A historic moment
Tuesday, January 20th, 2009
Photo credit: beagleskin
Today, the day Barack Obama becomes the President of the United States, is an inspiring moment, no matter where in the world we are. For many in the US, this is a landmark for the country’s African-American citizens. For India, there is another connection. The Black Civil Rights Movement and India’s Independence struggle had a common spirit to them, even if they were decades apart - both Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi had adopted the ideas of non-violence and civil disobedience from Henry Thoreau’s 1849 essay, Resistance to Civil Government.
Both MLK and Gandhi inspired millions of people to unite towards demanding fundamental rights that were denied them, and emboldened thousands of ordinary individuals to perform acts of resistance that required remarkable courage.
I admit, I was moved while watching Barack Obama’s inaugural speech on TV. Obama sees himself as a post-partisan figure, whose election united blacks and whites. His victory certainly does not mean the end of racism in the US, but it is a sign that people can at least occasionally, and at critical moments, overcome tribalism when it comes to race and identity.
In India as well, we struggle against the politics of identity, and we’ve seen pretty intractable vote banks around caste, religion, region and class. Obama’s win is a moment of optimism for people everywhere who hope to move past such politics. It’s why his ‘campaign of hope’ resonated so much across the world.