Monday, December 11, 2006

He chose Sri Aurobindo’s life and work as the subject for his doctoral thesis

Historic epistles on Kashmir G.S. Bhargava The Tribune - Chandigarh, India Sunday, December 10, 2006
Jammu and Kashmir, 1949-64. Select Correspondence between Jawaharlal Nehru and Karan Singhby Karan Singh. Penguin/Viking. Pages 374. Rs. 595
A product of Doon School and Delhi University, Karan Singh is a multifaceted scholar. He made a deep study of Hinduism, in which his proficiency in Sanskrit was naturally handy; he chose Sri Aurobindo’s life and work as the subject for his doctoral thesis. I still remember a public meeting at Sapru House, New Delhi, about 50 years ages ago, I guess, at which the then Principal of his alma mater, Gurmukh Nihal Singh, felicitated him on his scholastic accomplishment. Karan Singh then held the select audience spellbound with his eloquence and erudition. His intellectual brilliance remained undimmed for the last 40 years during which I had the privilege of watching him, even when he was a Cabinet Minister in Chaudhry Charan Singh’s defector government.

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