Word: indias
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1940-1949
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Blessing with Ashes. Even such an agnostic as Jawaharlal Nehru, on the eve of becoming India's first Prime Minister, fell into the religious spirit. From Tanjore in south India came two emissaries of Sri Amblavana Desigar, head of a sannyasi order of Hindu ascetics. Sri Amblavana thought that Nehru, as first Indian head of a really Indian Government ought, like ancient Hindu kings, to receive the symbol of power and authority from Hindu holy...
With the emissaries came south India's most famous player of the nagasaram, a special kind of Indian flute. Like other sannyasis, who abstain from hair-cutting and hair-combing, the two emissaries wore their long hair properly matted and wound round their heads. Their naked chests and foreheads were streaked with sacred ash, blessed by Sri Amblavana. In an ancient Ford, the evening of Aug. 14, they began their slow, solemn progress to Nehru's house. Ahead walked the flutist, stopping every 100 yards or so to sit on the road and play his flute for about...
...water from Tanjore and drew a streak in sacred ash across Nehru's forehead. Then he wrapped Nehru in the pithambaram and handed him the golden scepter. He also gave Nehru some cooked rice which had been offered that very morning to the dancing god Nataraja in south India, then flown by plane to Delhi...
Prime Minister Attlee had cut through India Office red tape and personally conducted most of the crucial discussions which finally led to a settlement with Indian leaders. With little enough to boast about at home, Attlee might get a salute from history for his handling of the Indian problem. Viscount Mountbatten's tact and informality had brought agreement where none seemed possible...
...Balance Sheet. What after two centuries could be said of British rule in India? Credits & debits were both enormous. About as much land is irrigated in India today as in all the rest of the world. The Empire's biggest iron and steel plant is at Jamshedpur. The British had built up in India an incorruptible judicial system, a good police force, a vast (if substandard) network of roads, and the world's fourth largest railway system...