The new battleground: The Congress will now take up the
U.S.-India nuclear deal.
Hindustan Times, India
India and America:
'Howdy Pardner!'
"In the aftermath of the
landmark waiver from the Nuclear Suppliers Group and efforts by the United
States to have it passed, it seems clear that America, for reasons best known
to itself, sees India as the 'good guy.' … now it's perhaps time to ask why
America has worked so hard to give India a ticket to the world's high
table."
By Sagarika Ghose*
September 9, 2008
India
- Hindustan Times - Original Article (English)
A decade ago, Jairam Ramesh
wrote an insightful essay entitled Yankee Go Home But Take Me With You 
. It was an
analysis of the elaborate hypocrisy of the Indian political establishment,
which publicly preached a loud anti-Americanism and privately yearned for all
things Starred and Striped.
The Indo-U.S. nuclear deal
signals an end to this hypocrisy. Today, the preachy sanctimoniousness about
American imperialism is restricted to the Left. MPs now take crash courses in
leadership at Yale University under the India-Yale parliamentary leadership
program. Many of the government's key economic advisors are bureaucrats and
academics who have had long tenures at the World Bank, the International
Monetary Fund or Ivy League universities. When George W. Bush came to visit in
2006, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that as far as America and India were
concerned, there were "no limits on partnership."
Attitudes toward America have
transformed as rapidly as Indian society. In the '60s and '70s, the Nehruvian
elite [adherents of Nehru ]
studied at [Britain's] Oxbridge, scorned upward mobility, was proud of
non-alignment and believed that proximity to the Soviet Union was India's
manifest destiny. Now a rapidly globalizing India in the throes of an upwardly
mobile revolution has adopted America as its subconscious role model,
notwithstanding the radical chic's protestations about Bush.
In the aftermath of the
landmark waiver from the Nuclear Suppliers Group and efforts by the United
States to have it passed, it seems clear that America, for reasons best known
to itself, sees India as the "good guy." And in its anxiety to
emigrate, study and imitate the U.S., the Indian middle class seems to have
shed all reservations about America. Today, the Left's hatred of America and
the [Hindu] Bharatiya Janata Party's artificial diatribes against U.S.
ambitions seem incongruous in the face of a massively pro-American
middle-class, in which it would be difficult to find a family that doesn't have
at least one member residing in America. After all, the India International
Centre, the hub of India's chattering class, was designed by an American.
FabIndia, the preferred garment store for the "authentically desi"
[desi refers to South Asians] was founded by an aristocratic American
entrepreneur. [FabIndia is a chain of
stores that retails ethnic products made by craftsmen from rural India].
Indian
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh: In obtaining a waiver
-
with
overwhelming U.S. diplomatic force - for India's previously
sanctioned nuclear program, he won the greatest victory
of his
entire career. Indians are asking, why is America so
good to us?
There are several reasons for
this growing public closeness. First, the increasingly influential Non-Resident
Indian community in America, distinguished by individuals like PepsiCo
chief Indra Nooyi, Citicorp CEO Vikram Pandit, Newsweek editor Fareed
Zakaria and Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal. Indian immigrants to the U.S. are
not seen as the labor class. Instead in their affluence, education and
achievements, they are comparable to privileged White communities. With its
strong links to India, this Non-Resident Indian community forms a
powerful mouthpiece for their long lost country, convincing American
classmates, colleagues and politicians that India is a repository of talent and
values like hard work, social conservatism and big families that resonate with
Americans.
There is an army of talented
Indian academics teaching at campuses across the United States. Many of these
universities have far livelier South Asia studies departments than in fusty
Oxbridge. The Tatas [The Tata Group is a multinational based in Mumbai] are
even setting up an academic center at the University of Wisconsin.
Indian-American children are winning Spelling Bee contests, and Indian bankers
are funding presidential campaigns. The Indian story in America is by and large
a success story - and the American vision of India is shaped by the dynamic
representatives of the subcontinent which they see all around them in New York
and Chicago.
Second, the magnitude of
American business interests in India also draws the countries closer. The
millions of outsourced jobs, the inflow of Foreign Institutional Investors and
the many American companies and business ties make America India's largest
trading partner. Third, there is the scale of American "soft power"
in India. Hollywood films, coffee bars, TV shows, fashion, rock stars, books,
magazines and the cultural attractiveness of America for the English-speaking
and aspirant Indian has never been higher. The latest film Rock On [see poster
below] is a blatant imitation of an American "back-to-college" film,
complete with investment banker/rock musician hero and rock band groupies.
India intrudes occasionally in this first-of-its kind American film set in
Mumbai and made in Hindi.
Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
The
Indian film Rock On: America's cultural influence couldn't
be more stark. 
Music Video for Movie 'Rock On'
from India
But fourthly, there is
another important reason why these once-estranged democracies are drifting
ever-closer: They have discovered, quietly, and almost at the same time, a
common enemy. The rise of China, with its ruthlessly pragmatic foreign policy,
its lack of compunction in arming militias in Sudan or dictators in Pakistan,
its cheap exports and its scant respect for democracy are no source of comfort
to the U.S. For India, China is the uneasy neighbor at odds with a globally
important India. Beijing tried to block the Nuclear Suppliers Group waiver,
kept India out of gatherings like APEC and the East Asia summit, and has never
supported India in its bids for membership on the U.N. Security Council.
The Islamist terrorist is the
other common enemy. If George Bush is the "Great Satan" for many
parts of the Muslim world, then India, too, is perceived by many as brutal
toward its Muslim minority, holding down Muslim-majority Kashmir with a force
of 400,000 troops. America is on the hit list of global jihadis; India is on
the hit list of local groups thirsting for vengeance. Sections of India's political
class and Parliament spoke out strongly and justly against Bush's unilateral
invasion and bombing of a sovereign country and there were racist attacks
against brown-skinned people after September 11. Yet the people-to-people
contacts suffered no real setback.
Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
So perhaps it's time to be
introspective about our relationship with America. There was a time when to be
known as "pro-American" was to be accused of being a CIA agent or
suffering from a slavish loss of sovereignty. But now it's perhaps time to ask
why America has worked so hard to give India a ticket to the world's high
table. No doubt the United States is motivated by its own commercial and
strategic ambitions. But it is also proof that America, more than any other
country in the world, seems at peace with India Rising.
*Sagarika Ghose is Senior
Editor, CNN-IBN
[Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
September 9, 5:55pm]
