An Examined Life

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 political science to active politics, metaphysics and spirituality to Hinduism as a way of life.

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.

The anthology also contains select poems and excerpts from his travelogues and novel set in Kashmir.

First patron of democracy among the pre-Independence royal families of India and last of the legions of the Nehruvian age, DR KARAN SINGH was born an heir apparent to Maharaja Hari Singh and Maharani Tara Devi of Jammu and Kashmir on 9 March 1931 and completed seventy years of political life in 2019 as a senior leader of the Indian National Congress. 

A man of letters, he has authored over twenty books, including Prophet of Indian Nationalism; Population, Poverty and the Future of India; Humanity at the Crossroads; Essays on Hinduism and India and the World.