REMEMBERING SISIR GUPTA
P.N. Haksar
India and the Inter¬national System—A Selection from the Major Writings of Sisir Gupta by M.S. Rajan and Shivaji Ganguly Vikas Publishing House Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi, 1981, 384 pp., 125
Nov-Dec 1981, volume 6, No 3

M.S. Rajan and Shivaji Ganguly have done a com¬mendable labour of love in bringing together writings of Sisir Gupta on wide and vari¬ed aspects of international relations in contemporary times. The volume is dedicat-ed to the memory of Professor Sisir Gupta. The book begins with M.S. Rajan’s personal account of Sisir Gupta in which he justly pays a high tribute to Sisir’s exceptional qualities. In the chronology of Sisir’s career beginning in 1949, M.S. Rajan has, however, omitted a brief interval between the years 1955 to 1956. I am adding it not only to account for these missing years but for personal reasons. My first encounter with Sisir Gupta was in a com¬mittee room in the Union Public Service Commission where he appeared as a candi¬date for the post of an Infor¬mation Officer in the Ministry of External Affairs. I happen¬ed to be one of the inter¬viewers. Sisir did exceptionally well and was selected.

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