Word: ahmedabad
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...trouble in Ahmedabad was part of the trouble that is afflicting all India these days-the often violent urge to redivide India's states along linguistic lines. Many thought the worst was over three weeks ago, when India's Parliament passed a bill to create a huge new bilingual State of Bombay, to include both the Gujaratis and the Marathas. The Marathas envy and resent the Gujaratis' acumen and prosperity. As for the Gujaratis, they would be heavily outnumbered by people they consider inferior. Rioting broke out in Ahmedabad...
Strange Allies. At first the helter-skelter mobs that raged through Ahmedabad's streets were led by Gujarati students. But as the days wore on and the death toll mounted to 18, there emerged a strange coalition of forces, united only by their interest in fishing in troubled waters. Indian Communists, who a few weeks earlier had been denouncing the Gujaratis as "moneybag oppressors" of the Marathas, now rushed to champion the Gujarati cause. Local Socialists jumped on the bandwagon. And huffing and puffing alongside these leftist troublemakers were Gujarati businessmen and mill owners who foresaw difficulties in handling...
...Prepare My Pyre." To spike Desai's guns, Ahmedabad's students promptly called a janata, i.e., a "people's curfew," for the day he was to speak. At dawn large bands of students began to swarm through Ahmedabad's streets warning shopkeepers to close up for the day. Only people with "passes" signed by local Socialist leaders were permitted on the streets and pigtailed girls of 15 or 16 stopped pedestrians to check on their passes. By midafternoon the student curfew was almost 100% effective, and at 4:15, shortly before Desai was due to speak...
Shocked and angry. Desai declared in a strained voice: "So long as the citizens of Ahmedabad do not hear me peacefully, I shall not take food. If Gujarat is eager to cremate me, I am ready. Let it prepare my funeral pyre." Then Desai, who normally eats only one meal a day anyway, hurried off to his brother's Ahmedabad home and began fasting...
Niqht Call from Delhi. While Desai fasted, his supporters gradually rallied. In Ahmedabad's 66 mills 120,000 workers who had kept apart from the rioting started each day with a prayer for the Chief Minister's success. In Bombay his well-wishers formed huge lines at the telegraph office. And from New Delhi Prime Minister Nehru called nightly to inquire after Desai's health...