It is ironical that while the Soviet Union has caught up with the United States in terms of military strength, its capacity to influence the course of developments in the third world has declined rather than increased. And, surprisingly enough, this has happened at a time when the West and … Read More
The Mongol heritage and the peculiar character of the Russian intelligentsia hold the key to an understanding of the Russian revolution and whatever has happened in the Soviet Union since. There was no inevitability about this course of development, but it has been influenced decisively by Russian history. The omnipotence … Read More
Most people here will agree with Mr Chavan that the Soviet Union has been a steadfast and reliable friend and share his hope that this relationship will endure in the future. But the Minister for External Affairs himself will be willing to recognise that this country’s ties with the outside … Read More
The late Mr. Aneurin Bevan was perhaps the first leading figure to recognise that in seeking to achieve a rapid rate of economic growth under a system of parliamentary democracy India was attempting something no other had done ever before. And judging by his pronouncement it would appear that even … Read More
Most educated persons in the big cities had become so used to demonstrations, strikes and attacks on public property before June 26 that not many of them sat back to think of either the long-term consequences on the country’s economy and polity or of the fact that no democracy has … Read More
The balance of political forces in the country is such that it is hard to say whether Mrs Gandhi is playing into the hands of the opposition parties by refusing to resign in the wake of the Allahabad High Court’s judgment or whether the opposition parties are playing into her … Read More
There is little doubt that the Western community as a whole can no longer recapture the dynamism that it has shown in the last 25 years. The era of cheap and abundant raw materials is over, and this is specially true of oil. This is David’s world every bit as … Read More
Even before President Ford left for Brussels to participate in the NATO summit last week, he must have known that he could neither reassure his European allies regarding their security nor persuade them to raise their contribution to the strength of the alliance. But he had to go through the … Read More
That India did not have an envoy in either Hanoi or Saigon during the recent crucial period in Indochina shows how slovenly is the manner in which the Ministry of External Affairs continues to function. All the same it will be wrong to make too much of the absence of … Read More
The US would not have backed France in the war against the Viet Minh in the early ‘fifties and then wrecked the Geneva agreement if its ruling elite in the country had not been possessed by a pathological hatred of communism as expressed above all by Mr. John Foster Dulles. … Read More
