Word: hindy
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...faced its first electoral test since he took office last June. The party had reason to fear the result since India has for months been racked by a succession of woes, ranging from food shortages and floods to corruption and the bloody riots occasioned by the attempt to impose Hindi as the national language...
Kerala was an especially difficult testing ground. The Malayalam-speaking inhabitants had attacked post offices and disrupted rail services over the Hindi question. Though the most Christian state in India and the one with the highest literacy rate, Kerala is desperately poor and has a radical tradition. Back in 1957 the Communists captured the state government, ruling for 27 chaotic months until removed from of fice by a presidential decree...
India's 1950 constitution provided that during the first 15 years of independence, English as well as Hindi-the language of North India and the Congress Party leaders-would be an official language. Thereafter Hindi would become the only official tongue and English would assume associate status. When the change went into effect in January, South India's non-Hindi-speaking people feared that henceforth they would be discriminated against in government employment and in other ways. Riots flared (TIME, Feb. 5), and the Cabinet ministers from South India threatened to resign unless English was fully restored...
Caught in the crossfire, Shastri temporized, upheld Hindi while at the same time promising that there would be no anti-Hindi discrimination. There will be equality in confusion: all civil-service applicants will probably be given exams in Hindi, English, and one of the other 13 major languages of India. In his small, dry voice, Shastri promised "a study of all aspects involved." Critics complained of his lack of leadership, but Shastri's very weakness and vagueness stopped the violence at least for the time being...
...versions of The Guide exist, one in English with breathless transgressions intact, another in Hindi with all love play omitted to conform to India's strict censorship laws. Such scruples seem wasted on a movie that displays few virtues in any language...