Political Career
In 1949, at age of eighteen, Singh was appointed as the regent of Jammu and Kashmir state after his father stepped down as the ruler, following the state's accession to India. He served successively as regent, first and last Sadr-i-Riyasat and governor of the state of Jammu and Kashmir from 1965 to 1967.
In 1967, he resigned as Governor of Jammu and Kashmir, and became the youngest-ever member of the Union Cabinet, holding the portfolios of Tourism and Civil Aviation. Two years later, he voluntarily surrendered his privy purse, which he had been entitled to since the death of his father in 1961. He placed the entire sum into a charitable trust named after his parents. In 1971, he was sent as an envoy to the Eastern Bloc nations to explain India's position with regard to East Pakistan, then engaged in civil war with West Pakistan. He attempted to resign following an aircraft crash in 1973, but the resignation was not accepted. The same year, he became the Minister for Health and Family planning, serving in this post until 1977.
Following the Emergency, Singh was elected to the Lok Sabha from Udhampur in 1977, becoming Minister of Education and Culture in 1979. He resigned this post and resigned from Congress in mid-1980 to sit as an independent in the Lok Sabha. In 1989-1990, he served as Indian Ambassador to the US; this experience became the subject of a book he wrote, "Brief Sojourn."
From 1967 to 1980, and in 1990, Karan Singh served as a MP in the Lok Sabha; since 1996, he has been a MP in the Rajya Sabha. He served as Chancellor of Banaras Hindu University, Jammu and Kashmir University, and Jawaharlal Nehru University.
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