Word: punjabis
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Rajasthan), two southern Telegu-speaking states (Andhra, Hyderabad), one state each for eight other languages, and two bilingual states (Punjab, Bombay). New Delhi fears harsh reaction to any changes, particularly in Punjab, with its proud Sikhs. Reduced to a minority (32%) among Hindi-speakers in an enlarged Punjab, the Punjabi-speaking Sikhs may turn their resentment into violence when the map-changers go to work...
...hair grow long and talk Punjabi," said the young soldier to Kim, quoting a Northern proverb. "That is all that makes a Sikh. " But he did not say this very loud...
...time came when Nehru, reluctantly yielding to pressure from India's many language groups, appointed a State Reorganization Committee to advise "on the realigning of states within India. By skillful gerrymandering, Tara Singh worked out a scheme for a Punjabi-speaking state of 35,458 square miles, containing a population of 12 million, with the Sikhs in a slight minority. "We multiply faster than Hindus and are more virile," said Tara Singh. "In ten years we will be in an absolute majority, leaving the soft-fleshed Hindus to trail behind." Two months ago Tara Singh's party, regaining...
Resistance. The Punjabi government warned: "Shout your slogans in meetings if you want, but not in processions with swords at every waist." Tara Singh defied the ban and was arrested. But taking a leaf out of Gandhi's book, he instructed his followers to remain "nonviolent" and "to offer no provocation." Since then, all over th,e Punjab,, bearded Sikhs have stood in front of policemen (the favorite place: before the Sikh Golden Temple in Amritsar), shouting their slogans and courting arrest. Already nearly 7,000 Sikhs have been jailed...
...constitution. It has yet to determine the place of religion in the state, though the Moslem faith is really all that binds together the two halves, which are separated by 1,000 miles of hostile India. West Pakistan is arid and Middle Eastern: its people eat wheat, speak Punjabi or Urdu, and supply most of the tough manpower for Pakistan's 250,000-man army and for its permanent civil service. East Pakistan is lush and Southeast Asian: its people eat rice, speak Bengali, and complain that they do not have the influence at Karachi to which their preponderant...