The liberty test
British Conservative politician Norman Tebbit was famous for his Tebbit test, the idea that no one who rooted for (say) the Indian or Pakistani cricket team could be considered a British patriot. Of course, it was meant to apply to desis and blacks and not the Scots or Irish. Tebbit’s small-minded ‘test’ was seen as a milder sentiment in the vein of the Rivers of Blood speech, the legacy of an ugly British nativism. It could never have happened in America, a shining city on a hill which clasped immigrants to its breast and did not require that you be born an American to become one.
This presidential campaign has done much to shatter the notion of American political exceptionalism. If a native-born member of America’s largest minority can be smeared as a seekrit Mooslim, what chance does a brown man with a funny religion and an even less WASPy name have? Of necessity, Piyush Jindal grasped this young. An ambitious young up-and-comer in deep red Louisiana knows to which totems he must bow to be clasped to America’s breast as a native, not a Janissary.
The Tebbit test not only can be imported, it has been. We’re now faced with the ugly spectacle of Barack Obama being quizzed over breathtaking trivialities like his schedule for wearing a 30¢ piece of Chinese tin, as if wearing one’s flag upon one’s sleeve were an adequate substitute for actual patriotism. I won’t dignify this TMZ-level fluff further but to note that those who bark the loudest about family values are inevitably the ones enmeshed in gay hooker scandals, and those who demand the loudest shows of patriotism are the most eager to trample the actual, living, sacred American Constitution under their venal, chintzy feet.
And so on this Fourth of July, let us wish our beautiful land the happiest of birthdays. Let us revel in the idea that member of an ethnic minority is finally a major party’s presidential nominee, and (long in coming) a woman very nearly could have been. And let us throw our backs into the task of restoring America to what it used to be: a land whose ruler could not throw you in jail to rot on a whim, a beacon of liberty for economic migrants and political dissidents across the world.
The reelection of the Jester-in-Chief, the Fascist Act, the suspension of the right to challenge your arrest, CIA kidnapping, cell phone tracking, wiretapping without warrants, the evisceration of the Fourth Amendment, the legitimization of torture directly from the manuals of tyrants we fought and defeated — it is a long and shameful list in which a cowed Congress is complicit. In recent years the administration has been insufficiently American.
Next January 20th, let us erase this taint from our country. Let us snatch back our land from those who would trade away the essence of America for a small measure of illusory safety, and inflict the jackbooted, federalist consequences of their cowardice upon the very cities which desire them the least. Let us rise up and say that this is the essence of patriotism, this is what America means, that what this disaster of an administration has wrought will not stand.
Next January 20th, let us hold hands together and say, Free at last, free at last, thank god almighty, we’re free at last.
Amartya Sen, Sarfraz Manzoor and Raj Kaushal on the Tebbit test.
on Friday, July 4th, 2008, 11:07 pm in Barack Obama, Holidays, Politics › 
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Vow manish this is one powerful blog entry..why dont you stand in elections and get into US politics? Iam serious. I met so many smart Indians in Indianapolis but you know no one has any interest in being a part of the political process. You see very few Indians enter the race. People like you who are smart, have great ideals, feel truly for the country should take active part in the political process and make a difference.
Iam the chair for a Indian volunteer group here and I have such a hard time to pull Indians to do volunteer activities. I have a lot of american friends and I find it so easy to pull them into these events. In fact a couple of times when I ran bone marrow drives I had to ask my american friends to volunteer and run our bone marrow drives as I could not get many Indians to volunteer. Do we lack social and political consciousness? We are one of the smartest minorities here who are doing so well in our professions,why are we not leaders, senators, governors with a lot of power to make a difference?
forgot to wish..Happy Birthday to America..And one more year older tomorrows America spreads peace all around the world and hope economy stabilises and people in power do the right things..Iam hopeful next year after november America is going to start a new chapter in its life..
amen..
yup.
I was beginning to doubt if America was the land of the brave and home of the free.
The last 8 years have been such a mess.
We Indians don’t volunteer that much because we’re too busy making mad money/loot.
Manish, every time you were ever told to go back to where you came from when you were growing up, every time anybody who doesn’t look like he belongs is taunted or vilified as not being American, you have teh Tebbit test in your country.
It’s worth noting that The Rivers of Blood speech destroyed Enoch Powell and his name is a by-word for racism in British politics. Norman Tebbit is seen by everyone except on the far Right of the Conservative party as something of a crank. THat nativism is not mainstream thought or paradigm in the UK.
Tebbitt wouldnt have a chance out here.
ex-national champions, one from china and the other from russia, unsheath the steel for canada. Who do they fight for? The answer is nuanced.
As long as the nation state idea itself continues to hold sway, we won’t truly be free. Because till then there will always be an ‘us’ and a ‘them’, and some people somewhere, and some people everywhere, will always be ‘them’, and that idea will thus oppress us all. Thankfully, the process of slowly unburdening ourselves of the nation-state has already begun, is gaining strength, and we are living through the transition.
We won’t truly be free till an American President can start his speeches with “Fellow citizens (of the world)” rather than “My fellow Americans”. The US will acknowledge itself not so much as a ‘nation of immigrants’ but as an ‘international nation’. In course of time, so will other nations, and the idea and usage of the word ‘nation’ will itself be transformed. Multiculturalism will seem natural, and ‘Tebbit’ tests will seem quaint. Not till then will freedom truly ring.
I preferred obama to clinton cause i hated that lying 3@!@$% couple.
Obamas not great, I suspect he is an atheist but he hasnt said so.
I do not know about his mother. She could be an overzealous convert(most converts are)
Either way if elected B Hussain O should discuss apostasy in islamic context and bring such issues out.
If not elected it doesnt matter as much…
Regarding
Chacchu,
Vaapas Ja agar tujhe lagta hai ke to ‘truly free” nahin hai.
Amreekan Presidents is only answerable to Amreeka.
Green Card Party Bachua Chahiye to ja Bacchan Ka paath kar.
Prakruti, you missed these lines in manish’s post…
…brown man with a funny religion - Check
….less WASPy name - Check
Yeah…I wouldn’t quit my day job Manish.
what chance does a brown man with a funny religion and an even less WASPy name have?
that what they said to Bobby as well…………
I think Manish has been bitten by the election year Idealism bug. Agreed that anything other than GOP is a superior, long-overdue option; but keep in mind that even a superficially profound difference in candidate (brown) is still superficial.
Prakruti,
Unencumbered, idealistic and naive in 1997, I completed my Master’s thesis titled ‘Volunteerism in environmental education: an option in fostering environmental awareness in developing countries.’
Now, 11 years older, several more layers wiser, and a mother of 3, I publicly declare that patronizing analytic and narrative sheaf to be officially cringe-worthy. It will not be long before some smart, grad student will show that rates of volunteerism in North America decrease (to levels in Europe, Asia, elsewhere) as gas prices increase. Canadians recently found out that volunteer-drivers for ‘meals on wheels’ are becoming rare. (In fact, some sharp writer recently eloquently wrote that once cheap oil is out of the equation Americans will only be as good or as bad as the rest of the people in the world. Fortunately for you and unfortunately for me, I can’t find it to provide a link.)
Here are some univariate statistics on volunteers in the US. Had bivariate or multivariate analysis been shown, a complete picture of why white Americans volunteer at higher rates than non-white Americans would have been clearer to those who want to see it. It may not have explained why the unpaid efforts of new immigrants to maintain social order within units they are primarily responsible for and remain connected with don’t get measured by larger institutions. To be able to understand that, we need to learn to ask new questions—free of biases and hierarchical prejudices.
Agree with every word - but “chintzy” is a curious (deliberate?) word to use there given its etymology:
From wikipedia entry for “Chintz”