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Teeming city of Bombay (right);
women carry drinking
water in a fishing village on
the Bay of Bengal (inset)
and harvest wheat near Jodhpur
in Rajasthan province (below);
soldiers of Indian army parade tbrough
streets of Delhi (opposite page,
bottom); flower vendors
display their wares
in Udaipur (top).
new leader on the very evening of
Mrs. Gandhi's death. As under the
British parliamentary system, he
thereby automatically became In–
dia's Prime Min ister.
A relative newcomer to politics,
Prime Minister Rajiv was wholly
untested in his ability to hold
together and govern the vast coun–
try he inherited. Bu t he brought
numerous promising qualities to his
new job: a clean political past, a
strong sense of d iscipline and orga–
nization (he was formerly an airline
pilot)- and his family name.
A democracy in form, India in
reality has been guided by a family
dynasty-the housc of Nehru–
dur ing most of the years since inde–
pendence in 1947. Rajiv Gandhi's
grandfather, J awaharlal Nehru,
was independent l ndia's first Prime
Minister. l ndira Gandhi, Nehru's
daughter, ruled India for 16 of the
last 18 years. T he existence of this
unoffic ia l royal fa m i l y has
prompted sorne observers to label
1odia "a democratic monarchy."
1n national elections at the end
of December, Rajiv Gandhi's Con–
gress ( 1) Party won the biggest
election victory in 1ndia since inde–
pendence, securing near ly 80 per–
cent of the parl iamentary seats.
Following the unprecedented land–
slide triumph, the new Prime Mi n–
ister called for a national campaign
to improve Indian life, and put for–
ward far- reaching proposals toward
that end.
Rajiv Gandhi 's governmen t is
only a few months old. But the
new leader has already established
himsel f as a powerful political
presence- c learly the man i n
charge. He inherits India's enor-
24
mous problems- and its great
potent ials.
Burgeoning Population
As a new personality assumes the
governance of one sixth of man–
kind, it is time to update
Plain
T ruth
readers on the status and
fu ture prospects of this g reat mosa–
ic of contrad ictions that is India.
First, a brief look at the prob–
lems.
T hough only abou t one-third the
size of the Uni ted States in land
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