Today is a historic day for America. The country just elected it’s first Black president after 43 White ones.
The US has come of age.
Leave alone the glass ceiling, the steel door has been blasted open.
Makes me think of India. When will we Indians rise through petty barriers to appoint leaders based on merit and not their race, religion, or gender?
Oh wait…we have already had a Muslim president who became a much revered leader for the masses; a Dalit Behenji heading a predominantly Hindu state; an Italian leader of the Congress; and a woman president.
Never mind. America still has some catching up to do.
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@ Amreekandesi: We in India have had THREE Muslim Presidents, 2 Dalit Presidents from different religions, 1 Parsi ‘first laddie’, 1 Italian ‘first lady’ and now sarvesarva, 1 woman PM, 1 Sikh PM,
The point is not symbolism; the challenge is to make sure such success has a habit of repeating itself and replicating itself in society. THAT is an altogether different challenge.
As for woman Presidents in America, hah!
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You bet and please don’t forget Indira Gandhi!
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Thanks for the additions to the list, Shefaly. Maybe the next american president will be a muslim woman
Good point, Dinesh!
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Let us not get very self-congratulatory. Except for Mayawati and Indira Gandhi, not a single one of the other ‘symbols’ was directly elected by the people. How many of these appointments are reflective of what people actually think? For the purists who may say that even Mayawati was not directly elected, let me clarify that she was always the only – and clearly publicised – BSP contender for CM’ship. Similarly for Indira Gandhi, though in terms of sheer achievement, Mayawati wins, since Mrs. Gandhi was to the manor born.
I am proud of the fact that Mayawati has made it, but we must be careful of not interpreting the other ‘tokenisms’ and political accidents as proof that we have arrived. The truth is, we have a bloody long way to go.
Cheers,
Quirky Indian
http://quirkyindian.wordpress.com
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@ AD
If the next American president is a Muslim woman, I will eat all my shoes! And that is a huuuuuuuuuuuuge feast, I tell you.
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Shefaly – What can i say. Amen!
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I feel if we need to rise above the color/caste/gender categories, Obama has to perform.
I hate the reservation quotas and self pity some people use to get places and then fail the whole or, should I say in Obama’s words the, FUNDAMENTAL purpose of the position/seat.
So whether a Hillary comes to power or not proving what women can do…… an intelligent/sensible president/leader is the bare minimum requirement and then we can fight over fancy stuff
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Quirky Indian – I did a clever thing there. I didnt say ‘elected’ but ‘appointed’. I do realise that not all of these people were elected by the public.
But that is besides the point. The point is that there have been, and still are, people of diverse races and religions who have been put in very responsible positions in India, which would be unthinkable in other countries.
That is the beauty of our country, regardless of the fact that there are a million other things that are wrong.
Like they say, nobody is perfect!
Amlistening – Very true. All these statistics are just for fun. The important thing is performance. Obama carries a heavy weight on his young shoulders in terms of the public’s expectations from him.
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AD – that was a very clever thing indeed….. and I missed it!
But that’s exactly the point I was making – in our political culture of a complete and total lack of accountability, token national appointments mean the ‘appointers’ are typically not liable for the unpopularity of their decisions (even during elections, based on our fragmented politics), even if these decisions are not aligned with the wishes of the people, or don’t reflect the mood of the people. In which case, it becomes very dangerous to see these tokenisms are reflective of some mythical Indian liberal ethos.
I hope things change though!
Cheers,
Quirky Indian
http://quirkyindian.wordpress.com
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Quirky Indian: I agree with you somewhat. I have some strong opinions about how politics works in our country, but it’s a fact that people like APJ Abul Kalam, Indira Gandhi, Gyani Zail Singh, Sam Manekshaw, to name a few, are/were all icons of their time.
Other countries have their own glass ceilings. It is still arguably unimaginable for americans to vote a woman as president. A non american born person cannot even stand for office.
India has seemingly risen over such barriers, however flawed the democracy might be.
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[...] Continue Reading [...]
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My sentiments exactly
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