A.R. Rahman's Journey to the Oscars - International Indian

POLITICSth16ANNI V ERSARYINDIAN AMERICANS& BARACK OBAMAby: Davita MaharajEvery day on the wayto work these pastwinter months, Ipassed a large handpaintedsign onto anapartment window. It was paintedwith the same kind of fluffy paintthat Americans use to write “JustMarried!” on their cars as theyhead off to their honeymoons.But this window referred toanother kind of honeymoon. “YesWe Did!” it says.Throughout his electioncampaign, President BarackObama used the slogan, “Yes WeCan” to rouse up voters. Eventoday, T-shirts, bumper stickers,and the occasional Internet adstill pop up as reminders of hissuccessful campaign.Why Most Indians EmbracedObamaThe vast majority of Indiansin the United States supportedObama. Their turnout at the 2008Democratic Convention wasunprecedented, totaling 50 SouthAsian delegates, of which 37were Indians.Just hours before Obama’svictory, an informal poll byWashington-based non-partisanThe meaning of his victory to IndiansThe vast majority ofIndians in the Statessupported Obama.non-profit organization‘Bridging Nations’found that 81 percentof Indian Americanswith U.S. citizenshipsurveyed said theywould vote for Obama,with only 19 percentvoting for McCain.‘Bridging Nations’said their poll wassupported by theNational AsianAmerican Survey(NAAS), which wasjointly conducted byfour top universities;it revealed that 62percent of Indiansplanned to vote forObama, 12 percentplanned to vote forMcCain, and 25percent were undecided. Clearly the number grew since then, in partdue to grassroots organizations such as South Asians for Obama(SAFO). SAFO succinctly summed up South Asian alignment withObama by explaining,“…His story is our story. As the son of a foreign-born father, he haspersonally experienced the challenges of race and identity that affectour community. By uniting around Barack Obama’s candidacy forPresident in 2008, the South Asian community can assume a leadingrole in shaping the future of America.”SAFO formed a strong presence on Myspace, Facebook, and Flickr,which target a young audience.This makes sense, sinceuniversity students and youngIndians tend to espouse politicallyliberal views. Another partialreason that many Indians votedfor Obama is that the majority ofIndians live in Democrat statessuch as New York, New Jersey,and California.Devon Phillips works inthe South Asian community ofObama’s hometown, Chicago.There she observed that theoverwhelming majority of herHindu and Muslim friends,young and old, gave Obamatheir blessing.Does Obama’s victorymark a new day forthe Dalits of India?“There were several articles in Desi Newspapers such as Swad-E-Pakistan, The Urdu Times, and The Indian Reporter, that were allwithout fail whole-heartedly behind Obama and regurgitated much ofthe rhetoric the Obama-campaign was known for,” says Phillips.While she notes that a few Chicago-Indians were softened towardthe McCain family because of his Bangladeshi daughter, mostChicago-Bangladeshis supported Obama due to his minority statusand their dissatisfaction with the Bush administration’s involvement inIraq and Afghanistan. Indeed, most Indians with whom I have spokenare hopeful that Obama’s Muslim background will serve as a bridgebetween Christians and Muslims throughout the world.Another “bridge” to the world came with President Obama’schoice of Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State. Clinton’s South Asianconnections and popularity made yet another splash among Indianseverywhere. As Clinton herself once joked at a fundraiser hosted byMaryland-based Indian Dr. Rajwant Singh, she could “certainly run forthe Senate seat in Punjab and win easily.”Finally, many urban, lower income South Asians favored Obama’sKeynesian-leaning plans for reviving the U.S. economy, made hopefulby his many promises to struggling families and minorities.Obama’s Victory Inspires India’s DalitsJust four decades ago, some communities in the U.S. deterredAfrican Americans from voting, and forbade them from using the samerestrooms as whites.Now that America’s most powerful leader is an African American,minorities can no longer claim victimization. The victims have become victors.In the words of Jonetta Rose Barras, political analyst for The Washington Post,“African Americans have just entered the no-excuses zone.”So have Indians.On a snowy day in Denver,Colorado, just days after theUS presidential elections, Ireviewed the elections withMoses Parmar, a prominentDalit leader in North India.He explained that Obama’svictory marks a new day forthe Dalits of India. In the past,whenever Americans condemnedIndia’s caste system, Indians couldeasily call Americans hypocrites,by pointing to America’s racism.Parmar suggests that nowAmerica has the necessarycredentials to forthrightly addresscaste issues and the plight ofIndia’s Dalits, noting that much ofIndia “still cannot accept a Dalit asprime minister.” He imagines thatthese same caste-conscious Indiansmay be shocked, even appalled,that Americans have elected anAfrican-American president.Thus, while Obama establishesa victorious precedence forIndia’s Dalits, theirs may be amuch steeper hill to climb.Shashi Tharoor, former82 83The International IndianThe International Indian