Word: tamil
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View from the Falls. Shastri's compulsion to compromise was better applied in the great January language crisis. In that month, India adopted Hindi (which only 40% of Indians speak) as the nation's official language. Southern Indians - speaking mostly Tamil or Telugu-rose up in a wave of riots, murders and suicides to protest so blatant a move on the 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...
...Cape Comorin, India is a kaleidoscope of contrast (see color pages). Within its embattled boundaries it embraces six distinct ethnic groups, seven major religions, 845 languages and dialects, and two ancient and antagonistic cultures: the Indo-Aryan (primarily Hindi-speaking) in the north, the Dravidian (speaking mainly Telugu and Tamil) in the south. Its peoples range from sultry Sikhs in silken turbans to naked Nagas armed with crossbows; from country dwellers who are seared black by a cruel sun to pale and perfumed maharanees who ride to the beaches of Bombay in air-conditioned Rolls-Royces...
...poverty exist cool cheek by grizzled jowl. Madras, with its burgeoning Hindu evangelism (backed by Shastri's strongman, Congress Party President Kumaraswami Kamaraj), is less metropolitan but more leisurely. Where Bombay is sparked by its Parsi businessmen (descended from 8th century Persian fire worshipers), Madras is tempered by Tamil intellectualism. New Delhi-founded in 1911 by the British -is the youngest of the nation's great cities, and its least distinctive. Dust swirls through its broad, beige streets; beggars sleep on its sidewalks beneath gaudy murals; and pallid politicians occupy center stage...
Racial hatreds plague all Asian nations, which present a vast, graduated racial spectrum, from the blonde ethnic Russians of bleak Sinkiang through the anthracite Tamils of India and Ceylon, whose daughters were of such black velvety loveliness that in World War II lonely American servicemen were wont to sigh, "I'd walk a mile for a Tamil." Now a new G.I. generation is entranced by Saigon's graceful Cochinchinoises but is surprised to find Asian girls just as sensitive to racial nuances as the snobbiest New Orleans debutante...
...three days following the election, both sides labored behind the scenes to form alliances with the smaller parties, particularly with the 14-seat Federal Party, which represents the Tamil-speaking minority who work the island's tea plantations. Thousands of leftists swarmed in the road outside Temple Trees, the Prime Minister's official residence, shouting, "Victory!" and "Don't resign!" At the insistence of her Marxist Cabinet ministers, the buxom Prime Minister stoutly clung to power, even after Governor General William Gopallawa asked her to quit. But at last she caved in, and victory went to Dudley...