What struck me about the coverage of the Obama Phenomenon in the Indian media was a certain tendency of self-deprecation. Some people bemoaned that India does not have a transformational leader like Obama. They were full of praise for America. There is nothing wrong with praising America where praise is due. But in doing so, they also berated India, saying how Indian society is stagnant and resistant to change. They seem to find nothing good in Indian society, nothing reformative in our history, and nothing progressive in our national values.

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?

When Obama was growing up, segregation between Whites and Blacks in public places was still an ugly reality in America. In many states, Blacks stood at the back in buses. They drank at separate water fountains reserved for ‘Coloureds’. At restaurants they couldn’t sit on the same tables as the Whites.

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