Word: uttar
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...which has caused rioting, resulting in some deaths in several northern cities and towns. Birth control has become such an inflammatory issue in some heavily Moslem sectors that a secret intelligence report reputedly warned Mrs. Gandhi, 59, that she might lose an open election in her own state of Uttar Pradesh, where the Congress Party traditionally relies on strong Moslem support...
...Gandhi was in this bleak corner of impoverished Uttar Pradesh state for a padayatra, the journey on foot made famous 25 years ago by Vinobha Bhave, who for years walked the length and breadth of India asking people to give up one-tenth of their land to the landless. A padayatra has become the customary way for leaders to make contact with their people. In 1959 Mrs. Gandhi walked for four days through her father Jawaharlal Nehru's Allahabad constituency. This year Indira, 58, reduced her padayatra to a mile-long, 50-min. walk through the single village...
...gesture than a genuine effort to get in touch with the masses, last week's padayatra nonetheless brought Mrs. Gandhi face to face with India's circumstances. "Do you go to school?" she asked one girl. The answer: No, because there is no high school in Hillaur. Uttar Pradesh's education minister, who accompanied Mrs. Gandhi, announced that Hillaur will not only get a school but also a small hospital...
Feelings are even stronger in rural areas. Explains Ram Dhan, 28, a peasant farmer from Uttar Pradesh: "The reason villagers aspire to father sons is because, apart from being able to help us in the fields, they will bring the family dowry. It is one way of improving our lot." With sentiments like these, even reformists concede that completely eliminating dowries is impossible. Hence, families throughout India will continue to greet the birth of a daughter as a sign of bad luck...
...disbarred her from Parliament and disqualified her from holding elective office for six years. Specifically, she had been accused of 1) using a key government official to help with her campaign and 2) receiving government-paid help at a political rally from special police provided by the state of Uttar Pradesh. Mrs. Gandhi's lawyers argue that the official had actually resigned his post before undertaking a role in her campaign and that the extra police had been necessary for security reasons. In any case, by India's standards of political corruption, the abuse was minor...