Barack Obama Hanuman India
During the 2008 presidential campaign, a photo emerged showing the charms candidate Barack Obama carried for good luck. These included a bracelet of a soldier deployed in Iraq, a Madonna medallion and a figurine of what appeared to be the Hindu monkey God Hanuman.
While the reports did not confirm that Obama recognized the statuette as one of Hanuman, some sections in India latched on to the story believing that Obama was indeed a devotee of the Hindu God. In fact, a group of businesspersons in India held a prayer for Obama’s success, and ordered a two-foot tall, 33 pound. gold-polished, brass idol Hanuman statue for Obama, to be carried back by representatives of the Democratic Party visiting India at the time. The leader of the group, a businessman named Brij Mohan Bhama, said their gift was a good luck charm for Obama. The group wished to encourage Obama’s bid for presidency as it would boost India-U.S. ties.
Hanuman is depicted in the Ramayana, one of the major epics of the Hindu religion, as a selfless devotee of Lord Ram. For millions of Hindus, the god Hanuman is a source of strength and good luck and millions of Hanuman devotees maintain a fast every Tuesda Perhaps the presence of the Hindu good luck charm in Obama’s pocket had more to do with influence of the years he spent in Indonesia (1967 to 1971) as a child. Hinduism is Indonesia’s third largest religion and majority of the people in the island of Bali are Hindus.
