What was going on when I was born?

The World Bank intends to reduce the amount of low-interest loans that India receives from the agency because of cutbacks in contributions from donor nations. A.W. Clausen, president of the World Bank, told a news conference last week that there would now be a ''mix'' of soft loans and hard loans.

After years of mounting tension that was brought to a head by events in Poland, the Soviet Union today delivered a scathing attack on the leadership of the Italian Communist Party, the largest in the West. A 5,000-word editorial in the Communist Party daily Pravda denounced the Italian Communists in language that was brutal by the standards of past disputes between the Soviet Union and Western European Communist parties. At one point, the editorial accused the Italians of following a policy of ''direct aid to imperialism,'' tantamount in Marxist terms to treason. ''Something monstrous has happened,'' Pravda said, citing the Italian Communists' practice of ''slandering'' the Soviet Union and its system over Poland, the East-West military confrontation and Soviet domestic policies.

Night after night, on street after street in a neighborhood of neat two-family homes in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn, car windows have been shot out - more than a thousand in the last few months. ''It was getting so bad,'' one resident, Joe Trizzino, said yesterday, ''that you couldn't walk 10 blocks sometimes without seeing seven to 10 broken windows. My scoutmaster had to pay $120 to get his window fixed, and my grandfather had to pay $80.'' Outrage and Stakeouts But after two months of neighborhood outrage and police stakeouts, a suspect was arrested this weekend - a part owner of two Brooklyn shops that specialize in the replacement of broken automobile windows.

The Roman Catholic Primate of Poland, Archbishop Jozef Glemp, said in a sermon broadcast over national radio today that Poles had the right to honest information in the Government-controlled press and the right to know why they were being deprived of civil liberties. And in churches all over Poland a pastoral letter was read warning of the dangers of civil war and insisting on the right of workers to organize independent trade unions. The letter was drawn up last week by the Conference of Bishops. Taken together, the moves indicated that the powerful voice of the church hierarchy was united in an effort to bring intensive pressure on the military regime one day before Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski, the Polish leader, is to deliver a major address to Parliament.

A 33-year-old freshman Congressman from Connecticut cast more votes last year against President Reagan than did any other member of the House. A tally of votes that appeared this month in Congressional Quarterly showed that in votes on which the President had taken a position, the Congressman, Samuel Gejdenson, had voted against Mr. Reagan 76 percent of the time. That figure took Mr. Gejdenson - pronounced GAY-den-son - somewhat by surprise. He had not planned, he said, to be the member of the House most antagonistic toward the President.

Showing a disrespect for football traditions, the San Francisco 49ers had fun in Super Bowl XVI today. They defeated the Cincinnati Bengals, 26-21, in an often dramatic game that was the first Super Bowl appearance for either team. But the 49ers also displayed the cool command under pressure that their coach, Bill Walsh, had drilled into them with his careful approach to the fundamentals. So the the crowd of 81,270 in the Silverdome, and the 100 million television viewers, saw Joe Montana, the quarterback, sprint to his right and throw, sometimes off balance, passes that would invariably be caught. And at a critical stage in the game, the 49ers halted an intense Cincinnati effort at the goal line; they kept the Bengals from scoring four straight times, once from the 3 and three times from the 1.

The liquor, gasoline and tobacco industries are protesting proposed higher excise taxes, asserting that sales would fall and offset revenue gains. Retailers appear less alarmed, while private economists approve such rises to help cover the projected huge increase in the Federal budget deficit. (Page D1.) Howard H. Baker Jr., Senate majority leader, said it seemed unlikely President Reagan would accept his recommendation for raising taxes on some ''nonessential'' items. (D5.)

Israel has reportedly warned that it would react with force if Egypt broke agreements on Sinai. Page A4. By LESLIE H. GELB Specia l to the New York Times WASHINGTON, Jan. 24 - The dominant fact of life in the Middle East is Israeli military superiority, and the Government of Prime Minister Menachem Begin intends to preserve and use that superiority to maintain the political status quo in the region through the 1980's. Since there is little the Arab nations can do about this situation on the battlefield, they are gearing up to carry their struggle for the Palestinians and the return of remaining occupied territories to Washington. And, for the first time, Arab and Israeli leaders alike see potential vulnerabilities in American support for Israel.

''The people up there, they got hit three times in two weeks.

haired coach turned the Silverdome's artificial turf into his own green chalkboard yesterday as the San Francisco 49ers won Super Bowl XVI. Striding the 49er sideline with a telephone headset connected to some of his assistant coaches on the press-box level, Bill Walsh guided his team to a 26-21 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals as if he were a professor in a seminar. Joe Montana, the 49er quarterback selected as the game's most valuable player, dived over from the 1-yard l ine and collaborated with Earl Cooper on an 11-yard touchdown pass . Ray Wersching kicked field goals of 22, 26, 40 and 23 yards. After the presentation of the Vince Lombardi Trophy to 35-year-old Edward J. DeBartolo, Jr., the 49er president, in the 49er locker room, Bill Walsh was alerted to a congratulatory phone call from President Reagan.

For the nation's 15 leading bank holding companies, last year's fourth quarter was the best of times and the worst of times. The best was represented by J.P. Morgan & Company, which earned 94 cents on each $100 of average assets during the quarter. This was the highest quarterly return recorded during the three years in which The New York Times has been compiling such figures. The previous high, 87 cents, also was set by Morgan, in the fourth quarter of 1980. According to Morgan's own records, the 94-cent return appeared to be its highest in at least a deacde. Return on assets is regarded by many analysts as the key indicator of a bank's basic profitability.

Proposals being debated within the Reagan Administration to increase Federal excise taxes on gasoline, liquor and tobacco have raised a gale of protest from many manufacturers of those products, mild objections from retailers who sell them and a nod of approval from private economists. Liquor and cigarette producers argue that raising taxes on their goods would dampen sales, in some cases severely enough to offset the revenues gained from the higher levy. As for oil refiners, they say that a rise in the excise tax on gasoline would accelerate the trend toward conservation but would have little or no immediate effect on sales. The outlook remains unclear. The Senate majority leader, Howard H. Baker Jr., says it seems unlikely that President Reagan will accept his recommendation for raising some excise taxes. (Page D3.)