Friday, January 30, 2009

Miracle of Democracy

I am often told by friends and family back in India that I am extremely lucky that my four years as an undergraduate will coincide with the first four years of the Obama Presidency. Certainly, to see an African American man sitting in the White House, talking eloquently about hope and change, fairness and equality, is exciting. One of the reasons it is exciting is that the college student community is emerging from a sustained period of political pessimism and apathy. College going Americans, no matter what their political affiliations may be can finally look an international student in the eye and say without shame or embarrassment that they are proud of their country. Sure, policies have not changed overnight. Sure, American foreign policy remains bad and its economy worse. But the man at the top has changed, and President Obama carries with him the immense weight of symbolism. His electoral success is something that anyone, anywhere, can and should look upon as one of the defining events of our life time. It is one of the increasingly few reasons why we should not ever lose hope in the power of the human race not only to endure but to prevail.

The facts are simple. 40 years ago, in many parts of this country blacks could not vote. Increasingly, in a country built on the backs of immigrants, there is a suspicion of foreigners and indeed new immigrant communities. And yet a black man, the son of an African immigrant has risen to the highest post in the land. It is the stuff that would give anyone, perhaps even Mahmoud Ahmedinejad in a private moment, goosebumps.

The question one must ask however, and in fact one that some have already begun asking is, does Barack Obama's ascent to the Presidency mark a realisation of Martin Luther King's dream? Does the fact that an African American has become President mean that policies of affirmative action should end? An opinion piece that appeared in the Yale Daily News approximately a fortnight ago asks this very question and comes up with a resounding 'No!'. Obama's success does not mean that the divide between black and white has been bridged, it does not mean, to paraphrase from King's famous speech, that the son of slave owners and slaves sit today at the table of brotherhood. Could Obama have become President if his mother wasn't white? Sadly, one suspects not. Is racism dead in America? In action perhaps (though some would dispute even that), but in the mind certainly not. America has come a long way, but it has not reached the end of its journey, it has not reached the destination of racial equality, the destination of a society without discrimination.

Meanwhile in India, our national dailies have launched their search for the 'Indian Obama'. The Times of India asks its readers, in an opinion poll, whether Rahul Gandhi can become an 'Obama'. It is at these moments that I think the ToI is fit only to be toilet paper. By promoting such views, it makes the fairly difficult job of dumbing down the Indian middle class look extremely easy. But more on that in another post. Rahul Gandhi and Barack Obama have nothing in common apart from the fact that they are under fifty and probably think in English.

In fact, if I were pressed to name one Indian politician that can be compared to Obama, it is Mayawati. This may sound absurd, but if one were to look beyond her birthday bashes and penchants for diamonds and multi layered cakes, one would find that there is at least some truth in my claim. Mayawati comes from the Dalit community, a community which has been discriminated against for centuries in India, just as blacks have been in America. Moreover she is a woman, and so has fought not one but two biases-caste as well as gender (in this sense she may even be one up on Obama, resembling not just a black politician but a black, female politician). She has also displayed immense amounts of political skill, succeeding in UP, one of the most politically treacherous states in India, just as Obama displayed skill in rising through the murky underworld of Chicago politics. Her success, as Ajoy Bose points out in his biography of her titled 'Behenji', is truly remarkable.

People may point to Obama's eloquence and Mayawati's shrill tone, Obama's Harvard education and Mayawati's BA from DU, but I would argue that these are reflective not of major differences in leaders as much as major differences in political traditions. America has a long history of Ivy League senators, of brilliant orators. India has a history (especially recently) of politicians who rise out of the masses instead of those who impose themselves on them. I am not saying whether this is a good or bad thing. I am merely stating a fact.

Moreover, just as Obama's meteoric rise does not mean that affirmative action should end, Mayawati's rise (which many believe is not yet over) does not mean that reservations in India should end. When Mayawati won in 2006 with a absolute majority of her own, I remember a friend of mine in school, who was from UP, went around chanting, (as a joke), that 'chamar raj' had been imposed on his state. The reality however is probably closer to the opposite. Mayawati may be CM, but crimes against dalits still take place regularly around the country, even in UP, not to mention the fact that they are discriminated against when it comes to both employment and education. This exists despite the fact that reservations are still around, something that many middle class city dwellers are apt to forget. And while reservations are misused, while they do promote a degree of division within society, I believe that the amount of good they do far exceeds the bad.

The two things that set Mayawati apart from Obama are:
1) That she does not appeal, yet, to a broad spectrum of Indians as Obama does to Americans. Until she can do this, she will remain a regional force, not a national one.
2) She is excessively corrupt while Obama has managed to maintain a fairly clean image. Both Mayawati and Obama function in political systems where corruption is rife. The fact that one has an aura of incorruptibility gives him a strong advantage over the other, who will never really be able to rise out of the murky world of bribery, 'gifts' and dubious financial transactions.
Yet, while she may not be an exact copy of Obama, I still believe that out of all our politicians, Mayawati resembles Obama the most. And so when Obama said that his story could only happen in America, I would beg to disagree. Bhimrao Ambedkar led the drafting committee of the Indian Constitution when many black men still didnt have the vote, when the KKK was alive and well. And Mayawati first became CM of UP when a black man becoming President in the US seemed impossible. Barack Obama's story is an amazing one, but I would argue that it can occur in any functioning democracy. As the then PM, Narasimha Rao said when Mayawati first became CM, her success is a miracle of democracy.

No comments:

Post a Comment