Samatha India

(Siddhartha Kumar)

Source: www.dailypioneer.com

Switching to the past
BY Chandrabhan Prasad
Mayawati is a born Dalit. That is an irrefutable identity. Despite her
repeated claims that she is the leader of the Sarva Jan — meaning
‘all the people’, society still describes her as a “Dalit Leader”. The
society’s perception cannot be changed by her. As a political
counterpart, Barack Obama is genetically a Sarva Jan person. His
father, Barack Hussein Obama I, was Black and mother, Ann Dunham,
White. Still, Obama is a Black in the American imagery.
Obama and Mayawati are similar in many respects. Mayawati was born in
1956, and Obama in 1961 — a five year age difference. Operating in
two different continents and societies, both are peers in age.
Competing for top jobs in their respective countries, both have
charisma and exceptional oratory skills.
Obama’s march to the American Presidency is a near formality. The race
for the Presidency has began, and he is in straight fight with John
McCane. There is no third candidate. The same cannot be said about
Mayawati’s march to India’s premiership. The race for premiership is
yet to began, and there are a host of aspirants, some cropping even at
the last moment.
Here is a contrast. India is not America, and vice versa. America is a
capitalist social order, India is a half feudal, a quarter socialist,
and a quarter capitalist. America is Christian, India is Hindu. But,
both, have striking similarities. America has a race split society,
India is split by caste system. Dalits and the American Blacks have
suffered similarly — segregation and exclusion being common to both.
Yet, Obama’s Presidency is a certainty and Mayawati’s premiership a
probability.
The contrast gets murkier. What Obama is today; i.e. acceptable to a
great number of Americans cutting across race, ethnicity, and gender,
Mayawati achieved that distinction an year back when the Uttar Pradesh
society chose her to rule. Her blending of Brahmins and Dalits, the
two historical adversaries, under the leadership of the latter, was
history’s greatest social engineering project. What, thus, Obama is
set to achieve this November, Mayawati achieved that in May 2007 in
India’s most populace state of UP.
In other words, Obama of November 2008, and Mayawati of May 2007 look
strikingly identical. Even public facets of today’s Obama and
yesterday’s Mayawati are identical. In the US, no racial/social block
knows whom Obama represents. In Blacks’ popular imagery, Obama is
Black and his victory will uplift their self-esteem. The Whites think
Obama is an exceptionally gifted American who is Black, and who can be
a social harmoniser with invisible powers to re-package the American
dreams. To reinforce this belief, Obama has been asking for reforms
within the Black community, specially on violence, drug and fatherhood
fronts.
When Mayawati mounted her Dalit-Brahmin thesis, she anchored an agenda
common to all — rid the State of lawlessness. None clearly knew who
she represented. Like Obama, she too had transcended her Dalit-ness to
becoming a darling of the majority. She too kept cautioning Dalits not
to use the Dalit Act indiscriminately. The secret to Obama’s rise,
apart from his polished Black genius and personal style, is his
non-partisan agenda. Mayawati’s rise was same — a non-partisan
agenda.
But, post July 22 dramatics, things seem to have taken dissimilar
directions. She is now being perceived by an influential section of
society for being partisan. She is seen gravitating toward the
anti-American camp. The anti-Americanism has its own logical
trajectory. Anti-Americans are duty bound to fight for Iran, and stand
with Russia or China should they get into a confrontation with the US.
Anti-Americanism can be the ideological belief of a party and it is
entitled to pursue its agenda. But, is defending Iran, fighting
America or ‘saving’ Muslims of the world from America an agenda of
average Indians? After all, Mayawati joined the ‘pull down UPA
Government campaign’ on reasons referred above.
One might argue that Mayawati’s agenda was to dismantle the Congress.
That’s OK, as Congress has been a habitual betrayer of the Dalit
cause. But, Congress could have been fought on grounds other than
Anti-Americanism.
There is still time for Mayawati to revert to 2007. Forget the
Premiership, within UP the Sarv Samaj may start rethinking on her. Or,
she can adopt Obama’s model who seems to be emulating the Mayawati of
2007.