Karan Singh Explained

Karan Singh
Office2:Prince Regent of Jammu and Kashmir
Monarch2:Sir Hari Singh
Term Start2:20 June 1949
Term End2:17 November 1952
Office:1st Governor of Jammu and Kashmir
Term Start:30 March 1965
Term End:15 May 1967
Predecessor:Position established
Himself as Sadr-i-Riyasat
Successor:Bhagwan Sahay
Office1:Sadr-i-Riyasat of Jammu and Kashmir
Primeminister1:Sheikh Abdullah
Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad
Khwaja Shamsuddin
Ghulam Mohammed Sadiq
Term Start1:17 November 1952
Term End1:30 March 1965
Predecessor1:Position established
Successor1:Position abolished
Himself as Governor
Office3:Ambassador of India to the United States of America
Term Start3:1989
Term End3:1990
Predecessor3:P. K. Kaul
Successor3:Abid Hussain
Office4:Minister of Education and Culture
Primeminister4:Charan Singh
Term Start4:30 July 1979
Term End4:14 January 1980
Predecessor4:Pratap Chandra Chunder
Successor4:B. Shankaranand
Office5:Minister for Health and Family Planning
Primeminister5:Indira Gandhi
Term Start5:9 November 1973
Term End5:24 March 1977
Predecessor5:Uma Shankar Dikshit
Successor5:Raj Narain
Office6:Minister of Tourism and Civil Aviation
Primeminister6:Indira Gandhi
Term Start6:13 March 1967
Term End6:9 November 1973
Predecessor6:Ministry established
Successor6:R. Bahadur
Office7:Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha
Term Start7:28 January 2000
Term End7:27 January 2018
Constituency7:National Capital Territory of Delhi
Successor7:Sanjay Singh
Office8:Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha
Term Start8:1971
Term End8:1984
Predecessor8:G. S. Brigadier
Constituency8:Udhampur
Successor8:Girdhari Lal Dogra
Term Start9:1967
Term End9:1968
Predecessor9:Constituency established
Successor9:G. S. Brigadier
Party:Indian National Congress (1947 – 1979, 2000 – Present)
Birth Date:1931 3, df=yes
Birth Place:Cannes, France
Spouse:Yasho Rajya Lakshmi
Children:Ajatshatru Singh, Vikramaditya Singh, Jyotsna Singh
Awards:Padma Vibhushan
Relations:Dogra dynasty
Chitrangada Singh (daughter-in-law)
Bhim Singh (kinsman)
Dhian Singh (ancestral Kinsman)
Alma Mater:University of Kashmir (B.A.)
University of Delhi (M.A., PhD)
Parents:Maharaja Sir Hari Singh
Maharani Tara Devi
Website:karansingh.com
Signature:Karan Singh Autograph.jpg
Residence:Mansarovar 3, Nyaya Marg, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi
Otherparty:Indian National Congress (U) (1979 – 1984)
Independent (1984)
National Conference (1996 – 1999)

Karan Singh (born 9 March 1931) is an Indian politician and philosopher.[1] He is the titular Maharaja of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir. From 1952 to 1965 he was the Sadr-i-Riyasat (President) of the state of Jammu and Kashmir.[2] 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.[3] [4]

Singh was a member of India's Upper House of Parliament, the Rajya Sabha, representing the national capital territory of Delhi. He is a senior member of the Indian National Congress party who served successively as President (Sadr-i-Riyasat)[2] [5] and Governor of the Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir. He was a life trustee and president of India International Centre. He was elected chancellor of Banaras Hindu University for three terms[6] until 2018 when he was succeeded by Giridhar Malaviya.[7] He has been a prospective presidential candidate over the years.[8] [9] [10]

Early and personal life

Yuvraj Karan Singh was born at the Martinez Hotel,[11] Cannes, France, into the Dogra dynasty. He was the only son of Sir Hari Singh, Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir.[12] His mother, Maharani Tara Devi, who was the fourth wife of his father, was the daughter of a landowning Katoch Rajput family and came from (Vijaypur near Bilaspur) in Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh.

Singh was educated at Doon School, Dehradun, 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. degree from Jammu and Kashmir University, Srinagar, and subsequently an M.A. degree in Political Science and a PhD from University of Delhi.[13]

In 1950, the 19-year-old Karan Singh was married to 13-year-old Yasho Rajya Lakshmi, granddaughter of Mohan Shumsher Rana, Maharajah of Nepal, belonging to the Rana dynasty of Nepal. Her father, General Maharajkumar Sharada Shumsher Jung Bahadur Rana, was a son of Mohan Shumsher.[14] The match, arranged by their families in the usual Indian way, lasted all their lives. The couple had three children:

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.[17] 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 8 August 1953 as the President (Sadr-i-Riyasat) of Jammu and Kashmir, Karan Singh backed a coup d'etat against the elected Prime Minister Sheikh Abdullah, allegedly for harboring independent ambitions for Kashmir, which led to the imprisonment of Abdullah for eleven years following the Kashmir Conspiracy Case.

In 1967, he resigned as Governor of Jammu and Kashmir, and became the youngest-ever member of the Union Cabinet, holding the portfolios of Tourism and Civil Aviation between 1967 and 1973.[18] [19] 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 promulgated in 1971, the Government of India, of which Karan Singh was a Union cabinet minister, abolished all official symbols of princely India, including titles, privileges, and remuneration (privy purses).[20] During the conclusion of the Cold War, he was India's ambassador to the USA. Singh received the Padma Vibhushan 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.[21] 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 [the 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".[22]

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 Rajya Sabha member from 28 January 2000 to 27 January 2018 representing INC. He is known for switching his loyalties from one political party to another quite frequently. He has served as Chancellor of Banaras Hindu University, Jammu and Kashmir University, Jawaharlal Nehru University, and NIIT University.[23]

Later life

He has been engaged by Sansad TV (a merged Global TV Channel of Lok Sabha TV and Rajya Sabha TV) as a Guest Anchor along with some other senior celebrated experts from diverse fields such as Bibek Debroy, Amitabh Kant, Shashi Tharoor, Hemant Batra, Maroof Raza and Sanjeev Sanyal to present some flagship programmes.[24] [25] [26]

Academic career

Karan Singh served as the chancellor of Banaras Hindu University for three terms up until 2018. In 2008, he awarded an honorary doctorate to the then prime minister Manmohan Singh,[27] and in 2016, he was asked by university administration to award an honorary doctorate to prime minister Narendra Modi, that the prime minister declined.[28]

Honours and awards

India

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'.”[29]

Bibliography

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Dr. Karan Singh. karansingh.com. en-US. 2017-06-19.
  2. News: Karan Singh on Accession of Kashmir to India. 2017-07-19. Outlook India magazine. 2017-06-19.
  3. Web site: 9 March 2021. PM releases Manuscript with commentaries by 21 scholars on shlokas of Srimad Bhagavadgita. 2022-01-29. Press Information Bureau, Government of India.
  4. Web site: 2020. Working Group Report on Improving Heritage Management in India. NITI Aayog. 43.
  5. Book: Saraf, Nandini. The Life and Times of Lokmanya Tilak. 2012. Prabhat Prakashan. 9788184301526. 341. en. Before leaving Srinagar he also had long talks with Yuvraj Karan Singh, who was then being pressed to become the Sadr-i-Riyasat - Head of State of the State..
  6. Web site: 24 June 2010. Karan Singh elected BHU chancellor for 3rd time. 2020-02-22. The Times of India. en.
  7. News: Press Trust of India. Madan Mohan Malaviya's grandson next BHU chancellor. 2018-11-27. Business Standard India. 2020-02-22.
  8. Web site: 2007-06-14 . I'm available for the top job: Karan Singh. 2021-11-13. Hindustan Times. en.
  9. Web site: 23 June 2021. Ankit Love wants nomination of Dr Karan Singh & Bhim Singh for President and Vice President of India. 2021-10-16. Cross Town News. en-US.
  10. Web site: Propose Dr. Karan Singh as next President: Prof. Bhim. JK Monitor. en-gb. 2017-06-18. 5 September 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170905003200/http://jkmonitor.org/index.php/local/24487-propose-dr-karan-singh-as-next-president-prof-bhim. dead.
  11. Web site: Karan Singh recalls his French Connection. 2021-05-22. NetIndian. 20 March 2010. en.
  12. Web site: Rajya Sabha MP Karan Singh slams attempts to brand Hari Singh as communal. 28 January 2017.
  13. Web site: Dr. Karan Singh Profile . Doon School . https://web.archive.org/web/20090918194945/http://www.doononline.net/pages/info_features/features_spotlights/spotlights/ksingh/index.htm . 2009-09-18.
  14. Web site: Jammu & Kashmir Dharmarth Trust - Maharani Yasho Rajya Lakshmi. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20100924170621/http://jkdharmarthtrust.org/maharani.html. 2010-09-24.
  15. http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/history-came-to-life-at-the-wedding-of-chitrangada-raje-scindia-and-vikramaditya-singh/1/337885.html The Gwalior Royal Wedding
  16. Web site: Unlike Father, son . The Week.
  17. http://jkrajbhawan.nic.in/His%20Excellency/present5.htm Dr. Karan Singh
  18. Web site: COUNCIL OF MINISTERS: GANDHI 2. kolumbus.fi. 10 March 2018. 27 September 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200927203121/http://www.kolumbus.fi/taglarsson/dokumentit/gandhi2.htm. dead.
  19. Web site: COUNCIL OF MINISTERS: GANDHI 3. kolumbus.fi. 10 March 2018. 18 August 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210818194002/http://www.kolumbus.fi/taglarsson/dokumentit/gandhi3.htm. dead.
  20. 1. Book: Ramusack, Barbara N.. The Indian princes and their states. Cambridge University Press. 2004. 978-0-521-26727-4. 278. Barbara Ramusack., "Through a constitutional amendment passed in 1971, Indira Gandhi stripped the princes of the titles, privy purses and regal privileges which her father's government had granted." (p 278). 2. Quote: "The princes of India – their number and variety reflecting to a large extent the chaos that had come to the country with the break up of the Mughal empire – had lost real power in the British time. Through generations of idle servitude they had grown to specialize only in style. A bogus, extinguishable glamour: in 1947, with Independence, they had lost their state, and Mrs. Gandhi in 1971 had, without much public outcry, abolished their privy purses and titles." (pp 37–38). 3. Quote: "Although the Indian states were alternately requested or forced into union with either India or Pakistan, the real death of princely India came when the Twenty-sixth Amendment Act (1971) abolished the princes' titles, privileges, and privy purses." (page 78). 4. Quote: "The third stage in the political evolution of the princes from rulers to citizens occurred in 1971, when the constitution ceased to recognize them as princes and their privy purses, titles, and special privileges were abolished." (page 84). 5. Quote: "Her success at the polls emboldened Mrs. Gandhi to act decisively against the princes. Through 1971, the two sides tried and failed to find a settlement. The princes were willing to forgo their privy purses, but hoped at least to save their titles. But with her overwhelming majority in Parliament, the prime minister had no need to compromise. On 2 December, she introduced a bill to amend the constitution and abolish all princely privileges. It was passed in the Lok Sabha by 381 votes to six, and in the Rajya Sabha by 167 votes to seven. In her own speech, the prime minister invited 'the princes to join the elite of the modern age, the elite which earns respect by its talent, energy and contribution to human progress, all of which can only be done when we work together as equals without regarding anybody as of special status.' " (page 441). 6. Book: Cheesman, David. Landlord power and rural indebtedness in colonial Sind, 1865–1901. Routledge. 1997. 978-0-7007-0470-5. London. 10. Quote: "The Indian princes survived the British Raj by only a few years. The Indian republic stripped them of their powers and then their titles." (page 10). 7. Quote: "Indian States: "Various (formerly) semi-independent areas in India ruled by native princes .... Under British rule ... administered by residents assisted by political agents. Titles and remaining privileges of princes abolished by Indian government 1971." (page 520). 8. Quote: "A monarchy is only as good as the reigning monarch: thus it is with the princely states. Once they seemed immutable, invincible. In 1971 they were "derecognized," their privileges, privy purses and titles all abolished at a stroke" (page 91)
  21. Web site: Dr. Karan Singh.
  22. http://www.indianexpress.com/news/karan-echoes-omar-but-j&k-part-of-india/701340/ Karan echoes Omar, but ‘J&K part of India’
  23. Web site: NIIT University: Best University in India for B Tech, Integrated MBA, Ph. D Courses. niituniversity.in.
  24. Web site: All set for Sansad TV launch; Karan Singh, Tharoor, Kant, Sanyal to host special shows. Tribune India.
  25. News: 10 September 2021. PM Narendra Modi to launch Sansad TV on September 15: Report. Business Standard India. Press Trust of India. Press Trust of India.
  26. News: PM Modi to launch Sansad TV on September 15, say sources. The Times of India. 10 September 2021 .
  27. News: Manmohan Singh awarded honorary doctorate degree by BHU India News - Times of India. The Times of India. 15 March 2008 . en. 2020-02-22.
  28. News: 2016-02-23 . Take pride in India's heritage, culture: PM Modi at BHU convocation ceremony . Business Standard India . 2020-02-22.
  29. Web site: Quotations. 3 July 2014. populationmatters.org. 3 July 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20150703161518/http://www.populationmatters.org/making-case/quotations/. dead.
  30. Book: Raghav Verma . Karan Singh . EXAMINED LIFE : essays and reflections by karan singh.. 2019. HARPERCOLLINS INDIA. 978-93-5357-023-1. [S.l.]. 1100771553.
  31. Web site: An Examined Life. 2020-06-14. HarperCollins Publishers India.