Louisiana lesson

There is a happy irony in Bobby Jindal8217;s triumph in this moment in America. As Jindal, son of immigrants from India, becomes governor of a southern state known to mix race with politics, America8217;s public discussion is most conspicuously wrestling with the challenge of framing an immigration policy that is attuned to economic realities and also fair and humane. Of course, the issue at the heart of that policy has to do with illegal immigrants, mostly Spanish-speaking. Jindal, in contrast, is a Rhodes Scholar policy wonk who is said to favour 31-point plans. But the anxieties and frustrations that are being whipped up around immigration can lead to the dangerous blurring of vital distinctions. In the end, amid talk of building impervious border fences, it constricts the space for all those who are seen to have come in from outside to this nation of immigrants.

At first glance, Jindal8217;s prize may not appear to be a particularly enviable one: Louisiana is deemed to be the US8217;s poorest state, one of its unhealthiest, the worst in infant mortality and the least educated. It hasn8217;t yet recovered from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. But as he becomes the first Indian-American to become governor of an American state, Jindal can become a powerful, empowering symbol in two ways. One, he represents the Indian-American community8217;s growing political clout in the US. And, two, he frames the essential openness and spaciousness of the idea of America 8212; quite similar in fact to the inclusiveness afforded by the country of his ancestors.

In India, perhaps much more than in America, politics has become that fluid, plural space that offers upward mobility to groups divided by caste, class, religion, region. In India, especially, politics has become the level playing field that allows marginalised and disprivileged groups to haul themselves out of their neglected places, to pursue their ambitions and aspirations. Of course, in India as in the US, the power of symbols can sometimes seem all too ephemeral. Jindal must get down to his challenge in Louisiana.