Mainstream Weekly

A PM's Scrap Book

K S Duggal — 2008-09-23T11:54:32Z

BOOK REVIEW
Scrap Book of a Prime Minister by I.K. Gujral, edited by K.L. Nandan; Rajpal Publishers, New Delhi.
Due to the proximity that I have with the Gujrals, I have been persuading IK to write his memoirs in the format of an autobiography. I am glad, I have succeeded and not long ago, he started doing so regularly. The other day Mrs Gujral told me that early one morning not finding him in the bed, she went looking for him in the house and found him in the study, busy writing. The (…)

- September 20, 2008

Sikhs in the Freedom Struggle

K S Duggal — 2008-08-19T21:25:42Z

The last to lay arms and foremost to raise them against the British, the Sikhs of Punjab may not figure prominently in the galaxy of freedom fighters led by Mahatma Gandhi barring Shaheed Bhagat Singh, who, too, was consistently disowned by Bapu, but the contribution of the Sikh people to the freedom struggle is no mean.
It is believed in all quarters that but for the intrigues in the post-Ranjit Singh's Sikh hierarchy and the malicious strategy of the White man, the Sikhs could not have (…)

- August 16, 2008

Anand Karaj

K S Duggal — 2008-05-08T23:23:06Z

Of late Anand Karaj, ‘the Ceremonial Bliss', has been a great deal in the news. A few weeks ago Pakistan gave it legal sanction for the first time after the partition of the subcontinent in 1947. And now Punjab (India) has recognised it by passing the Anand Marriage Act mandating compulsory registration of marriages for which an elaborate infrastructure has been provided.
Anand Karaj is the prescribed Sikh ritual before a couple is declared husband and wife and recognised by the society (…)

- May 3, 2008

Religious Tolerance in Sikhism

K S Duggal — 2007-06-19T20:16:24Z

There are not a few who believe that Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, never intended to found a new religion. Essentially a man of God, he wanted the Hindus of his time to be good Hindus and the Muslims to be good Muslims, urging them to live in peace and harmony in the ambience of religious tolerance. Were a proof needed, it is provided in the fact that when he passed away, the Hindus wanted to cremate him and the Muslims insisted on giving him a burial. His incipient utterance—there is (…)

- June 16, 2007

Peace and Development

K S Duggal — 2007-05-08T05:40:24Z

Born during World War-I and entering active life, after my University education, during World War-II, no wonder I felt virtually scorched. I have, therefore, cherished peace all my life. At one time a peace-campaigner as an activist of the Afro-Asian Writers Association, serving on the Editorial Board of Lotus, its literary organ brought out in English, French and Arabic, I have a sheaf of writings on peace as theme including a great deal talked about in a collection of Short Stories (…)

- May 05, 2007

What Undid Pramod Mahajan?

K S Duggal — 2007-04-24T19:40:00Z

I suppose it can now be told. It is no more too close to the tragic happening to be termed bad manners or sheer paparazzi.
Pramod Mahajan (PM) had in his person the makings of a Prime Minister as indicated in his initials, duly noticed by the media. A midnight-freedom child, at 57 he was youthful, attractive to look at, with a gift of the gab carrying conviction in a fast-developing society like ours. Above all, he was imbued with scientific temper, and spoke in the idiom of the (…)

- November 25, 2006