Afghanistan and Imperial Choice

discuss the political, economic and international aspects of the state in socialist countries in general and the Soviet Union in particular. The Indians, by contrast, in certain cases (C T Kurien to a limited extent and A R Desai in a more frontal and forthright manner) carried their Jack of inhibition with respect to discussing Indian problems into discussions of the Soviet state, freedom under socialism, the role of dissidence, solidarity between the Soviet Union and the forces of a socialist revolutionary character in other parts of the world, etc. With the assistance of the more accommodating participants on the Indian side, the symposium as a whole simply ignored such questions except for a few tangential remarks by Imam on this whole controversial area.