[Reader-list] Jharkhand tribals celebrate Obama's victory

[Pranesh Prakash]

Dear All,
An offbeat story that almost looks like a fake planted in IANS.  If
one chooses to dig deeper, of course, one can come up with issues such
as casteism (and anti-tribal-ism, etc.) as racial discrimination,
going back especially to the debates surrounding the Durban conference
(see http://www.hinduonnet.com/2001/09/25/stories/13250541.htm), etc.,
but is that really the point of this story?

Regards,
Pranesh
--

http://in.news.yahoo.com/43/20081106/818/tnl-jharkhand-tribals-celebrate-obama-s.html?printer=1

Jharkhand tribals celebrate Obama's victory

Indo Asian News Service
Thu, Nov 6 12:33 PM

Ranchi, Nov 6 (IANS) Hundreds of Jharkhand tribals Thursday celebrated
the victory of Barack Obama in the US presidential election by beating
drums and singing songs.

The tribals, who gathered near Mahatma Gandhi's statue located close
to Morabadi ground here, shouted slogans like 'This is a red letter
day in the history of world'.

'Black people have always faced challenges in the world. We believe
that the racial discrimination will end after Obama's election as US
president,' said Bahura Ekka, a tribal leader.

He said: 'Gandhiji's soul must be feeling happy after Obama was
elected president of the US. We chose to celebrate the victory in
front of the statue of Gandhiji who was first to start fight against
racial discrimination in South Africa.'