Painting a grim picture of contemporary India, former West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi warned that "anger, retaliation and vendetta" now dominate public discourse.
Speaking at the ongoing 19th edition of Jaipur Literature Festival on Thursday (January 15, 2026), he remarked that the prevailing mood in the country is marked by "demands for apologies and restitution".
Gopalkrishna Gandhi, a man of many parts, turns 80
"Today, the dominant emotion in India is anger and retaliation. That was not so a generation or two ago. The desire to almost come to blows with the adversary has become a defining emotion," said the author of 'The Undying Light: A Personal History of Independent India', with a sense of quiet urgency.
The 80-year-old noted that newspapers, with their frequent use of the word "slam", reflect this shift — underlining that "slam, along with scam and spam, are the three key words of our times".
