Evening star., 1948-12-05
By Alfred Woea

By Alfred Wo99
In the Orient. like everywhere else
In the world, the Communists rise
to power wherever they can exploit
misunderstanding or disputes. In
Hyderabad, a landlocked state in the
center of India, I have just wit
messed this past summer and fall
a fine example of this Communist
technique.
While India and Hyderabad
argued as to whether Hydersbad
should be an independent country
or not, the Communists moved IN
and set up thousands Of their own
parallel governments on both sides
of the India -Hyderabad frontier In
defiance of both government au-
thorities and behind . convenient
news censorship blockade Of the
India government which controlled
the telegraph lines out Of Hydera-
bad-all prelude to q potential
Communist controlled India.
Caught in Shooting War
These events took place as Brit
aims Foreign Minister .Beviri was
telling the world that communism
in the Orient was a greater threat
than in the West; and while was
in the middle of a shooting war"
between the Communists and the
Hyderabad government troops, a
war which clearly indicated the
vast extent of Communist control
in India's 100000 villages where over
two-thirds of her population live
and among the rural populations OF
the small neighboring countries.
Since India's independence in
August 1s47 when she gained full
membership in the Commonwealth,
India has been busy fighting for the
strategic and rich Kashmir, fight
ing disgruntled Naga headhunters
in Assam and fighting for wealthy
Hyderabad with an apparent and
obvious underlying motivation to
reunite the old imperial India under
one flag as preliminary step to
erecting a dominant political power
in Asia which can dictate both the
political and commercial tune in
Asia against East or West. But as
first success has filled their ears,
little serious thought has been given
to the Communists and their in
creasing threat to the Nehru gov
eminent.
While the government of India
has celebrated their rise to power,
the Communists have been busy
"colonizing" villages all over India
where their own parallel govern
ments administer the law. run the
police, and train their own militia
in preparation for the day when
they expect to grab India as a first
step" toward their ultimate objective
of uniting the Orient under Russian
Communist influence, . job already
far too well along In that other
great land mass of Asia. China.
Went on Raid Against Reds
Just before India's army invaded
and crushed" Hyderabad resistance
in five and a half days, I went on
q raid by Hyderabad forces against
the Communists who were holding
q village they had "colonized" called
Behrampalli. The Communists had
refused to let the local magistrate
enter on his normal village rounds
and when q police officer tried to
force his way into the village, they
took him prisoner, drove nails
through his heels-and then made
him walk toward the next village
until he finally dropped from loss
of blood, only to die in his tracks
a few minutes later.
Shortly after daylight, the morn
ing of our raid, our mortars began
lobbing 3-inch bombs onto Behram-
palli village fort. After each salvo
I watched the debris rise and gray
smoke. play pantomine over squatty
silhouettes Of mud and stpcco build
ings. A fragile quiet between salvos
was taunted by an occasional Com
munist sniper's rife crack.
More than 1900 such villages as
Behrampalli are to be found in the
same area of the Hyderabad-India
frontier that faces India's Madras
Province. 1,shuddered to think how
long it might take to "de-commu-
nize" these 5000 villages with their
tough, well-trained militia by force,