In the volatile southern state of Kerala, the ruling Congress Party of mild-mannered Prime Minister Lai Bahadur Shastri last week faced its first electoral test since he took office last June. The party had reason to fear the result since India has for months been racked by a succession of woes, ranging from food shortages and floods to corruption and the bloody riots occasioned by the attempt to impose Hindi as the national language.
Kerala was an especially difficult testing ground. The Malayalam-speaking inhabitants had attacked post offices and disrupted rail services over the Hindi question. Though the most Christian...
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