Karan Singh: A Tryst With History was born of a series of exclusive interviews, spread over a year, with Dr. Karan Singh, a man of exceptional grit, determination, achievements, and scholarship. Yuvaraj Karan Singh, the heir apparent to the throne of Jammu and Kashmir, was just eighteen in 1949 when he was appointed Regent. For the next eighteen years he served the State as Regent, Sadar-i-Riyasat and Governor. Since his early years he was deeply influenced by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru in whom Yuvaraj Karan Singh found his political mentor, guide and philosopher. In 1967, Dr. Karan Singh was inducted as a member of the Union Cabinet. He first held the portfolio of Tourism and Civil Aviation. In 1973 he moved to the portfolio of Health and Family Planning. In 1979 he was assigned the portfolio of Education and Culture. Dr. Karan Singh was the only former ruler of a princely state to surrender his privy purse, putting the entire sum in the service of the people of India through the Hari-Tara Charitable Trust. Dr. Karan Singh was Chancellor of the Jammu and Kashmir University and the Banaras Hindu University. He did his Master’s in Political Science from Delhi University with a first class first—a record that still remains unbroken—and then went on to do his doctorate on The Political Thought of Sri Aurobindo. A cultural stalwart and an educationist, he is associated with many cultural and academic institutions in India and abroad. A revered scholar, he was Chairman of the Central Sanskrit Board, and has received several honorary degrees and other awards, including doctorates from the Banaras Hindu University and the Aligarh Muslim University. An upholder of interfaith harmony, he is Chairman of the Temple of Understanding, a pioneering international interfaith organization. He is also a member of the prestigious Club of Rome. An environmentalist and conservationist, he is Chairman of the People’s Commission on Environment and Development, India. He was also Chairman of the Indian Board of Wildlife and head of ‘Project Tiger’.