Among the Virile People

Of India's 360 million people, 26 million are primitive aborigines. They include head-hunting Nagas, Nilgiri pygmies and dusky Santhals. Last week Prime Minister Nehru told a conference of Indian anthropologists how "happy and at home" he felt with such "virile people."

"Sometimes," he admitted, "they go astray. They quarrel and cut each other's heads off, which are deplorable occurrences that should be stopped. But even so, it strikes me as perhaps a little better than the more evil practices that prevail in cities." For himself, said the Prime Minister, he "would prefer any day to be a nomad in the hills than be a member of the stock exchange and sit there and listen to those frightfully ugly noises . . ."

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