Word: hindus
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Nehru contends that Tara Singh's demands are really religious, not linguistic, that a separate religious state within the union would not be in accordance with India's secular constitution. Moreover, if Panditji capitulated to Masterji's demands, he would antagonize the Punjab's nationalistic Hindus. Nehru also fears that if he were to give in, minority groups all over India would start to go on hunger strikes on every conceivable issue. Already the fasting fad has spread among the country's zealous crackpots: in Rajasthan, a peasant staged a two-week fast to protest...
...lived and loved. He enjoyed great feasts of good food and was a connoisseur of cockfights. He kept four official wives and some 40 concubines. Before dying, he ordered for himself a Karye Pitra-Yadnje Palebon first class, the most festive form of cremation ceremony practiced by the Hindus of Bali. Though President Sukarno of Indonesia (who is part Balinese himself) deplored the celebration as an extravagance out of keeping with his nation's austere, eight-year development plan, the people of Gianjar seemed to pay little heed. When their old Rajah died at 68 last December, they mourned...
Traffic & Tithes. Though Indian agriculture ministry officials privately call cow worship a serious drain on their country's resources, Hindus in millions still say as they have through the ages: "The cow is our mother." India remains the world's great cow country: its 202 million head of cattle (almost one-fourth of the world's cattle population and double that of the U.S.) compete for food with its 400 million human inhabitants...
Since devout Hindus refuse to kill aging cows, thousands are turned loose to wander through villages and towns, exercising their uncontested right to root in any garden. In Calcutta, great humped Brahman bulls still stalk majestically across streets, bringing traffic to a screeching halt as they nose in a vegetable dealer's baskets. In some smaller cities, humble people may still be seen following cows to catch and sip the animals' urine in the belief that it surpasses in potency all other means of purifying soul and body. Hindu businessmen support old cows' homes more readily than...
Shelter or Slaughter. Actually, for every Hindu tradition that forbids cow slaughter, progressive Hindus can find another that permits it. But butchering is banned outright in eight Indian states and restricted to very old animals in most others. Recently the Supreme Court ruled that state laws fixing the slaughtering age for cows at 25 years were unreasonable and suggested that 15 was old enough. According to one Delhi official's bitter estimate, the 10% of India's cows that are old, economically useless and fit only for the rest home program devour the output of 40 million...