AN AMERICAN PARADIGM FOR INDIA!

 

AN AMERICAN PARADIGM FOR INDIA!

Dr M. D. Thomas

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The 46th President of the United States of America, Joe Biden, who has assumed office on the 20th January in the 21st year of the 21st century, has made a ‘hop, step and jump’ in good governance, along with his stature of leadership, on the 6th day of March 2021.

The three areas through which he displayed his ‘hop, step and jump’ are these. One, he ‘congratulated the Indian-Americans’ at NASA for their outstanding contribution. Two, he has ‘appointed persons of Indian origin’ to several key positions of his government, too. Three, he had declared his will as the President when he won the elections to ‘unify than to divide and thus to restore the soul of America’, as well.

In a virtual interaction of video conference with the NASA team, the President complimented profusely for the successful, landing of the six-wheeled rover on Mars on the 18th day of February 2021 and for giving the country a ‘dose of confidence’, that too, at a time when the nation’s reputation as a scientific leader has been tattered by the pandemic of corona virus.

Having been thrilled at the pivotal role played by the Indian-American aerospace engineer Dr Swati Mohan, by being the ‘eyes and ears’ of the Perseverance rover mission of NASA, Joe Biden was full of praise for the ‘incredible honour’ and confidence she brought to America, in line with other Americans of Indian origin, his Vice President Kamala Harris, his speech writer Vinay Reddy, and the like.

“One of the reasons why America is ‘such an incredible country’ is we’re such a diverse country. We bring the best out of every single solitary culture in the world here in the United States of America, and we give people an opportunity to let their dreams run forward,” Joe Biden said, affirming the brilliant and sublime culture of ‘unity in diversity’ the United States of America has been proudly living for centuries.

Secondly, the Biden administration seems to rely on the maxim that ‘in America everyone should be given the opportunity to go as far as they can’, without being discriminated as citizens on any ground. A major application of this maxim was in the area of appointing to key positions persons of Indian origin as experts in public service, like AmeriCorps, the federal agency for volunteering and service.


While Sonali Nijhawan was named as Director of AmeriCorps State and National, Preston Kulkarni was appointed the new Chief of External Affairs. They are scheduled to support the agenda of the administration in some of the most urgent challenges of the time, like COVID-19, economic recovery, racial equity and climate change. In sum, some 55 persons of Indian origin were entrusted with the prime positions of America, in almost all sections, and it is highly creditable for America as a world leader.

 

Thirdly, in his victory speech, the then President-elect Joe Biden stated, “I pledge to be a president who seeks not to divide, but to unify”, to ‘heal America’, to ‘restore the soul of America’ and to ‘rebuild the backbone of the nation’. “I am humbled by the trust and confidence you’ve placed in me,” the 77 year old and seasoned democrat told the gathering, affirming his profound sense of humility and conviction.

Inviting the attention of the citizens to the fact that America is under the surveillance of the whole world as a ‘beacon for the globe’, Biden proceeded to confess that he wished to ‘lead not by the example of our power, but by the power of example’. The power of example that he emphasized America and its new leadership was vouched to be is that of ‘unifying and strengthening the nation’, by consolidating the diverse possibilities spread over not only within the various cultures of America but even in the entire world.

 

The threefold pro-Indian measures of the American government, I am sure, are such that every Indian, especially the Indian government and those of the rightist ideology, would be on the top of the world in praise of the Indian origin being recognized elsewhere. In fact, it is a matter of great credit that they got themselves culturally acclimatized to the new ground and excelled overwhelmingly in the interest of the nation they are currently part of. It is natural for anyone to feel elated about the fantastic recognition the fellow citizens who migrated from India to America receive in the country of their new belonging, as well.

 

Having been mesmerized by the American episode of leadership, I am sure, it is high time we considered how we Indians are habituated to behave towards people of foreign origin of any sort in India. ‘Sonia Gandhi’ is a very blatant case in point. It is obviously true that she came to India legitimately as the wife of an Indian citizen, who was one-time Prime Minister of India, and as the daughter-in-law of the preceding Indian Prime Minister. She was full of India in almost the entire way she conducted herself. All the same, not only Indians but almost the whole world is a witness to the ridiculous and unashamed sort of arguments that have been rising from Indians, mainly the politicians, as to her Italian and Christian origin.

 

Besides, the Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Parsi and Bahai traditions are being argued out as of non-Indian origin and are discriminated, and even ill-treated, as almost second class citizens, in various ways. The staring and eternal fact is that not only Aryans but even Dravidians and Tribals seem to have migrated to India at different times of the history, as per the latest research. That would amount to state that India is a land of non-Indians. When the relatively later come group begins to claim to be the original inhabitants of the land and to downgrade others, the irony of the fact is definitely at its culmination, manifestly so. 

 

Discrimination and division have been very patently part of the mainstream tradition of this land, unfortunately so. Of late, India seems to be becoming highly notorious for discriminative and divisive policies and practices, in diverse disguises. Considerations of high-low, right-left, right-wrong, dark-fair, this caste-that caste, this party-that party, this religion-that religion, this ideology-that ideology, national-anti-national, and the like, are polluting the religious, ethical, spiritual, social, cultural and national air of the country, to the point of defeating all good sense, I think, irredeemably so.   

 

In addition, the exceptionally singular contribution the religious communities of foreign origin and minority communities in India have made to the country, to the point of hugely enriching the nation, though is very apparent, is never acknowledged and is conveniently ignored. Education, medical care, social uplift, gender balance, constitutional values, inter-faith relations, social ethics, etc are outstanding souvenirs of those communities, to the visibility of the entire world. Even the British, Arab, Mughal, Turk, Greece, France, Portugal, Shak, etc have left their indelible character in making the India of today much better than before. To say the least, considering the multifarious developmental gadgets from the west widely spread over the country, it is next to impossible to identify what is purely Indian in India today.  

 

The razor-sharp question that arises right in front of us is when is our country, especially the custodians of the administration, governance and leadership, going to be mature enough to acknowledge and recognize the qualitative contribution of all individuals and communities in India, who have contributed to the making of the ‘India of today’? Without living the values enshrined in the Indian mottos of ‘satyamev jayate’ and ‘vasudhaiv kutumbakam’, along with the Constitution of India, I don’t think, our country is going to arrive anywhere worth the while. India requires doing a major homework in sharpening the ‘ethical fibre’ of life. In line with this noble task, the American leadership is a great ‘paradigm for India’, for ‘unifying, restoring and strengthening its soul’, by living truly democratic ways, undeniably so.

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The author is Director, Institute of Harmony and Peace Studies, New Delhi, and has been committed to cross-cultural perspectives, cross-scriptural values, constitutional values, interfaith relations, communal harmony, national integration and social wellbeing, for the past over 40 years. He contributes to the above cause through lectures, articles, video messages, conferences, social interactions, views at TV channels, and the like.

He could be viewed, listened to and contacted at the following portals – websites www.mdthomas.in’ (p), ‘https://mdthomas.academia.edu’ (p), ‘https://drmdthomas.blogspot.com’(p) and www.ihpsindia.org’ (o); social media https://www.youtube.com/InstituteofHarmonyandPeaceStudies’ (o), ‘https://twitter.com/mdthomas53’ (p), ‘https://www.facebook.com/mdthomas53’ (p); email ‘mdthomas53@gmail.com’ (p) and telephone 9810535378 (p).

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Published in ‘The Secular Citizen’ (Weekly Magazine), Mumbai, Vol. 30, Issue No 12, p. 14-15 – on 22-28 March 2021

 

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