Nehru's Test

The former princely state of Hyderabad lies diamond-like on the plush-green tableland of southern India. In 1948 the Communists tried to grab Hyderabad. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru sent in 10,000 police, outlawed the Communist Party, and jailed 6,000 Reds. The Communists switched from smash & grab to a confidence-man technique: through a phony People's Democratic Front they began sponsoring candidates for the first All-India general elections in history, an immense and impressive undertaking in which 173 million people (most of them illiterate) are marching to the polls in an election which will take three months. Teams of officials are touring the countryside, explaining how to vote, and setting up elections in district after district.

Last week Nehru, whose tough 1948 policy has been weakened by buttery handshaking with China's Comrade Mao, proved again that on home territory he knows very well what the Communists are up to. Visiting Hyderabad's Communist-dominated Warangal district, he spoke under great flower-draped portraits of himself and Gandhi, telling cheering crowds that the Communists "are a party of murder, arson and loot, not of progress." Nehru plainly considered Hyderabad a crucial test in schooling his people in democracy.

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