America’s learning curve

For a country that was descending into the depths of despair, even simple words like ‘Yes We Can!’ were suffused with the hope and expectation of change. Of course, the most difficult journey for a political leader to traverse is that between expectation and achievement. In the months ahead, America and the rest of the world will be closely watching Obama’s journey. What content will he put into his promise of change? The election of the first African American to the country’s highest office has no doubt already marked a big transformation in the US. But the significance of Obama is far greater than the colour of his skin. It will lie in his policies and performance. Let us wait and watch.

Let us get some basic facts clear, facts that show how slow and halting America’s own march to progress. When Obama was born in 1961, the marriage between his Black Kenyan father and White American mother was illegal in as many as 19 out of 50 states in the US. The Constitution of India, on the other hand, enshrined, in 1950 itself, equality as one of the foundational principles of our newly independent nation—equality of rights and freedoms of every Indian, cutting across their racial, religious or caste identities. Dr B.R. Ambedkar belonged to a caste that was previously treated as “untouchable”. But his brilliance ensured no prejudice came in the way of his becoming the principal architect of the Indian Constitution. Could this have been possible in the United States?

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