By Girish Nikam
should unquestionably go down in the history of mankind as a defining moment. It was not just to the African-American man and his family members who stood there displaying no signs of nervousness, but all those joyous millions who had a ring side view, either on the streets of Washington DC around the Capitol Hill, or those in front of the TV sets around the world. Nothing could have however hit home what it meant to a whole multitude of white Americans better than this phone call from America, just a few moments after Barack Obama completed a stirring inaugural speech, which put to shade one of the most brilliant orators and communicators in modern politics, Bill Clinton’s inaugural speech of 1993.

The call was from friend Nancy Gustaffson Radoff, an American lawyer, who could not even wait for Obama to settle down back in his chair, for her to share her thoughts of the moment. Within moments of the conversation began, she just broke down and wept like a baby across the trans-continental telephone line. “You just don’t know what it means to me, Girish”, she sobbed. A couple of days earlier, she had mailed a short note from Washington DC, where she had reached just to be near the place of history being made, though she had no intention to be at the inauguration itself among the teeming millions, due to her ill health. It explained what it meant to her.

She wrote, “I can hardly explain what it means to me to see this moment arrive. I grew up when the civil rights movement in America was at its peak, and remember the speeches and terrible deaths of JFK and Martin Luther King, Jr. I never met in person anyone who was not my own white color until I was 11 years old, simply because the neighborhood where I lived was segregated by chance and opportunity to succeed, not because of any intentional plan. But I was with the struggling underclass emotionally all my life from what I saw in papers and on the TV. As a child I cried when I heard and saw news of the assassinations of those hopeful leaders of a new America. Now I was looking right at the site of the swearing in of the first black president of our country, something I surely didn’t expect to see any time soon, and seated next to me, not a white man but an Indian man. What awesome changes have happened in my life, and what a moment this is to be here in Washington”.

For Nancy and her millions of white American brethren it was a moment of personal catharsis, and as she said, through the sobs, the undoing of what they had done to their country in the last eight years. “For the last eight years I wore a black band on my wrist saying, ‘I didn’t vote for George Bush’ and now to see this happening in front of my eyes—-” she trailed off unable to control herself.

After the many moments of silence over the long distance line, interspersed by her attempts to get hold of herself, Nancy trailed off, “I hope we will again be looked upto by the world” or words to that effect, as it was difficult to remember the exact words, as one tried to control one’s emotions too.

After having overcome this deeply emotional interaction, when one looked at the whole process of the extra-ordinarily historic transformation, what struck one was how much India as a secular democracy is different from America. Both democracies pride on its constitution and traditions to keep religion out of statecraft. Yet the American Presidential oath taking is a quasi- religious affair, with President-elect making a highly publicized and tradition-bound visit to Church minutes before taking oath. The swearing in ceremony itself is replete with Christian religious symbolism, with a Reverend making a speech, apparently spiritual in nature. The President-elect takes oath with his hand on a bible, held by his wife. There are soul singers who sings very religious./spiritual song at the ceremony.

But look at what happens in India. For one we don’t have priests or mullahs or pastors praying at the oath taking ceremonies of any of our elected chief executives. We don’t have a Bhagavad Geeta or a bible or a quran being employed to take the oath. In fact there are no religious symbols on display during the entire exercise, either constitutionally mandated or tradition bound. One wonders what if the President-elect of USA ever is a non-believer or does not keep faith in Christianity. Simple answer is they have no hope in hell to get elected.

In India we have the oaths administered to Prime Ministers, Ministers and Chief Ministers which give room for both believers and non-believers, and there is no big deal made out of it. We have had several people take oath as Ministers and Chief Ministers by avowing in the name of “truth” and not “god”, which is perfectly acceptable in the Constitution. Some of the names in the recent times which come to mind are that of Jyoti Basu, Buddhadeb Bhattacharya and other communist leaders, which is not a surprise at all. But we have had even non-communist leaders like Sharad Pawar, Jaipal Reddy, Mani Shankar Aiyar in recent times and yes, of course, even Pramod Mahajan, preferring the oath “in the name of truth” instead of god. And it has never affected their politics or their standing.

Obama tried to make up for this heavily Christian oriented ceremony by mentioning in his speech, how America is a “nation of Christians, Muslims, Jews and Hindus and non-believers”. The enormous challenge he faces is to take all of them along not just in his own country, but also across the world. One should remember that he has taken over a country which is deeply divided not only in religious and racial terms, but also in political terms. As we have seen in India a secular constitution alone does not ensure a society bereft of communal hatred. And in America too, an African American entering the White House will not end the racial division. It is a long haul ahead. American people like Nancy, however have done well by themselves ensuring that their country embark on the road to being a better nation and hopefully also ensure a better world. There is no more time to lose in this task, for Obama now.