The historic swearing-in of Barack Hussein Obama as the 44th president of the United States of America on January 20 before a multitude of 2 million citizens — arguably the most gracious transfer of political power in global history — offers politicians and the people of the world’s most populous democracy, several valuable lessons in meaningful democratic governance.
The worthiest lesson to India’s political class and the people is that a prerequisite of meaningful, substantial democracy is actual access to the right of equality and upward mobility for all citizens. On January 20, a black African-American whose ancestors had suffered slavery and segregation for centuries, and whose father, as America’s new president observed in his inaugural speech, might have been refused service in a Washington restaurant because of the colour of his skin, took the “most sacred oath” as a president elected by the white majority population of the USA. It was a defining moment in American history, and testimony to the capability of this most idealistic of all democracies to atone and regenerate itself. Little wonder the US is the most preferred destination of oppressed and short-changed people around the world.
In sharp contrast is the hollow democracy that is contemporary India. Dalit citizens who endured unspeakable iniquities of the caste system for several millennia still suffer socio-economic exclusion and discrimination, and have yet to experience meaningful atonement and equality. Pertinently, a Dalit has never risen to the position of prime minister of independent India, and an overwhelming majority of the country’s traditionally backward castes and communities remain poor and ignorant, with little prospect of upward mobility.
Yet the fault is not entirely of the people and the electorate. Leaders of post-independence India’s Dalit and minority communities have exhibited a depressing tendency to harp on historical injustices, and practice divisive caste politics. Unlike predecessor black American leaders who aspired to high office in the US, during his unprecedented presidential campaign Barack Obama adopted the intelligent strategy of looking ahead rather than regress into history, and promised all-embracing inclusive politics. By abjuring black ghetto language and offering deeply researched solutions for resolving the grave problems confronting Americans regardless of race and pigmentation, he offered the majority white population an opportunity to make amends for the historical acts of omission and commission it had visited upon America’s black population.
Rejection of divisive politics based on ethnicity and identity, and the need to look ahead with hope rather than backward in anger. That’s the lesson Barack Obama’s presidency offers to politicians and citizens of this country. It’s for We the People to learn from it.