What was going on when I was born?

P. W. Botha was sworn into office today as South Africa's first President under a new Constitution that gives him potentially authoritarian powers. As he was inaugurated at a ceremony in Cape Town, the police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters outside the city and in Soweto, the black township outside Johannesburg. In Durban, six prominent political fugitives remained in the British Consulate to press demands for the annulment of Government orders for their detention without trial. There was a perception here that the violence and the Government's continuing confrontation with opponents of the Constitution were undermining Mr. Botha's new authority as well as the visions of the Afrikaner role in Africa that were evoked at the inauguration.

Tentative agreement has been reached for two debates in October between President Reagan and his Democratic challenger, Walter F. Mondale, officials in both camps said today. They said there would also be a debate between Vice President Bush and Geraldine A. Ferraro, his Democratic rival. An Administration official said that no final agreement on details of the televised confrontations was likely until early next week, but that the Presidential debates were likely to be two weeks apart, probably Oct. 7 and 21, with the Vice-Presidential debate in between, possibly Oct. 11. Series of Private Talks Officials said the first debate would probably be held in Louisville, Ky., and the second in Kansas City, Mo., with Philadelphia a possible site for the Vice-Presidential match. But they said those plans could change.

Mario Cuomo's lecture at Notre Dame masterly stated a thoughtful politician's analysis of how his private religion guides his public life. He can be devout without imposing religious beliefs on others - not only can but must. Roman Catholics especially know from their history that ''to assure our freedom, we must allow others the same freedom.'' To employ the law to force one's religious conviction on others runs the risk that ''they might someday force theirs on us.''

The Federal Reserve announced today that the nation's industrial production rose only two-tenths of 1 percent in August. Economists said the report was the clearest evidence to date that the economy's strongest performance in more than 40 years had abated and had settled into the slowdown long sought by the Reagan Administration. Economic slowdowns, the history of the business cycle shows, often portend recessions, but few analysts see anything so ominous for the balance of this year or next. ''Recession? No,'' said Francis H. Schott, economist at the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States. ''I'm just completely convinced that the expansion has quite a way to go.''

After a blunt late-night meeting Wednesday in a motel suite in Tupelo, Miss., at which Walter F. Mondale voiced concern about his troubled campaign, the Democratic Presidential candidate has decided to change his tactics and shake up his staff. In the tactical changes, Mondale aides say, the candidate decided to drop most ''visual'' events, such as shaking hands outside factory gates before television cameras, and focus instead on rallies and speeches. ''Mondale made it clear that at every event he wants a forum for substance,'' said James A. Johnson, the chairman of the campaign. ''He wants to do events, meetings, where he has a real chance to make his case. He wants to be as substantive as possible, to appeal to voters in a way that's as compelling as possible.''

House and Senate conferees reached agreement today on a bill to overhaul the Social Security disability program, which has been in turmoil for more than a year. The agreement would liberalize eligibility standards and make it harder for the Government to remove people from the rolls. Since 1981, the Government has reviewed 1.2 million disability cases and informed 490,000 beneficiaries that they would lose their benefits because they were no longer disabled. But more than 200,000 of those beneficiaries were put back on the rolls after they appealed.

The United Auto Workers union decided late Friday to continue working without a contract at most General Motors plants after all-day negotiations failed to produce agreement on a new labor pact with the auto maker. But the national union authorized 13 local unions, with about 60,000 members in nine states, to strike over local issues if they chose. Since all 13 locals had previously voted to approve strikes, the decision was the equivalent of ordering strikes at those plants. There are about 350,000 union workers at the General Motors Corporation.

The Six Flags Great Adventure amusement park, its operating corporation and two senior managers were charged today with manslaughter in the deaths of eight teen-agers who were killed when a fire swept through the park's haunted house last May. An Ocean County grand jury charged that the defendants had ''recklessly'' caused the deaths by failing to take adequate safety measures at the Haunted Castle attraction, said the County Prosecutor, Edward J. Turnbach. Named in the indictments are the amusement park - which is in Jackson Township, 50 miles southwest of midtown Manhattan - the Six Flags Corporation, which operates the park, and its former and current managers, Larry Cochran and David Paltzik. A spokesman for the Six Flags company, Bruce Neal, denied that it had been lax in enforcing safety measures and said there should not have been any indictments.

The Reagan Administration has become concerned that a recent deterioration in relations between India and Pakistan could ultimately lead to renewed hostilities between the two countries, Administration officials said today. While the officials said the threat of a military confrontation did not appear imminent, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi of India has received recommendations from some senior advisers that India conduct an air raid against a Pakistani atomic installation to prevent the development of nuclear weapons by Pakistan. The officials said that Mrs. Gandhi had resisted the recommendation and that intelligence information reaching Washington indicated that such an air strike remained unlikely. A State Department spokesman, Alan Romberg, said today, ''We have been concerned in recent weeks by suggestions of a temporary cooling in Indo-Pakistani relations.''

The former Chief Minister of a southern Indian state, who was ousted by an appointee of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, called today for a statewide strike and transportion blockade after a vote on his political future was put off until next week. A statement issued here in the state capital by N. T. Rama Rao, the ousted leader of Andhra Pradesh, and a group of opposition politicians called for a strike Saturday and a blockade of road and rail transport on Monday. Delegates from 11 opposition parties met in New Delhi, meanwhile, and announced a ''Save India Day'' Wednesday with rallies throughout the country in support of Mr. Rama Rao's comeback fight, the Press Trust of India, a news agency, reported.

Private enterprise, which is now encouraged nationwide in China, is being hampered by local authorities who have arbitrarily imposed crippling taxes on many successful small-business men. The Chinese press, in a reflection of official concern, said this week that private vendors, shopkeepers and restaurant owners were being driven out of business by excessive local taxation. Peking decreed in April that such taxes and fees could be imposed only by the provinces, regions and municipalities directly under the central Government. These taxes and duties, under a miscellany of names, have proved unbearable to many traders, Hao Haifeng, a Peking official charged with supervising private enterprise, warned in an interview published Wednesday by the English-language China Daily.

South Korea today accepted an offer of flood relief from North Korea, and North Korea accepted an invitation to set up a meeting to help ease tensions. A few hours after South Korea accepted the aid offer and called for the meeting, the official press agency in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, said North Korea had accepted.