Welcome Back President Bush
“This may be my last visit to you during your presidency and let me say, thank you very much. The people of India deeply love you”. These were the words uttered by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to then President George Bush when he visited the United States in September of last year. Manmohan Singh and George Bush were back on the same stage yesterday in New Delhi. They spoke at the Leadership Summit organized by Hindustan Times. There is no question that George Bush’s term as the President of the United States is the turning point for the relationship between India and the United States. United States and India do not have a very long relationship. But Americans have been very fascinated by India for a very long time and the country has made an impact on India in a way that very few Indians are aware of.
Famous American photographers and reporters like Margaret Bourke-White and Diane Arbus photographed and reported on Mahatma Gandhi and his independence movement in the 30’s and 40’s. The famous American war correspondent Webb Miller (also known as Vince Walker) reported on the salt Satyagraha and the raid on the Dharasana Salt Work. Coverage of the Independence movement by American journalists turned the world opinion against British colonial rule. The pressure applied by the American government on Britain was one of the reasons that forced Britain to give up its colonies after WWII (NOTE: the role of Vince Walker was played by Martin Sheen in the movie Gandhi).
B. R. Ambedkar was a student at Columbia University from 1913 onwards (he got a masters degree in arts and a doctorate in philosophy). He was greatly influenced by the first amendment to the US constitution popularly known as the “Bill of Rights”. Many of the concepts were incorporated into the Indian constitution by him later on in the late 1940’s when be became the architect of India’s constitution. After Independence India started following socialism, centrally planned economy and non-alignment (at least on paper but for the most part was a Soviet ally). This put India and the United States on opposite directions. But the end of the cold war has changed all that.
India was one of the few success stories during George Bush’s term. But very few Americans or for that matter Indians realize this. By changing American laws and by pressurizing the various world bodies that monitor nuclear non-proliferation President Bush successfully allowed India to enter the “nuclear group” in India’s terms (without signing the NPT). Americans normally do not bend over backwards to accommodate a country without very good reasons. America sees India as a very responsible nation and in general Americans are very fascinated by the diversity and complexity of a country like India. Americans also can understand the chaotic, corrupt and topsy turvy world of Indian politics (since their own politics is very similar in nature). Although America has a longer (Chinese immigrants help build the American railway system in the 18th century and most American cities today have a China town) and deeper relationship with China most American do not feel the same way about China.
Indian attitude towards George Bush is mixed. When George Bush was president India was one of the few countries where he was admired by the majority of the people (the other country was Poland). But many Indians also question his actions in other parts of the world and have a negative opinion of him because of it. Indians by nature are not selfish when it comes to talking about policy (why is the US attacking Iraq? But the question should be how does it matter to us?). If we look at the world through our own self interest then George Bush’s presidency is the best thing that happened to India in a very long time.
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Category: News & Government