For information visit: http://www.atriumphofthespirit.com or write Shirley E. Johnson at oglesbycc@msn.com for further information. Also, we the committee wants you to participate.

Bruce R. Watkins Cultural Heritage Center; 816. 513. 0700; Mr. Barnes, Director; 3200 Blue Parkway; Kansas City, Missouri

“Delhi felt to me that day like a sieve, as if little could be done without knowledge of the embassies. One side wanted to sell arms, aircraft or ships, while the other wanted trips abroad or jobs or green cards or whatever for their children.”

How do you think the situation is today? In what ways is it better/worse?

Ashish J Sanyal
Mumbai

I am myself in the database (LSE PhD in 1995 on Management Practices in Pakistan), & have seen my mother Dr Rafia Hasan’s PhD thesis entry at London University’s library at Senate House.

Dr Naveed Henderson
formerly Director, GC University, Lahore
http://www.gcumsd.edu.pk/html/msd_direc.htm

The optimism Dr Roy felt at age 7 was probably shared by a large chunk of the country’s population, perhaps still on its honeymoon with independence and Nehru. My father was 27 then (1962) and he always tells me that he, like most young men of those days, was absolutely mesmerised by Nehru. He and his friends never missed an opportunity to hear him speak.

Mahendra Singh

Skardu Fort was indeed captured by the Pakistan Army from the Indian Army some time in 1948; Kargil was taken and then lost by the Pakistanis; Leh could have been captured by the invaders from Pakistan but was not, and was then stoutly defended.

Hassan Khan was a local, and serving in the J&K army as a colonel.

Gilgit-Baltistan’s accession to Pakistan was planned by the British and Maj. Brown was sent to Gilgit with the plan. When after capturing Ghansara Singh, Gilgit and Chitral Scouts moved towards Skardu and Ladakh and they had also captured Kargil and Gures Tehsils of Jammu they had reached Srinagar well before Indian Army’s arrival. They were called backed by Maj. Brown and all were punished including Col. Hassan Khan. Chhitral Scouts were sent to Chitral bare foot, they crossed Shandur pass in November without warm cloths and shoes…. many of them still alive and they tell their accounts.

Re. disinvestment, my position may be found in the following:
http://independentindian.com/2009/06/12/mistaken-macroeconomics-an-open-letter-to-prime-minister-dr-manmohan-singh/

For example, news of a fresh wave of divestment, http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2010/06/16/stories/2010061653840100.htm says, “The stake sale is part of Government’s plans to raise Rs 40,000 crore in the current fiscal by selling shares in one state-run company almost every month in a bid to limit its fiscal deficit at 5.5 per cent of gross domestic product.” So that’s the plan for 2010. But what about in 2011? And 2012? Is this the best way to control fiscal deficit?

Subroto Roy recalls his one long conversation with Joan Robinson, at her request in the office she used at Cambridge, some time in late 1976 or early 1977. I was petrified with fear to start with but she was very pleasant and kind, and the conversation was most enjoyable though we clearly differed on approaches to India. I mentioned some of the nonsense one of her favourite Indian proteges had produced (a major member of the fashionable Marxism of JNU), and she of her own accord said most of it “deserved to go straight into the waste-paper basket”. She would have loved to supervise me but I was unwilling to move from Frank Hahn. Frank and she had a constant playful conflict, and she said to me about my proposed doctoral thesis on a monetary theory for India “What does Frankie know about India?”. A good question perhaps, and perhaps he came to learn something from my work, but he did know a lot about economic theory which I strove to learn from him.

PS: She said precisely something like “I think it’s safe to say most of what A produces deserves to go straight into the waste-paper basket”.

http://independentindian.com/2010/02/28/memo-to-dr-kaushik-basu/