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 … 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 and philosophy to spirituality and Hinduism. The essays, which are 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. The anthology includes select poems and excerpts from his travelogues and novel set in Kashmir. It also features an in-depth interview in which Karan Singh gives his perspective on the Kashmir issue, and speaks unequivocally on the rising tide of intolerance in the country and how it fails us. With seventy years of his public and personal life since 1949 condensed in this omnibus, his reflections