Word: nehru
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...ashes of Jawaharlal Nehru have long since disappeared into the silt of the Ganges, carrying with them the faint shadow of the rose he always wore in his lapel. Gone with the Pandit is the image of India as a moral bulwark of the "nonaligned" world, a pious mediator between the great powers. Gone with the jaunty jodhpurs and preachy pronouncements is the hope that India might soon be an economic success. Gone, too, are the pride and the confidence that inspired India in its formative years. India without Nehru stands dispirited and disillusioned, a land without elan where...
...death of Nehru last year was only one of the shocks that have forced the world's largest democracy to face reality. Before that came the Red Chinese attack in October 1962, which discredited India's foreign policy and exposed Delhi as a military powder puff. Then last year the country was struck by its worst food crisis since independence, as riots erupted from Bangalore to Bombay. The shortages of grain called into question Nehru's economic policies, which stressed industry and paid little attention to the more basic problem of agriculture. And looming in the background...
Malthusian Menace. But more improvement in food production must be matched by population control if India is ever to feed herself. Nehru's first Five-Year Plan was meant to make the nation self-sufficient agriculturally, but without a firm program of family planning, it fell sadly short of the mark. Shastri, too, has failed to face up to the Malthusian menace of India's birth rate. Every year the country's crop of new babies exceeds the population of New York City. When pressed about birth control, Shastri smiles: "I hesitate to give advice on this...
...part of the "arrogant" Indo-Aryans of the north. Shastri muddled through several weeks of bloodshed, finally decided to rescind the January order and for the moment retain English as well as 14 southern languages. "We have to find some middle course," he temporized. More than a decade ago, Nehru toyed with the idea of making English the official language (he himself could barely speak Hindi) but dropped the notion when he realized it would undercut his support among the masses...
...take a bolder man than Shastri to carry such a program through. But somewhere among India's millions, among the young who hunger for education and get it, there will doubtless emerge a dynamic leader to rally the nation and lift its spirits-a man who perhaps combines Nehru's flamboyance and Shastri's humility. At that point, hope will return to a subcontinent...