Karan Singh

Dr Karan Singh was born heir apparent to the state of Jammu and Kashmir and served successively as regent, Sadar-i-Riyasat and governor. A Padma Vibhushan, Dr Singh has held the portfolios for tourism and civil aviation, health and family planning, and education and culture in the Indian government, and served as ambassador to the United States. He has been chairman of the Committee on Ethics of the Rajya Sabha. As chancellor, he has been associated with the Jammu and Kashmir University, the Jawaharlal Nehru University and the Banaras Hindu University. He has chaired the Indian Board of Wildlife and the India International Centre. Presently, Dr Singh is chairman of the governing board of the Auroville Foundation and was India’s representative on the UNESCO executive board for many years. Associated with several cultural and academic institutions, he composes and recites devotional songs in Dogri and is a connoisseur of Indian classical music.
Dr Singh’s published works include his Autobiography, Essays on Hinduism, An Examined Life, A Treasury of Indian Wisdom, as well as his extensive correspondence with Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru in Jammu and Kashmir 1949-64.

Dr Jawaid Alam teaches modern and contemporary Indian history at Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. He was associated with the department of culture, Government of India, for ten years to edit the collected works of G.B. Pant and the selected works of Jawaharlal Nehru at the Teen Murti House. He worked as principal researcher and coordinator for collecting and scrutinizing relevant materials to create the high-profile museum at the Statue of Unity, Gujarat. He is the author of Government and Politics in Colonial Bihar 1921-1937 and Muslims in the Shaping of Modern India (forthcoming) and co-editor, with Mushirul Hasan, of Muslims and the Congress: Select Correspondence of Dr M.A. Ansari 1912-1936 (forthcoming).