Mainstream Weekly

USSR: The Contemporary Scene

I K Gujral — 2012-12-12T07:08:47Z

The main subject of my talk at this august forum is the tidal waves of change in the Soviet Union. Let me begin with a confession. It is not an easy subject to dwell upon. What we are witnessing is not change in the daily meaning of that word. It is a dissembling of history, of much that has gone into the making and un-making of the world during this century.
When we see before our eyes the discarding of communism by the leaders and peoples of the Soviet Union; the CPSU banned from most of (…)

- 2012

Kashmir in Perspective

I K Gujral — 2009-01-26T12:32:11Z

A history-maker has surrendered to Death. For a great man like him there can be no conventional praise or blame. Physically and mentally he was outsize.
It was once said about De Gaulle—of whom he reminded me so much—that he was possessed by an all-consuming and uncontrollable passion, transcending all other cravings, for France. It was love affair with an abstraction which took physical form of mingling with the crowds of his loyal supporters. How aptly it applies to the Lion of Kashmir! (…)

- January 2009