Indian Immigrants Miffed at Obama Image

Tribal representatives of immigrants commonly have their sensitivity meters set on High
to detect any possible insult to their culture. A recent complaint
comes from Indians residing in America who have a history of insisting
on their specialness. (See my 2007 article, Dogs, Frogs and Dalits: The Indian Model Minority Has a Dark Side, for details.)

The Indians think Newsweak’s recent cover of a multiple-armed Obama
offends their tribe because of the similarity to a Hindu image:

Newsweek Depiction of Obama as Lord Shiva Upsets Some Indian-Americans, Fox News, November 21, 2010

Newsweek’s depiction of President Obama on its latest cover has irked
some Indian Americans who, fresh off Obama’s visit to the world’s
largest democracy, are not happy with the image of the U.S. president as
the Hindu deity, Lord Shiva.

The Newsweek cover shows Obama with several arms carrying policy
issues while balancing on one leg. The headline reads: �God of All
Things� with a subtitle, �Why the Modern Presidency May be too Much for
One Person to Handle.�

Shiva, who is one of three pre-eminent gods in the Hindu religion
along with Brahma and Vishnu, is considered the destroyer of the world,
which must end, metaphorically speaking, in order to be reborn as a more
universalistic place. However, the god’s purpose is not to foretell an
apocalyptic ending.

Note to Indians: this image does not cause Americans to think that
Obama is being compared to Shiva. Most citizens these days would see the
magazine cover as cleverly representing multitasking, nothing more.

In other India news, the homeland still struggles with the strict
class division of hereditary caste. Some wistful types like to imagine
their country as a spiritual society because of yoga and meditation
etc., but the inequalities of caste paint a different picture entirely.

Indian pol tries win vote on his record, not caste, AP, November 19, 2010

Over the past five years, Nitish Kumar built roads, fought crime and
helped rescue the state of Bihar from the near-anarchy that had
condemned most of its 83 million people to a life of fear and poverty.

Now, he is fighting for his political life.

Kumar’s fate in the election in Bihar, a six-stage vote that began
last month and ends Saturday, will test whether delivering development
can also deliver votes in a region long dominated by caste-based
politics. The outcome is being closely watched across India, a rising
regional power that is plagued by corruption, poverty, a lack of
infrastructure and raft of other development problems.

�If he loses, it will show that good governance is thankless,� said
Shaibal Gupta, an economist at the Asian Development Research Institute.

One of India’s poorest and least developed states, Bihar has long
been dominated by identity politics, with communities delivering their
votes en masse to parties favored by leaders of their caste group. Since
elections were never fought on the issues, the state’s leaders felt no
pressure to deliver.

While other parts of India were beginning to enjoy the fruits of the
country’s economic boom, Bihar remained a lawless backwater.

Armed criminal gangs roamed freely, kidnapping children, shooting top
police officers and judges in broad daylight and extorting protection
money from businesses. When the sun set, few people dared venture
outside, even in the capital of Patna.