singh became Prime Minister after the fall of Janata Party government headed by Morarji Desai. And Charan Singh himself resigned without facing Parliament even for a day as he was not sure of having a confidence motion passed in his favour. Karan Singh contested the 1980 Lok Sabha election on a Congress(U) ticket and won. In 1989–1990, he served as Indian Ambassador to the US, and this experience became the subject of a book he wrote, "Brief Sojourn". From 1967 to 1984, Karan Singh was a member of the Lok Sabha. In 1984, he contested the Lok Sabha polls as an independent candidate from Jammu but lost the election. He was a member of the Rajya Sabha from 30 November 1996 to 12 August 1999, representing National Conference, a Muslim dominated party active in Jammu and Kashmir. Later, he was a

member from 28 January 2000 to 27 January 2018 representing

INC Inc. or inc may refer to: * Incorporation (business), as a suffix indicating a corporation * ''Inc.'' (magazine), an American business magazine * Inc. No World, a Los Angeles-based band * Indian National Congress, a political party in India * I ...

. He is known for switching his loyalties from one political party to another quite frequently. He has served as Chancellor of

, Jammu and Kashmir University,

Jawaharlal Nehru University Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) is a public major research university located in New Delhi, India. It was established in 1969 and named after Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister. The university is known for leading faculties and r ...

, and NIIT University. File:The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh addressing at the launch of a film - "I Believe Universal Values for a Global Society", by Raja Choudhury based on the beliefs of Dr. Karan Singh, in New Delhi on March 09, 2011.jpg, Prime Minister

Manmohan Singh Manmohan Singh (; born 26 September 1932) is an Indian politician, economist and statesman who served as the 13th prime minister of India from 2004 to 2014. He is also the third longest-serving prime minister after Jawaharlal Nehru and Indir ...

addressing at the launch of a film - ''I Believe Universal Values for a Global Society'', by Raja Choudhury based on the beliefs of Dr. Karan Singh in 2011. File:Manmohan Singh presenting the “Rajiv Gandhi National Sadbhavana Award” to Dr. Kiran Seth of SPIC MACAY, at a function, in New Delhi. The President of ICCR, Dr. Karan Singh and the Member of Parliament.jpg, Dr. Karan Singh, along with Prime Minister

and

Rahul Gandhi Rahul Gandhi ( ; born 19 June 1970) is an Indian politician and a member of the Indian Parliament, representing the constituency of Wayanad, Kerala in the 17th Lok Sabha. A member of the Indian National Congress, he served as the president o ...

present the Rajiv Gandhi National Sadbhavana Award to Dr. K iran Seth in 2011. File:Hillary Clinton with Sonia and Rahul Gandhi.jpg, Dr. Karan Singh meets Hillary Clinton along with Congress party President Sonia Gandhi, and Rahul Gandhi. July 2009

Later life

He has been engaged by

Sansad TV ''Sansad'' or ''Sangsad'' is the word for "Assembly", association, council or "Parliament" in several Indo-Aryan languages, derived from a Sanskrit root. It may also mean: National parliament Bangladesh * Jatiya Sangsad ("National Parliament" of ...

(a merged Global TV Channel of

Lok Sabha TV Lok Sabha TV was an Indian public cable television network channel that offered coverage of central government proceedings and other public affairs programming. Its remit was to make accessible to all the work of the parliamentary and legislat ...

and

Rajya Sabha TV Rajya Sabha TV was an Indian public cable television network channel owned and operated by Rajya Sabha that covered the proceedings of Rajya Sabha (the Upper House of the Parliament of India). It has now been replaced by Sansad TV. Apart from ...

) as a Guest Anchor along with some other senior celebrated experts from diverse fields such as

Bibek Debroy Bibek Debroy is an Indian economist, serving as the chairman of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India. Debroy has made significant contributions to game theory, economic theory, income and social inequalities, poverty ...

Amitabh Kant Amitabh Kant (born 1 March 1956) was the second chief executive officer of NITI Aayog, a public policy think tank of the Government of India. He is a retired member of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), the central civil service of the Go ...

Shashi Tharoor Shashi Tharoor (; ; born 9 March 1956 in London, England ) is an Indian former international civil servant, diplomat, bureaucrat and politician, writer and public intellectual who has been serving as Member of Parliament for Thiruvananthapuram, ...

Hemant Batra Hemant Batra (born 15 August 1967) is an Indian business, public policy, corporate and commercial senior practicing lawyer, newspaper – columnist writer author, TV anchor/Host, public speaker, commentator (law & public policy), mentor, and l ...

Maroof Raza Maroof Raza (born 1959) is a retired Indian Army officer with experience in counter-insurgency operations. He is a well known media commentator on global, military and security issues. His ‘talks’ range from the ‘threats of terrorism’ t ...

and

Sanjeev Sanyal Sanjeev Sanyal is an Indian economist and popular historian. He is a member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India, and has helped prepare six editions of the Economic Survey of India starting in 2017. Sanyal ha ...

to present some flagship programmes.

Academic career

Karan Singh served as the chancellor of

for three terms up until 2018. In 2008, he awarded an honorary doctorate to the then prime minister

, and in 2016, he was asked by university administration to award an honorary doctorate to prime minister

Modi Narendra Damodardas Modi (; born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician serving as the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament from ...

, that the prime minister declined.

Honours and awards

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

: *

(2005).

Servare et Manere: * Memorial_Medal_of_Tree_of_Peace_ribbon

Memorial Medal of Tree of Peace The Memorial Medal of Tree of Peace ( Slovak: ''Pamätná medaila Stromu pokoja'') is the second highest award awarded since 2020 by Servare et Manere, the Slovak non-governmental organization. The award was first awarded on September 28, 202 ...

. International peace award granted by a Slovak

non-governmental organization A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...

(2021).

Views

On population

"In 1974, I led the Indian delegation to the World Population Conference in Bucharest, where my statement that 'development is the best contraceptive' became widely known and oft quoted. I must admit that 20 years later I am inclined to reverse this, and my position now is that 'contraception is the best development'.”

Bibliography

*''Towards A New India'' (1974) *''Population, Poverty and the Future of India'' (1975) *''One Man's World'' (1986) *
Essays on Hinduism
'. Ratna Sagar. 1987. . *''Humanity at the Crossroads'', with

Daisaku Ikeda is a Japanese Buddhist philosopher, educator, author, and nuclear disarmament advocate. He served as the third president and then honorary president of the Soka Gakkai, the largest of Japan's new religious movements. Ikeda is the founding pre ...

. Oxford University Press, 1988. *''Autobiography'' (2 vols.)(1989) *''Brief Sojourn'' (1991) *''Hymn to Shiva and Other Poems'' (1991) *''The Transition to a Global Society'' (1991) *''Mountain of Shiva'' (1994) *''Autobiography''. Oxford University Press, 1994. . *
Hinduism
'. Sterling Publishers Pvt. Ltd, 2005. *''Mundaka Upanishad: The Bridge to Immortality''. *''Ten Gurus of the Sikhs Their Life Story'', Tr. into English Pramila Naniwadekar & Moreshwar Naniwadekar. *''Nehru's Kashmir''. Wisdom Tree. . *''A Treasury of Indian Wisdom''. Penguin Ananda, 2010. . *

An Examined Life ''An Examined Life: Essays and Reflections by Karan Singh'' is a collection of life writings by Karan Singh, the erstwhile prince and son of Hari Singh, Maharaja Hari Singh of Dogra dynasty of royal house of Jammu and Kashmir. The book is a colle ...

ed. Raghav Verma. Harper Collins, 2019.

References

Detailed Profile: Dr. Karan Singh
''

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, c ...

'' portal

External links

Dr. Karan Singh's Official Website

Film: I Believe: Universal Values for a Global Society
with Dr. Singh and by Raja Choudhury.
Proclamation of May 1, 1951 on Jammu & Kashmir Constituent Assembly by Yuvraj (Crown Prince) Karan Singh from the Official website of Government of Jammu and Kashmir, India
{{DEFAULTSORT:Singh, Karan 1931 births Scholars from Jammu and Kashmir Indian religious writers Living people The Doon School alumni Delhi University alumni Governors of Jammu and Kashmir Jawaharlal Nehru University faculty Recipients of the Padma Vibhushan in public affairs Ambassadors of India to the United States Maharajas of Jammu and Kashmir Indian Hindus Dogra people Indian autobiographers Indian National Congress politicians from Jammu and Kashmir Rajya Sabha members from Delhi India MPs 1967–1970 India MPs 1971–1977 India MPs 1977–1979 Lok Sabha members from Jammu and Kashmir Health ministers of India Civil aviation ministers of India Education Ministers of India 20th-century Indian historians Indian political writers Writers from Jammu and Kashmir Rajya Sabha members from Jammu and Kashmir India MPs 1980–1984 University of Kashmir alumni Indian National Congress (U) politicians