Word: sikhs
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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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...
...skinned man with blue-black hair and an easy smile finished a hefty breakfast, stepped into his air-conditioned 1950 Buick and set off on a long round of meetings, conferences and calls aimed at Jackie Cochran's undoing. He was Dalip Singh Saund, 57, an India-born Sikh who came to the U.S. as a student and stayed on to become a citizen, a successful businessman, a California district judge and Jackie Cochran's Democratic opponent...
...shouting "Bombay is ours," and brandishing flags and umbrellas. Through the city they surged, shattering street lights, tearing up railroad tracks, erecting barricades, stoning cars containing members of Nehru's Congress Party. Police lobbed tear-gas shells into the rioting mobs, then fired into them pointblank. Tough Sikh reinforcements were called out, and nearly 2,000 people were arrested. Bitterly, Pandit Nehru said that Bombay is "not ready for self-rule" and will not get it for at least five years...
Nothing could please the Communists more, and at week's end they were pressing their advantage. They paralyzed Calcutta with a strike of 2,000,000 workers to demand a bigger chunk of Bihar State for West Bengal. Across India, Sikhs rioted in Amritsar, and a Sikh leader told a cheering audience: "If Sikh demands are not met, the Bombay drama may be repeated in the Punjab...
...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...