Political Thought of Sri Aurobindo

Author and politician, Dr Karan Singh is looking to spread the message of ‘Brand India’, says Samita Bhatia The Telegraph Saturday, September 03, 2005

He is equally at ease with the smart set at polo matches and with a more highbrow crowd at book launches. Sanskrit shlokas from the Upanishads flow from his lips but he’s also happy listening to Dire Straits’ Sultans of Swing. He enjoys the rock acts of Billy Joel and pop songs of The Pet Shop Boys just as much as he savours Indian classical music. Scholar, author, politician, Dr Karan Singh, smiles. “It’s a misconception that if you are a philosopher you have to be dull, square and boring. Aren’t philosophers, by their very definition, more interesting, full of life and joy than others?” he asks.

And he intends to bring this “joyful energy” to the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) that he has just taken over as president. He intends to spread the message of ‘Brand India’. And he’s not perturbed about the juggling act that he performs, since he’s also a Rajya Sabha member, chairman of the Auroville Foundation, chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University and chairman of the Temple of Understanding (he is a staunch devotee of the global interfaith association that brings people from different faiths into a harmonious dialogue) and much more besides.

“Other than my own cap, I wear a lot of hats,” he says. If he’s currently reading Salman Rushie’s Shalimar the Clown and Amartya Sen’s The Argumentative Indian, he’s also busy putting together his own book, a collection of letters written to him by Jawaharlal Nehru, the guiding star of his initial political career.

Born heir apparent (yuvraj) to Maharaja Hari Singh and Maharani Tara Devi of Jammu & Kashmir, Singh’s journey — from an 18-year-old regent to receiving the Padma Vibhushan, the country’s prestigious civilian award last year — has been an eventful one. A member of the union cabinet at the age of 36, a Lok Sabha member (he was first elected in the late ‘60s, and thereafter in ‘71, ‘77 and ‘80) to heading some of the country’s premier cultural and academic institutions, Singh looks back with satisfaction. “The bottomline has always been to keep a clear sight of my goals,” Singh says thoughtfully.

A few days into his new assignment and Singh says that he plans to focus his attention on spreading the word globally about India’s unique dance forms such as Bharatnatyam, and Kuchipudi while we may just see a lot more intellectuals and academicians from around the world visit the country than we ever did in the past. To help him along in his new role will be the quintessential Page 3 darling, author and bureaucrat, Pawan Verma, who will take over the reins as ICCR’s new director general by mid-September. Singh is looking forward to some enthusiastic brainstorming sessions with him.

Set up after Independence by India’s first education minister, Maulana Azad, the ICCR has carved out a role for itself over the last half century. During these years it has performed myriad roles, including the setting up of Indian cultural centres in as many as 19 countries. “It’s the fountainhead of India’s cultural relations with the world,” says Singh. And his canvas at ICCR promises to be vast given that the country has a rich caché in its multi-cultural diversity, its religions, classical dance forms and arts. “Our image overseas must be polished for the world to associate us with a culturally rich and pluralistic, functioning democracy. It’s our USP and we must expand upon it,” he says.

But he rues the fact that though India is one of the world’s few countries, along with China and Greece, which are the originators of culture, we’ve not given cultural diplomacy its due. “Cultural democracy must grow into a vital parallel track to classical diplomacy,” he says. He hopes that during his stint he will be able to give the West, which is now keenly eyeing the sub-continent, a dose of ‘real’ India. Snake charmers and maharajahs are a part of its history, he says firmly. But there are still traditional systems that are attracting interest in the West.

“The West is increasingly interested in Eastern religions — Hinduism and particularly Buddhism. Our spiritual practices, meditation and yoga techniques and wellness retreats are becoming buzzwords,” he says. And no, he doesn’t intend to specifically promote particular types of yoga or India’s spiritual gurus, but he will like to make them major talking points abroad. “It will be wonderful if people arrive in India to learn something from it and not just to gaze at its monuments,” he says.

Obviously Jammu & Kashmir is close to his heart. Singh grew up with a proverbial silver spoon in his mouth, studying at Dehradun’s Doon School and graduating from the Jammu & Kashmir University, where he then served as vice-chancellor. He was catapulted into political life at 18, when his father appointed him as regent in 1949. Singh also became the only former ruler of a princely state to voluntarily surrender his privy purse and put the entire sum into a trust — the Hari-Tara Charitable Trust, commemorating his parents. His palace, Amar Mahal, was converted into a museum and library.

Over the years he’s been influenced by a variety of people. Today, Vivekananda and Sri Aurobindo drive his philosophical bent of mind — he even earned his doctorate at the Delhi University by writing a thesis on the Political Thought of Sri Aurobindo. Dr Radhakrishnan and an English swami, Sri Krishna Prem, also deeply influenced his psyche.