The authorized biography of one of India’s most well-known and admired public figures, whose life journey is inextricably linked to that of Jammu and Kashmir, and of India since Independence. Karan Singh was just 18, and had barely recovered from a mysterious illness that left him bedridden for over a year, when he was catapulted into political life in 1949. His father, the last Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir who had recently signed the Instrument of Accession to India, appointed him Regent and left the State, never to return.