Word: kerala
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Though shortages could be largely alleviated by proper management of food distribution, the government has barely begun that task. In Kerala, where the food shortage has struck hardest because its 19 million inhabitants shun all grains except rice as "foreign food," people must now subsist on a daily rice ration of only 5 ounces. The Keralans have been rioting on and off for three weeks in protest, and last week the rioting spread to other rice-short parts of India. A 15-year-old student died of gunshot wounds after police fired on a mob attacking a police station near...
Even so, Indians often ignore available food. Though Kerala fishermen haul in tons of shrimp, lobster, mackerel and sardines each year from the fish-rich Arabian Sea, the vast majority of the catch is sold for export, and Keralans use the money to buy extra rice at exorbitant black-market prices. They also largely ignore the sweet potatoes, bananas, pineapples and coconuts that abound in the state's lush tropical forests. And, though more Hindus discreetly eat meat, the vast majority in cow-rich India leave their beef on the hoof for religious reasons. Half of India...
...words were admirable enough, but they would not fill bellies, as rioting students made vocally clear. Through out Kerala, gangs attacked government offices, blockaded roads, cut telephone wires, overturned buses, and fought with police. At several places students even ripped up rails and crossties, thus delaying the trains that were carrying emergency food to the state...
...Kerala's influential Communists egged the mobs on. The government retaliated by jailing 13 Reds, including E. M. S. Namboodiripad, who was Kerala's chief minister during the 27 months in the mid-1950s when the state was under Communist rule. Even in jail the Reds managed to make trouble by going on a hunger strike, which they vowed would not end until the government provided Kerala with larger rations...
This will not be easy. For one thing, the rice-eating people of Kerala stubbornly refuse to supplement their diet with other grain. Thus President Johnson's announcement last week authorizing shipment of 3,000,000 tons of wheat and maize to replenish India's depleted food supplies will be a boon to the nation, but will not necessarily keep the rioters off the streets in Kerala...