On this day in ...... 1964 (45 years ago today), a New York Times writer reported the easing of food shortages, which had spurred riots in India's Kerala state, in dark orange at right. The shortages had resulted from the government's decision earlier in the month to ration food supplies -- the 16 million inhabitants of the southwestern Indian state became "'panicky,' because rice, their chief food, had disappeared from the markets." The failure of the rationing system also had provoked black-market trading, followed by "summary trials" for persons suspected of such trading. In a marker of that Cold War era, the Times informed its readers that Kerala was a "Communist stronghold."
