OPED | Monday, November 17, 2008 | Email | Print | 
Aspiring for ‘change’ in India
Sandeep B
Indians charmed by Obama wish their country could elect someone similar who would bring in ‘change’. What they forget is that unless a nation decides to move forward, change is impossible
It is Obama season now. The murmur that began when Mr Barack Obama won has now metamorphosed into a nauseating din. It is understandable at several levels: First Black US President, capable candidate to lead the US from its current financial doldrums, representative of change, ran his campaign by collecting money from laymen… all nice and well. But this chorus has, and continues to be, overdone. The media overkill on Mr Obama’s victory has reached record levels of exaggeration. He has just won an election, however crucial that might be. But the hype surrounding his victory makes us think that he has actually accomplished something at office. This is not to be critical of Mr Obama but let’s give the man some time to get to work before raining premature praise upon him.
Indian public discourse, however, has taken the Obama aggrandizement to manic dimensions. Amid the melee of conducting yagnas and spinning reamfuls of Obama hymns, we have lost restraint and sacrificed balance at the altar of blind celebration. Aside, I wonder what the reaction would have been had Mr Obama lost the election.
India needs an Obama and variations thereof are the current refrains doing rounds in the Indian intellectual and media theatre. Such a delicious premise presents yet another opportunity to revive old clichés because repeating these clichés doesn’t require hard work.
Mr Obama’s victory is a practical demonstration of the irrelevant notion of skin colour or race in the minds of millions of Americans. However, like in every society, old prejudices continue to exist and they will never fully disappear. Mr Obama’s rejection by the Bible belt is evidence of this. And therein lies a significant lesson for India.
Discrimination against Blacks across America was subtly carried out till as late as the 1960s. Arthur Hailey’s Hotel paints a brief portrait about how a luxury hotel denies accommodation to a well-respected scientist because he is Black. Today in American books, stories, academia, media, popular culture, Government service, and the entire society, the racial intermingling is seamless, which has culminated in Mr Obama’s victory. Nobody can get away with arguing that he was elected because he is Black or simply because of the “let’s give them a chance” factor. The movement for racial equality owes as much to the White thinkers as it was furthered by successive movements by the Blacks themselves. Abraham Lincoln lost his life at the hands of a White supremacist.
And this shows the way as well as has parallels for India. This is not to equate the Black-White discrimination in the US with caste discrimination in India. The two nations have different social and historical realities. In its original conception, caste was never a watertight compartment. However, in the current social reality caste discrimination although diminished, still exists. It will continue to exist in its current form as long as caste vote-banks exist.
Historically, a majority of prominent caste reform movements originated in the so-called ‘upper castes.’ From Basava (who was born a Brahmin) and Ramanujacharya (who initiated the ‘lower castes’ into Sri Vaishnavism) in Karnataka to Swami Dayananda Saraswati to Swami Vivekananda to Gandhi, every luminary in his lifetime caused a major social upheaval that only strengthened Hinduism in the long run. They appealed to the simple but magical formula that always worked with the masses: The innate inclusivity and spiritual character of Hinduism. Their hymns, poetry, and music slowly frayed social rigidity and renewed Hindu society.
All this changed almost overnight under Nehruvian secularism, which perpetuated the British tactic of splintering Hindu society. Every casteist politician today is but an ugly representative of that splintering. As a result, our smaller/regional political parties more resemble hate groups whose chosen method of survival, power, prosperity and perpetuation is whipping up a sense of mindless victimhood and rage. Their quest for avenging historical wrongs is as braindead as it has proven dangerous. At one end is Mr Karunanidhi who writes angry poetry about the tilak/kumkum as a symbol of oppression. At the other, we have self-proclaimed activists and intellectuals like Kancha Illiah who dreams of a time when Brahmins are made to carry faeces on their head.
This passes off as acceptable intellectual discourse and is somehow seen as an expression of social justice. If the US had applied this logic, we would have the Whites willingly become slaves of the Blacks today!
In the elation over Mr Obama’s elevation, Indian intellectuals have suddenly found a new role model to aspire for. Never mind that he hasn’t even taken his oath. They want an Obama as the next Prime Minister. But conveniently forget that an Obama could happen because the US moved forward instead of indulging in revenge-mongering.
Email | Print | Rate:
|