Signs of trouble flapped in the breeze when 4,000 students gathered in the textile town of Ahmedabad last week to hear Prime Minister Nehru make a speech. They carried black flagsa traditional advance warning that the audience was not going to like the speech, whatever it said. The Gujarati-speaking students were sparkplugs of the movement opposing merger with the more numerous Marathas in the new bilingual state of Bombay.
"We want a Gujarat state!" they chanted as Nehru prepared to begin. The Prime Minister tried to banter with them. "I detect a sort of mild fever here." The chant persisted,...
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