India Has Spoken

To the Editors:

The people of India have spoken [April 4]. Their verdict clearly proves that democracy in India is alive, well and strongly preferred.

This verdict need not be construed as a defeat for Mrs. Gandhi. As a great leader, Mrs. Gandhi recognized her moral obligation to people and gave them a choice to decide freely.

Vinay Kothari Nacogdoches, Texas

The humiliating defeat of Indira Gandhi and her colleagues is, and must be, a lesson for the arrogant and indifferent elite of India--government officials and intellectuals who control and dominate the poor and the powerless.

M.S. Swamickannu Philadelphia

The people of India once again hold their heads in dignity and pride of freedom and democracy after about a decade of dictatorship and misrule.

G. Gopalakrishna Redmond, Ore.

Intellectuals all over the world, real or pseudo, proudly proclaim that "democracy" won and "Indira the Dictator" lost. But think again. The capitalists are on the winning side and so are the Communists. Then who are the losers? Probably some 600 million common people of India. Could it be that Indira the Dictator was the true champion of the people after all?

Kurian Verghese Rochester

Looking for White Roots

"Tell your teacher that our family history is none of her damn business!" was a remark I heard more than once when we started searching for family histories [March 28] as an English-class project.

However, we found descendants of Sir Walter Scott, Sir Francis Drake, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and cousins of Greta Garbo.

Dorothy House Guilday Rhinelander, Wis.

I was able to trace my lineage in America eleven generations. Unfortunately, my ancestors liked King George more than George Washington, and as a result they lost most of their considerable lands in 1776. My eight-year-old son's reaction is, "What kind of crazy people were they?"

Frederick M. Tibbitts Jr. Westfield, N.J.

Families more concerned with their roots than with their branches and leaves are like potato plants--the best parts are underground.

Tom Gill Columbia, Md.

Please forgive a correction from "the guru of British pedigree" (your words about us), but your informant J. Charles Thompson was not 100% correct in telling you that only eldest sons of eldest sons inherit coats of arms. By English, Welsh and Irish heraldic law, younger sons and their younger sons do too--the qualification is legitimate male-line descent from the original man entitled to the arms.

Hugh Peskett, Genealogist to Debrett

Ancestry Research

Winchester, England

Congratulations on your excellent article "White Roots." We at Debrett's Peerage Ancestry are pleased to see that a person is interested to find that an ancestor got into trouble (like President Carter's). Roots go in many directions. H.B. Brooks-Baker, Managing Director Debrett's Peerage Ltd. London

About the Americanization of immigrants, I am all for bilingual Americans. Let us put our youngsters into Spanish, Dutch, Czech, etc. classes. But let us not deprive the new American kids of the language of their future livelihood. If immigrants had not assimilated in the past, we would be in the same nationalistic mess as Europe: Illinois would be at war with Indiana, Florida would hate Georgia. I am quite content and happy simmering in the melting pot, transplanted from Czechoslovakia and firmly rooted in fine soil.

Vera Laska Weston, Mass.

Brainwashing v. Religion

I believe the Hare Krishna sect [March 28] is a threat to all of us who call ourselves Christians. They threaten our life-style because they take their scriptures literally and live them. We Christians would look and act just like the Hare Krishna people if we took the Bible at its word, which is God's word. But like it or not we are hypocrites. The Hare Krishna people do not use force, but the deprogrammers do. They are the ones guilty of using mind control and brainwashing.

My own son joined the Hare Krishna sect about three years ago, and after living in the temple for three months, left voluntarily. However, I believe he came out a much better person than when he went in.

(Mrs.) Margaret M. Knight Lansing, Mich.

It is intellectual chauvinism to invoke brainwashing as the only explanation of why others are persuaded of an outlook radically differing from one's own. It is intellectual cowardice to charge the Hare Krishna people with brainwashing instead of offering as an alternative a more persuasive world view and lifestyle. And it is an insult to the intelligence of the Hare Krishna converts to maintain that they were mentally coerced into assenting to these teachings instead of admitting that they, as responsible adults, were persuaded to accept them. God's truth should not be enforced or suppressed by Government statute.

Monty Ledford, Pastor

Kempton Mennonite Fellowship

Kemp ton, Pa.

The world is indeed fortunate that Mary did not hire a deprogrammer when her son Jesus left his family and a promising career as a carpenter to follow the dictates of his conscience.

Carol Mays

Director of Christian Education Blacksburg, Va.

In my opinion the strange ones are the frightened, narrow-minded little people like Prosecutor Schwed, and not the Hare Krishnas.

Kevin Cahill Mount Salem, N.J.

The real issue in the Hare Krishna case is not the choice of religion but the use of emotional control over innocent victims. The parents only want their loved ones to be mentally free to choose for themselves. We would like to see a full investigation by the Government of cult operations and new laws against cult indoctrination methods.

Joanne Roselle

Citizens Freedom Foundation

Utica, Mich.

Cadaver Diplomacy

We seem to be caught up in cadaver diplomacy with the North Vietnamese [March 28]. Any time they want the

U.S. to come to Hanoi, all they have to do is dig up a few more American bodies, which, sadly, they seem to have in abundance.

Charles Meredith Bossier City, La.

Cancer from Saccharin

You could have made your article on the FDA saccharin ban [March 21] more informative by including a statement on why large doses are used in tests. Such doses are necessary because the effects of carcinogens are cumulative, often taking 20 years or more to produce symptoms. The lifetimes of test animals are short, and a decision has to be made within a few years to protect the public.

No strictly accurate determination is possible. The best we can do is get an indication and play it safe.

Kenneth G. Demers Providence

Shoes and TV Sets

On the subject of the tariff on shoes [March 28]: I buy Italian street and dress shoes and German hiking shoes because they fit and are comfortable. I find that most American shoes make my feet hurt, and they appear to be getting more and more uncomfortable as the years go by. As a matter of fact, we need tariffs on meat and grain as well as sugar, or I, as a farmer, won't be able to afford any shoes at all.

(Mrs.) Clare B. Hard ham Paso Robles, Calif.

In response to American TV manufacturers' demands for high tariffs on Japanese imports, I would say this: if Japan can build color TV sets, pay shipping costs and whatever duties or tariffs currently being imposed, and still put a quality product on the U.S. market at a competitive price, then we here have a good deal to learn about manufacturing and marketing.

Scott J. Clouston Hickman, Neb.

Terrorism

Re your piece on relations between the media and police in a hostage situation [March 28]: I was one of five reporters from our staff assigned to the Anthony Kiritsis episode in Indianapolis. I can state for a certainty that there is a line where pure journalism has to stop and complete cooperation with police has to start.

It was our misfortune that Kiritsis chose to listen to our radio station all the time he was awake. The fact that he did, and the fact that he reacted to what we said, had a devastating impact on all of us. Kiritsis heard one broad cast report and jumped to the conclusion that a bomb squad was assaulting his apartment at that moment. He immediately ordered negotiators out of the building and telephoned the command post. He screamed that he had been betrayed and was going to "blow the place." We thereafter broadcast nothing that had not been cleared through the authorities.

While some say that a journalist should never give up editorial control because of a threat, I will testify from firsthand experience that in a hostage situation, nothing a reporter says or writes is worth a person's life.

Doug O'Brien WIBC Radio Indianapolis

Censorship? Yes, to a degree. We, the people, can be a fully informed public without being fully instructed on the finer arts of violence.

The news can be told verbally rather than visually in instances of violence. Viewing immoral social ills, like ghetto conditions, can lead some of us to positive action. But watching violence can only breed violence.

Maureen Gallagher Bradley Flagstaff, Ariz.

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