INDIA: Shoes, Flags

So revered and respected has Mohandas K. Gandhi been that he has never felt the need of a bodyguard as he travels about India. Recently however, demonstrators in a Calcutta suburb booed at the wizened little old man. One even dared to throw a shoe which barely missed the Mahatma, hit his private secretary. This is India's worst insult. Later, the Mahatma was greeted at a station by a group carrying black flagsĀ—another Indian symbol of rebuke.

All this took place while the Mahatma toured Bengal, home province of fiery Subhas Chandra Bose,...

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