Auld Lang Syne

Because of fog -"the last thing we expected to see in New Delhi" -the royal plane was two hours late, but Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, proved well worth the wait. As beaming Prime Minister Nehru looked on at the airport, waves of schoolgirls swept up to the handsome visitor to hang garlands of marigolds about his neck. The prince made a mock stagger under the weight of the flowers. "I feel like a bullock with all these garlands," he shouted, and the crowd roared with laughter. When some children began playfully pelting him with blossoms, he pelted right back. Finally, Prime Minister Nehru got him to the waiting automobile. "Shall we drive in an open car?" he asked. "I think that would be fun," said Philip.

On this airy note last week, Britain's most indefatigable tourist began his rugged tour as the first member of the British royal family to visit India since independence. Though his trip grew out of an invitation from the Indian Science Congress, attending scientific meetings was the least of his chores. There was lunch with the Maharajah of Jaipur, a picnic tea at the deserted Moghul city of Fatehpur Sikri, a moonlight visit to the Taj Mahal, a visit to Chandigarh, the city designed by Le Corbusier, and a polo match in Delhi. From Bombay, Bangalore, Madras and Calcutta, Philip will inspect everything from ancient cave sculptures to an atomic energy plant. But one of his unstated missions was something else: to find out just what sort of reception his wife would get should she come to India in 1960.

From the start, the answer was obvious. On his second day, 3,000 Indians swarmed over the University of Delhi campus to see the prince get a D.Sc. They applauded his jokes ("I regret to say that all my degrees are honorary ones"), cheered wildly when he mentioned the last viceroy who so smoothly presided over the transition to independence, "that great friend of India, my uncle Lord Mountbatten." For all its years as a republic,* the land that struggled so hard for independence is still largely dominated by British ways, has not even bothered to take down the portraits of the British viceroys in the presidential palace. Last week, with Prince Philip around, India seemed positively nostalgic for the bad old days.

* India refuses to call Elizabeth its Queen, is allowed to stay in the Commonwealth by acknowledging her as "Head of the Commonwealth."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.