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Dr Karan Singh is the king that turned philosopher.
He was born into royalty in 1931 and crowned over the years with myriad high titles that mortal men would find it impossible to acquire over many lifetimes. He is an engaging communicator and world figure on Hinduism in its deepest and most universal form, a learned philosopher with knowledge and understanding of other great faiths. Born a Yuvraj (Prince), he may have held a regal title and numerous top administrative and academic positions in India and abroad, but it is through his brilliant acuity, philosophical mind, and breathtaking oratory skills that he has come to hold sway over audiences around the world.
Today, he is the president of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, an organization that is tasked to spread India’s ancient culture and civilizational heritage into the far and near corners of the earth.
He was born into the ruling family of the state of Jammu and Kashmir, arguably the largest of over five hundred native states within the British empire at the time. In 1949, at the age of eighteen, he was appointed Regent of Jammu and Kashmir. He graduated from the Jammu and Kashmir University while holding the position of Chancellor in that very university, a unique moment in Indian academic history that is yet to be repeated. He earned his masters degree and doctorate from the Delhi University while continuing to remain the Chancellor of the Jammu and Kashmir University. Later in life he was to become Chancellor of the Jawaharlal Nehru University and the Benares Hindu University, positions he held for many years.
For 18 years since his coronation, he continued to serve in various capacities—Regent, Sadar-i-Riyasat (President) and Governor—all in Jammu and Kashmir. In 1967, he was inducted into the Union Cabinet by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Only 36 then, Dr Karan Singh became the youngest to become a Central cabinet minister in India. He won several Lok Sabha elections thereafter and continued to remain politically active for a very long time, including a short stint as India’s ambassador to the USA in 1989 – 1990.
He’s also been president of the India International Centre and is chairman of the Auroville Foundation at Auroville, having earlier completed his doctorate on Sri Aurobindo. To this day, he remains a colossal intellectual, a poet, a writer, an author, a singer, a musician, and India’s Cultural Ambassador.
He spoke at length to India Empire’s Editor and Publisher Sayantan Chakravarty at his residence
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“Value education is missing in the country, our youth needs it”
 While India’s diasporic policies are focused on two main segments, i.e. the descendants of the indentured workers and the modern day emigrants, another segment is somewhat overlooked. You’ve often spoken about the ancient migrations to the South East Asian countries as a “powerful cultural force”. Is it time to engage on that front as well?
I was speaking really about the age old relationships between India and South East Asia which went through merchants, monks, travelers, and essentially through Hinduism and Buddhism. They spread entirely peacefully, there was never any conquest. It was never like some civilizations had imposed their faith through conquests, particularly the western civilization. Not so for India. The entire South East Asia was culturally enhanced as it were by India. So you see the Hindu-Buddhist temples in the Ankor Wat (Cambodia). The largest place of worship in the entire world is a Hindu Temple. You have Borobudur, three Prambanan temples in Java, and even though it is a Muslim majority state, the temples have been very well maintained. Across Vietnam, Cambodia and Sri Lanka you have very strong influences of Hinduism and Buddhism. I am not too sure whether you can call it a part of the diaspora, to my mind it is a slightly different event, one that spread over 1,000 years. Nalanda as you know was the greatest centre of learning for 600 years----from the 7th century to the 12th - 13th century when the wretched Bakhtiar Khilji burnt it to the ground. So for around 700 years, people from all over the world came to Nalanda, to Takshashila, into Vikramshila. So India was a great centre of learning and there were many spheres. Not only philosophy, they taught mathematics, they taught architecture, hence all the architectural marvels that you see in the region, a lot of them have Indian origin. So I am not in any way trying to denigrate any of the indigenous arts and the indigenous genius, but I can claim that the Indian culture impregnated, and mixed with the local culture in such a way that it was extraordinary. In a way you can call it the efforts of a diaspora, but I am not very sure how many people actually went out and settled there, or whether people went out there, influenced them, and came back. It is a fascinating field, for example the language—Sanskrit has had its influence all over South and South East Asia.
But when we talk of the diaspora in modern terms, I’d say there are three categories. One like you said is the indentured labour, the Girmitiyas as they are called, they went to Guyana, Trinidad, Suriname, Mauritius, Fiji and also to Reunion Islands. They first went there as labourers and rose to become prime ministers and presidents of their countries, amazing achievements. And then in between I think, immediately after the war, there was, shall we say, a low-tech migration. There were jobs for becoming waiters, window washers, jobs at a not very high technical level. And there was the real glory of our diaspora which was the high-tech period, and they have done extraordinarily well. I was in America, as ambassador, and I went to visit NASA and I found 600 Indians working there. More south Indians, as they are well versed in mathematics and science. Indians have excelled in law, finance, medicine, in nuclear science, Indian doctors are at a top, and they’ve been there not through any reservation, but they’ve been there through some very stiff, competitive situations. So those are the 3 main groups.
Then there are other forms of emigration which do not feature prominently in our current diasporic engagements, such as the ones involving gypsies like the Roma community, or even the Tamils who settled in Sri Lanka…
There you are right. They represent yet another dimension of diasporic movement. In Sri Lanka, both the Sinhalese and Tamils went from India. None is indigenous. Sinhalese arrived from Odisha, Tamils from Tamil Nadu. The gypsies, on the other hand, are a fascinating story. They believe they originated in Gujarat and Rajasthan, because of their music, the garba culture or the banjara culture. They have been treated very badly. The Nazis tried to eliminate them. But they still are carrying on, particularly in Hungary. In fact I received a letter from someone saying that their rights should be protected, because they originally came from India.
Now I don’t know if we can take on the responsibility of looking after the gypsies. But what we can do is to speak to the Government. Whenever I meet someone from Hungary, the first question I ask is “how are the gypsies?”, primarily because they are still on the peripheries of society and they have not been looked upon with any great favour. Perhaps because of their lifestyle, they do not fit into the mainstream since they are not Europeans. But whether they have achieved enough cohesion to be recognized as a separate unit, I don’t really know. That would be important if they really want recognition.
Our current diasporic engagement does not involve interactions with the Romas, unfortunately because we have somehow been reluctant to take upon ourselves the responsibility of opening up dialogues on that front. Let me put it this way, we should have a change of heart. We should do more for the Romas, than we have done.
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“My only grouse is that the Government of India is not doing enough to support culture. The Chinese are spending vast sums of money on the Confucius Centres around the world, which ostensibly teach Chinese. And here you are scratching for money. India is not giving priority to soft power like it should be. Otherwise we are doing whatever we can. I think in the last 6 – 7 years we have put ICCR on the map. A lot of hard work has gone into doing that. Today ICCR has become a brand name” |
In 1949, relations between Sheikh Abdullah and your father, Maharaja Hari Singh, had become estranged. Sheikh Abdullah had also insisted that your mother leave the state of Jammu and Kashmir since she was actively helping tens of thousands of refugees that were streaming into Jammu from areas occupied by Pakistani incursion. When you look back at the state were you were regent, where do things stand today?
Today the whole situation has become very different. In 1949, we had just come out of the trauma of partition on one hand, the tribal invasion and accession on the other. Do not forget something that people do not quite realize, the concept of a plebiscite was very much in the air. It was based on what the United Nations said. People have forgotten that a plebiscite administrator, Admiral Chester Nimitz of the US Navy, was appointed, and Sheikh Abdullah was the one who believed was going to win the plebiscite for us, so he could have his way. He was against the Dogra community and finally he got his opportunity to get even with Maharaja Hari Singh. If you read my autobiography, I was in a way torn between my father and Jawaharlal Nehru. But I followed Jawaharlal Nehru because I realized that we were moving from feudalism to democracy, and that my life could no longer be linked to a feudal system. I wanted to be part of what Jawaharlal called “the exciting adventure of building a new India.” I opted for public life. My father, of course, wasn’t terribly happy about it. But it’s a decision I’ve never regretted. During the last 65 years, I’ve been in public life. I think I’ve been able to make some contribution as a cultural person.
Well, you are India’s Cultural Ambassador…
That’s because I took the decision of joining the mainstream. Had I gone away with my father to Mumbai, I’d have spent the rest of my life at the race course. I graduated from the university of which I was chancellor—the Jammu and Kashmir University, perhaps the only time in history such a thing has happened. Then after I graduated, I said I wanted to study more. I had this desire to do my MA but I said I do not want to do so from the same place because people would say that I was doing it from the same university where I was a chancellor. I said I wanted to go to Delhi. C D Deshmukh was the vice chancellor. By then I was an elected Sadar-i-Riyasat. Monarchy had been abolished under the new constitution of J and K and I was no longer a regent. So I could not take lectures. What to do? So Delhi University changed their statutes to say that if the chancellor of a sister university wishes to take a degree, he or she can be recused from actually attending classes, even though they’d have to come down and take the examinations. It was very kind of them to do that. I studied very hard. I think I did rather well, I still have a University record. Then I went on to do my PhD on the political thought of Sri Aurobindo. My wife incidentally was also studying along with me, Hindi. So we were growing up together, when we were married I was 19, she was 13. And she left in the 60th year of our wedding.
The nation found you were the best man to head the Auroville Foundation, a task that could be handled by someone who was extremely sensitive to world cultures and had a global vision…
I am chairman of the Auroville Foundation, set up by an act of Parliament. It is an extraordinary international, inter-racial and multi-linguistic world at Auroville. There was a conflict there at one point between those who set it up—the Aurobindo Society, and the Aurovilleans who lived there. Tensions were high, so I said in Parliament that it was too important for Auroville to be left to them. I urged the Government to come out with a bill. As it turned out, they did come out with a bill and it was passed by both houses of Parliament. It was a time when the Chandrasekhar Government was in power, and so they asked me to become the first chairman. To the day, with a break of about 2 – 3 years, I’ve been its chairman. It is a very interesting experiment.
The India Forum that you oversee seeks to ignite within the country a “Cultural Revolution" that will attempt to translate the glowing visions of a resurgent India, which was so brilliantly articulated by seers like Swami Vivekananda and Sri
Aurobindo, into a reality. This can be achieved only through a process of education and awakening among all the citizens of the country. Please talk us through the awakening that you have in mind…
It is a great deprivation that we have totally abandoned any contact with our cultural heritage in our education system, because the constitution prevents us from religious teachings. My point is that you can abstract great concepts from all the major religions, and at least introduce the young people to them. Today you can go through the whole education system from pre-kindergarten to post-doctorate without once having even heard of the Upanishads, the greatest works of philosophy I think in the world. The only other work of philosophy that comes close is the Socratic Dialogues, because they are dialogues. We are not a revelatory civilization, we are a dialogic civilization. Upanishad is a dialogue. Gita is a dialogue. Lord Buddha had dialogues with his disciples. Lord Mahavir did the same. How we do it. Simple values like respect to elders, punctuality, cleanliness, discipline. These are not Hindu values or Christian values, these are values. There is no value education in our country. And the Hindus particularly, we have such a rich background, which at least the young Hindus today should know.
It has to come under the guise of value education. We used to have moral science in the old days, and today there are no morals left, and we are sinking in a whole morass of corruption. Corruption is destroying our polity, it is destroying our economy, our society. I think there are still some human values that are essential. I was a member of the UNESCO International Commission on Education for the 21st century chaired by Jacques
Delors, the eighth president of the European commission, and we came out with a very interesting report—Learning: The Treasure Within, a very Eastern sort of view point. Each one of our greats had their own systems, Gandhiji had Nai
Talim, Sri Aurbindo and Mother had Integral Education. Rabindranath Tagore had the Shantiniketan experiment. Krishnamurthy has his own. But none of them have been integrated into our education system.
On the subject of corruption, there is one political party that has declared that every other political party is corrupt and filled with corrupt leaders. Gandhiji’s own grandson, Mr Rajmohan Gandhi has joined this party. Your views…
Rajmohan Gandhi is a senior man. It is quite astonishing that he has joined this party, but he must have seen something. It is a party led by a self-professed anarchist. Every well meaning person wants to root out corruption, they are not the only one. It is another facet of our democracy, it has become very contentious. There is so much of negative energy now. There are personal attacks galore. I was a cabinet minister for 10 years, I never drew one rupee as salary. I did not even take a Government bungalow. I lived in my own house. How can one party claim that every other political person is corrupt?
What is that one defining agenda for the ICCR that you have?
I have been at the helm for quite a long time. I am now coming to the end of my third term. One of the main agendas has been to project India’s multifaceted and multidimensional culture overseas. India has Bharat Natyam, and it has the Bhangra. Both are yet Indian, yet totally different. We also want to promote tribal dance. We run 5,000 scholarships to promote culture. The whole idea is to project India as a great cultural hub. Whether we become a political superpower or an economic superpower remains to be seen. But we have been, and are, a cultural superpower, partly because the background that we just talked about. My only grouse is that the Government of India is not doing enough to support culture. The Chinese are spending vast sums of money on the Confucius Centres around the world, which ostensibly teach Chinese. And here you are scratching for money. India is not giving priority to soft power like it should be. Otherwise we are doing whatever we can. I think in the last 6 – 7 years we have put ICCR on the map. A lot of hard work has gone into doing that. Today ICCR has become a brand name.
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