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PARTITION: Tape 42 (cont)
Side B
Writer
255MODEM
Mod Date & Time
255MODEM Mar 15 09:38
Inder Kumar GUJRAL
interviewed at his office in Parliament (Rm 27) in Delhi, 15
March 1997
Indian foreign minister; from a freedom fighter's family;
ancestral home on the banks of the Jhelum; in Lahore and late
Karchi in 47; partition very clearly moulded his approach to
politics and diplomacy; quiet - often almost whisepring - and
thoughtful, kindly, almost avancular; often mentions his younger
brother, the artist Satish Gujral;
10 - both parents and self involved in freedom struggle;
along with two friends present at Lahore session of
ML where Pak resolution passed
24 - two part memories of Jinnah; in 1937, came canvassing
at campus, thinly attendd mtg; then mtg when
resolutin passed
38 - as boy of 11, present at Lahore session if Cong where
freedom resoln passed, 'that is the first imprint
on my mind'
48 - both parents often in jail; 'I was arrested for the
first time as a v young boy in 31, for a couple of
days and got thrashed by the police'; arrested in 42
and in jail for most of postgrad studies; involved
in students m;ment - Pres of Lahore SU and gen sec
of Punjab students fedn; CPI joined later
69 - settled in Karachi in 44, and was in home town in
Jhelum when announced freedom was coming
76 - saw Lahore in flames in 47
83 - 'as part of the left movement this kind of danger of
riots and migration never occurred to me at that time;
leftists had deluded themselves into bel this cd be
without these things'; faulty assessment; left leaders
even joined ML - 'Danial Latifi is my contemporary'
98 - [you at on pt campg for Pak on orders of CPI?] 'yes,
the silliest thing was that this line was being sold,
that the right of self-deteminatoon for minorities
does not mean Pak; that's they type of v foolish
construction placed'
106 - 'when partn came ultimatly, we were in Kar ... we never
thought we wd migrate, that is why my father chose to
be a member of the Pak CA, and the first session of the
CA was held in Kar, I attended the whole of it ... it
was in that session that I heard J's speech that it is
now a secular state'
120 - [on ind day] 'I saw the procession of J and M'batten
together in that open car; the I ind we heard on the
radio that night, and Nehru's tryst with destiny; the
diff was that even when the first session of the CA
was going on, the riots in Punjab had accelerated ...
I remember Liaquat Ali Khan calling all the Cong jpbrs
of the Ass, and discussing with them what cd be done
to stop the riots' •
142 - 'events were moving so fast ... [exhileration] that the
Br rule was over, yes; I was still present in Kar when
Gandhi was murdered, and the impact was so much that |
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