Word: punjabis
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Shoes & Songs. He quickly proved that he had not forgotten his Punjabi mother tongue nor his Sikh traditions. Entering holy temples, he took off his shoes, tied a kerchief around his head (to compensate for the absence of his long-shorn Sikh beard), hugged bewhiskered Sikhs with greetings of Sat Sri Akal (God Is Truth), sang devotional songs and quoted Sikh scriptures (while his U.S.-born wife and daughter, sari-clad, observed custom by sitting with the women in congregations...
Quite by accident, Hari meets Sushila, a dark, big-boned, full-breasted girl with tumbling black hair ("A real Punjabi beauty," clucks his aunt). Soon the marriage-broker mills are grinding, and Hari, as he almost admits to himself, is secretly relieved. Amrita's clan also starts making other arrangements. Still spouting defiance and undying love, Amrita and Hari find that the sight of each other is not a stab at the heart but a pain in the neck. At novel's end, Hari is leading Sushila seven times around the ritual wedding fire, and Amrita...
...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...
...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...