Washington: ‘A Promised Land’, written by former US President Barack Obama touches upon his connection with Indian- from Ramayan, Mahabhaarath, Mahatma Gandhi to dal and Kheema!
The first of the two planned volumes was out globally on Tuesday and since then many content of the book has grabbed headlines.
However, Obama’s love for India is something that will touch the hearts of Indians across the world.
“Maybe it was its (India’s) sheer size, with one-sixth of the world’s population, an estimated two thousand distinct ethnic groups, and more than seven hundred languages spoken… Maybe it was because I’d spent a part of my childhood in Indonesia listening to the epic Hindu tales of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, or because of my interest in Eastern religions, or because of a group of Pakistani and Indian college friends who’d taught me to cook dal and keema and turned me on to Bollywood movies,” writes Obama, who says that he had never visited Indian before his Presidential visit in 2010, but yet always held a special place fro the country in his imagination.
He goes on to narrate how his fascination with India largely revolved around Mahatma Gandhi.
“More than anything, though, my fascination with India had to do with Mahatma Gandhi. Along with (Abraham) Lincoln, (Martin Luther) King, and (Nelson) Mandela, Gandhi had profoundly influenced my thinking,” he wrote.
“His notion of ”satyagraha”, or devotion to truth, and the power of non-violent resistance to stir the conscience; his insistence on our common humanity and the essential oneness of all religions; and his belief in every society’s obligation, through its political, economic, and social arrangements, to recognise the equal worth and dignity of all people — each of these ideas resonated with me,” he mentions adding that Gandhi’s non-violent campaign for Freedom of India became a beacon for other dispossessed, marginalised groups – including Black Americans in the Jim Crow South – intent on securing their freedom.
