Listened To Ramayana and Mahabharata In Childhood: Barack Obama

Former US President Barack Obama’s memoir – A Promised Land, has been a hot topic in Indian political circles for the last few days. Apart from his strong views on the ruling BJP’s divisive religious politics, former PM Manmohan Singh and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Obama also wrote about his childhood connection with the Indian epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.

Obama wrote that India has always held a special place in his imagination. “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 dahl and keema and turned me on to Bollywood movies,” Obama wrote in the first volume of his memoir that hit stands on Tuesday.

Obama also said that Mahatma Gandhi’s successful non-violent campaign against the British rule became “a beacon for other dispossessed, marginalised groups apart from helping overcome the British empire and liberate much of the subcontinent.”

Obama went on to say that more than anything, his fascination with India had to do with Mahatma Gandhi. He credited the Mahatma for profoundly influencing his thinking along with the iconic leaders such as Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, and Nelson Mandela.