An Examined Life: Essays and Reflections by Karan Singh

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 ... By the time the whole operation was over dawn had broken ... I got through to Jawaharlal on the telephone just before eight, but the line was unclear ... I knew that what I had done was for the national good, and that all the danger and risks were worth taking if it served the country. Asha had sat up anxiously in her room all night. Slowly I climbed up the steps and walked into her room. It is over, I said. 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 to political science, metaphysics and spirituality to Hinduism and religion. The anthology also contains select poems and excerpts from his travelogues and novel set in Kashmir. The essays, particularly, 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. With seventy years of his public and personal life since 1949 condensed in this omnibus, the thoughtfulness of his works will appeal to both the lay reader and the discerning scholar.