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Hearing that Brahmachari's pamphlet had sold 76,000 copies, Nehru came rushing back to Allahabad last week with the challenge: "I shall fight to the end for the Hindu Code Bill. No country can dream of progress if it neglects the cause of its womenfolk." Snapped Nehru: "Rich people are behind Brahmachari.. . None else but the big black-marketeers, moneylenders, and landlords who are scared that Congress will soon do away with their feudal possessions." This week, as Allahabad voters went to the polls, Nehru seemed to have his constituency under control again. The whole country was pretty much his, too.
No Repeaters. Religious fanaticism was an expected obstacle in India's great democratic election experiment. Unexpected was the emergence of the Communist Party as Nehru's major parliamentary opposition. In the state assemblies of Travancore, Hyderabad and Madras (with the voting in 187 seats still uncounted), the Communists have captured 99 seats out of 658. Contrary to early fears, the huge electorate (176 million) have behaved with great orderliness at the polls, where their fingers were marked with indelible ink to prevent repeating, and where symbols have been substituted for the names of candidates on ballot boxes for the benefit of the 80% of voters who-cannot read.
Everywhere Nehru's Congress Party candidates are symbolized by a pair of yoked oxen, the Socialists (who are being left in the shade) by a large banyan tree, the Communists by a sickle and three ears of grain. One Benares independent chose a camel, startled the Holy City by staging a procession of 100 camels through the streets. Another chose a rose, began distributing roses among his constituents. An anti-Prohibitionist made his symbol a bottle (he lost). The Religionists went in for rising suns and burning lamps. Holy Man Brahmachari chose a boat.
With one-third of the balloting complete last week, the position of the main parties was: Congress Party, 68%; Communists, 10%; Socialists, 4%. Forecasts of the final vote (complete Feb. 15) give Nehru's Congress Party 400 out of 497 seats in the federal legislature, and majorities in 24 out of 26 state assemblies.