President speaks out in Delhi on importance of empowering women in India in wake of recent high-profile sexual attacks
Barack Obama
challenged India’s record on religious tolerance and women’s rights on
Tuesday in a parting speech to students in Delhi that contrasted with
the at-times saccharin feel of a state visit designed to highlight the
closeness of the two countries.
Though careful to acknowledge inequality in the US, the president
devoted a substantial part of his speech to a lecture on the importance
of empowering women in society and addressed a recent spate of sexual
attacks in the emerging south Asian power.
“We know from experience that nations are more successful when their
women are successful,” said Obama. “These are facts. So if nations
really want to succeed in today’s global economy, they can’t simply
ignore the talents of half of their people.”
“Every daughter deserves the same chance as our sons,” he added. “And
every woman should be able to go about her day – to walk the street, or
ride the bus – and be safe and be treated with the respect and dignity
that she deserves.”
A series of high profile gang rapes and other attacks on women
in India have prompted widespread public anger. But despite repeated
promises by authorities to improve security for women, campaigners say
the problem remains acute.
During his only public appearance of the trip without prime minster
Narendra Modi by his side, Obama also promoted the rights of religious
minorities in the predominantly Hindu country.
“The peace we seek in the world begins in human hearts; it finds its
glorious expression when we look beyond any differences in religion or
tribe and rejoice in the beauty of every soul,” said the president, who
namechecked prominent Indian Muslims, Sikhs and sportswomen. “It’s when
all Indians, whatever your faith, go to the movies and applaud actors
like Shah Rukh Khan. When you celebrate athletes like Milkha Singh, or
Mary Kom,” he said.
Before becoming prime minister, Modi was previously denied a US visa
following accusations he had stood by during, or even encouraged,
sectarian violence in the western state of Gujarat in 2002, when he was
chief minister. More than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed by
rioters. The 64 year old former rightwing organiser has described
himself as a Hindu nationalist and been criticised for not being more
vocal about religious pluralism since taking power.
“No society is immune from the darkest impulses of men,” said Obama.
“India will succeed so long as it is not splintered along the lines of
religious faith.”
A series of attempts by rightwing Hindu groups to hold mass
conversion ceremonies has sparked controversy in recent months. Last
week the hardline Vishnu Hindu Parishad group claimed to have “re-converted” more than 20 Christians in the southern state of Kerala. The organisations come from the same broad political family as Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party.
However, the US president also acknowledged signs of progress in
Indian society, pointing to the symbolic choice of a woman military
officer to lead the honour guard on his arrival and to Modi’s humble
background as a tea-seller as sign of how India has become more socially mobile.
Modi, a political outsider, comes from low down on the tenacious
social hierarchy known as caste which still defines social status and
determines opportunities for hundreds of millions of Indians.
Obama’s own background as the first black US president helped soften
his blunt message to India as he also highlighted the two country’s
shared history of colonialism and oppression. He referenced his
grandfather’s work as a cook in Kenya when it was under British control,
and when Martin Luther King came to India to draw inspiration from
Gandhi, he was introduced to some schoolchildren as a “fellow
untouchable”.
“Even as we live in a world of wrenching inequities, we’re also proud
to live in countries where even the grandson of cook can become
president, even a Dalit can help write a constitution, and even a
tea-seller can become prime minister,” Obama said.
“Many countries, including America, grapple with complex questions of
identity and inequality,” he added in his speech, delivered before
2,000 students and human rights activists as Siri Fort auditorium in
Delhi.
“Right now, in crowded neighbourhoods not far from here, a man is
driving an auto-rickshaw, or washing somebody else’s clothes, or doing
the hard work no one else will do. A woman is cleaning somebody else’s
house. A young man is on a bicycle delivering lunch. A little girl is
hauling a heavy bucket of water. Their dreams, their hopes, are just as
big and beautiful and worthy as ours.”
The speech prompted lively discussion on Indian television afterwards
about whether it would be seen as a snub to Modi, but contrasted with
more effusive coverage of earlier speeches and more trivial moments such
as pictures of him chewing gum during Republic Day parade.
Siddarth Varadarajan, a Delhi-based analyst, said that the “very
gentle hint” about religious inclusiveness from Obama sent an “important
message”.
“He went about as far as any diplomatic visitor can go, and quoted
the constitution, so how can anyone object to that. But it highlights
the silence of the prime minister on this issue,” Varadarajan said.
Obama concluded by quoting Gandhi on India’s traditions of tolerance:
“He said, ‘for me, the different religions are beautiful flowers from
the same garden, or they are branches of the same majestic tree’.
Branches of the same majestic tree.”
Obama concluded by quoting Gandhi on India’s traditions of tolerance:
“He said, ‘for me, the different religions are beautiful flowers from
the same garden, or they are branches of the same majestic tree’.
Branches of the same majestic tree.”
