INDIA: Cows & Communists

"You are actors on a great stage and all the world is watching," Jawaharlal Nehru, eager to get out the vote for India's second general election, kept telling his audiences. But there were obstacles. In Uttar Pradesh the citizens of 14 villages hidden away in the foothills of the Himalayas decided, after listening to candidates, that voting was "just not worth the long walk." In the thick jungles of Orissa, the prevalence of stampeding wild elephants kept all but the most venturesome of the electorate at home. And at least one Orissan who dutifully set out for the polls...

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