As polling begins in the US presidential marathon, a race described as “the most expensive, unpredictable and crucial in modern US history”, I am reminded of my memorable few days of intense interaction in the mid-1960s with a wonderful American historian at the Delhi University where I was studying political science. James MacGregor Burns kindled in me an abiding interest in the US constitution, politics, and the presidential election.
James MacGregor Burns and his gracious wife were on a visit to India. I was assigned the duty of taking them around the Delhi University and organising his lecture in my college. But we got enough time to discuss different aspects of the executive and legislative branches of the government. I was more than happy to answer his queries on Indian politics and culture (whatever it was worth…coming as it did from an undergraduate student!!!).
After my univesity days, I lost track of him. So you can understand my joy when I learnt that the distinguished scholar is active even at age 89. “After more than 20 books, a Pulitzer Prize and many other honours for his work on the executive and legislative branches of government, 89-year-old historian James MacGregor Burns is ready for a new subject,” reports AP.
” ‘ I’m working on the politics of the Supreme Court,’ he says, seated in a small armchair in his converted farmhouse, a sunny, cluttered, book-filled loft just down the road and up the hill from Williams College, where he studied as an undergraduate and later taught for decades. ‘I felt I had treated presidents and Congresses a lot, and here was this other branch I didn’t know that much about. I had a feeling it would be even more political than I expected, and it is’.
“He is white-haired and wide-eyed, an ever curious scholar dressed smartly in khakis and a striped shirt for this afternoon interview. Although clearly slowed by age, he remains active enough that when his car broke down in town earlier in the day, he walked back home, uphill, for more than a mile…
“First published nearly 60 years ago, Burns is a longtime expert on presidential leadership and leadership in general. He has written often about the ‘transformational’ leader, one with the vision to change the world, and the ‘transactional’ leader, one who knows how to negotiate and compromise. His 1978 text, ‘Leadership,’ is widely studied by business and political science majors, while his two-volume biography of Franklin Roosevelt is a model for books on the late president.
“But he also knew much about life beyond the campus. He was an Army combat historian during the Second World War, recording the memories of soldiers just off the battlefield in Okinawa and elsewhere in the Pacific, and earning four combat medals and the Bronze Star. Later, he worked on a task force headed by Herbert Hoover and served as a congressional aide in Washington, where private scandals surprised him (he recalls hearing one drunken legislator brag about his womanizing), and the public record intrigued him: How does government work? What is the relationship between presidents and Congress, and presidents and their political parties?…
“From Kennedy on, Burns has been tough on modern presidents. He believes Kennedy started a tempting, but self-defeating trend, running not only ‘against Washington’ but against your own party. Kennedy relied on his own people more than Democratic officials to get elected and, once in office, had a difficult time building support in the Democratic-controlled Congress. Other presidents, from Nixon to Carter to Clinton, would have similar problems.
” ‘I think it’s an even more difficult situation today with our government because the system has become increasingly divided and fragmented and problems have become more complex,’ he says.
” ‘To put it simply: The constitutional checks and balances that we read about every day were deliberately established to prevent tyrannical government. . . . But if you need a strong government to meet the needs of the people, this becomes quite a danger. The government cannot act in the face of major challenges’.”
Reading his views in the AP story, I became nostalgic and recalled how Burns patiently explained to me in a simple manner the nuances of American constitution and politics nearly four decades ago. I wish I could visit your home (I have never been to the United States) to express my gratitude to you and say ‘Thank You, James’, and wish you best of luck in completing your book on the Supreme Court.
(Photo above: Historian James MacGregor Burns poses at his home in Williamstown, MA., courtesy THE ASSOCIATED PRESS/Nathaniel Brooks)
Swaraaj Chauhan describes his two-decade-long stint as a full-time journalist as eventful, purposeful, and full of joy and excitement. In 1993 he could foresee a different work culture appearing on the horizon, and decided to devote full time to teaching journalism (also, partly, with a desire to give back to the community from where he had enriched himself so much.)
Alongside, he worked for about a year in 1993 for the US State Department’s SPAN magazine, a nearly five-decade-old art and culture monthly magazine promoting US-India relations. It gave him an excellent opportunity to learn about things American, plus the pleasure of playing tennis in the lavish American embassy compound in the heart of New Delhi.
In !995 he joined WWF-India as a full-time media and environment education consultant and worked there for five years travelling a great deal, including to Husum in Germany as a part of the international team to formulate WWF’s Eco-tourism policy.
He taught journalism to honors students in a college affiliated to the University of Delhi, as also at the prestigious Indian Institute of Mass Communication where he lectured on “Development Journalism” to mid-career journalists/Information officers from the SAARC, African, East European and Latin American countries, for eight years.
In 2004 the BBC World Service Trust (BBC WST) selected him as a Trainer/Mentor for India under a European Union project. In 2008/09 He completed another European Union-funded project for the BBC WST related to Disaster Management and media coverage in two eastern States in India — West Bengal and Orissa.
Last year, he spent a couple of months in Australia and enjoyed trekking, and also taught for a while at the University of South Australia.
Recently, he was appointed as a Member of the Board of Studies at Chitkara University in Chandigarh, a beautiful city in North India designed by the famous Swiss/French architect Le Corbusier. He also teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students there.
He loves trekking, especially in the hills, and never misses an opportunity to play a game of tennis. The Western and Indian classical music are always within his reach for instant relaxation.
And last, but not least, is his firm belief in the power of the positive thought to heal oneself and others.