India Celebrates Half a Century of Independence
NEW DELHI — India celebrated the successes of half a century of independence with nationwide festivities Friday: Helicopters showered revelers with rose petals, choirs of children sang, and hundreds walked barefoot to the shrine of Mohandas K. “Mahatma” Gandhi.
But separatist violence marred celebrations in much of the country, and India’s leaders made a point of citing the problems still facing the nation: illiteracy, overpopulation and--above all--rampant, debilitating corruption.
“Some people think that corruption is their birthright. I am warning them,” Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral said in an often stern Independence Day address to the nation from New Delhi.
Gujral evoked Gandhi’s experiments in peaceful resistance--which helped force the British colonialists out of India in 1947--in urging Indians to refuse to engage in bribery, despite the hardships that might entail.
Hundreds of people walked barefoot to pay their respects to Gandhi at a memorial built after he was killed in 1948 by a Hindu fanatic.
The White House announced Friday that President and Hillary Rodham Clinton will travel to India and Pakistan in 1998. The trip will be the first by a U.S. president to the region in nearly two decades.
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