Anger, retaliation, vendetta dominates in India; forgiveness absent: Gopalkrishna Gandhi

Painting a bleak picture of contemporary India, former West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi warned that “anger, retaliation and vendetta” now dominate public discourse.

Ongoing speaking on the 19th^he The prevailing mood in the country is marked by “apologies and demands for compensation”, he said in the edition of the Jaipur Literature Festival held on Thursday, January 15, 2026.

“The dominant emotion in India today is anger and retaliation. This was not the case a generation or two ago. The desire to almost fight the enemy has become a defining emotion,” the author of ‘Immortal Light: A Personal History of Independent India’ said with a quiet sense of urgency.

The 80-year-old writer stated that newspapers’ frequent use of the word “slam” reflects this change and said, “slam, along with fraud and spam, are the three keywords of our age.”

“The word you read most often is ‘slam’ – ‘Mamata slammed Amit Shah’, ‘Amit Shah slammed Mamata’, ‘TMC slammed Congress’, ‘Congress slammed BJP. Slam, slam, slam… If ‘slam’ were a sales item, it would be one of the fastest moving products today,” he said, to many applauding and nodding.

Mr. Gandhi also warned that “revenge and hatred are cousins” and that hostility has emerged as an easily marketable commodity in the field of public opinion and opinion formation.

The former West Bengal Governor said that “the biggest commodity sold in the public market is hatred, grudge and hostility”.

“Hindi word ‘badla‘ has now become another word we hear very often – ‘hum badla lenge, badla lenge“But beyond the vocabulary-dominating headlines, what has been lost in both public and personal discourse is honesty, apology and forgiveness,” Mr. Gandhi opined.

“When was the last time we heard someone say, ‘I made a mistake’? An honest mistake. Mistakes are made all the time, but few admit it. So how long ago did we hear someone say, ‘I forgive you’? I don’t remember it being said recently. Forgiveness is a well-known emotion, but nowadays it is almost considered naive (bola),” said the former diplomat, adding that in contemporary society ‘bola‘ is often seen as a weakness.

Gopalkrishna Gandhi, the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and C. Rajagopalachari, drew on history to note that apology and atonement are signs of strength, not weakness.

“After killing innocents, Emperor Ashoka said, ‘I made a mistake. I am sorry.’ He did not disband the army or abdicate; he remained a powerful emperor. But he was true to himself.” He also cited modern examples: “A (former) Prime Minister of Australia apologized to Aboriginal people. Japanese Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi apologized to countries Japan had harmed during World War II. And German Chancellor Willy Brandt knelt in Warsaw and apologized. These were all strong leaders. Honesty, apology, redemption – these are not signs of weakness.” Mr. Gandhi concluded: “This is lacking in our country today. It is also lacking in the world today. I don’t need to give examples. We know this. We know this very well.”

The five-day literary festival will host more than 350 renowned writers and academics, including Booker Prize winner Banu Mushtaq, chess legend Viswanathan Anand, British actor and writer Stephen Fry, Sahitya Akademi Award winner Anuradha Roy, veteran film critic Bhawana Somaaya and writers Manu Joseph, Ruchir Joshi and KR Meera. The festival will end on January 19, 2026.