Word: kerala
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...volatile southern state of Kerala, the ruling Congress Party of mild-mannered Prime Minister Lai Bahadur Shastri last week 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...
...Tamil-speaking Madras state, where five people have burned themselves to death in protest, a mob captured two policemen and burned them alive. In Malayalam-speaking Kerala state, mobs attacked post offices and trains, and students signed pledges of resistance to the "imposition of Hindi," using their own blood as ink. State elections are scheduled for next month in Kerala, and the sudden emergence of the Hindi issue seems likely to hand victory back to the Communists, who ruled Kerala from...
...Uttar Pradesh (Nehru's as well as Prime Minister Shastri's home). The officialization of Hindi has long been fought by non-Hindi regions, chiefly four southern states to which Hindi is as foreign as Tex-Mex; they are Madras (which speaks Tamil), Andhra Pradesh (Telu-gu), Kerala (Malayalam) and Mysore (Kannada). Anti-Hindis accuse the Hindis of being out for political gain. In any case, should Hindi become the exclusive official tongue, thousands of civil servants, who do not understand Hindi but get government clerical jobs through their knowledge of English, would be totally adrift...
...disaster week continued with a slowdown strike by pilots of India's domestic airlines and the sudden collapse of the state government of Kerala, where 15 Congress Party legislators joined the opposition Socialists and Communists in voting against Kerala's chief minister, who is accused of corruption. Shastri imposed direct presidential rule on Kerala, at least until elections can be held next year. When that happens there is a good chance that the Communists-though divided into pro-Peking and pro-Moscow wings -may again win control as they...