OK, you have to give it to President Obama. He knows how to work the symbol.

President Obama became the first US President to celebrate Diwali, the festival of lights, in the White House.

That’s been a long standing fight of Hindu Americans.

Actually all of Diwali has been the touchstone of multicultural tussles in America.

The first big Diwali fight was about street parking. New York Mayor Bloomberg didn’t want to add Diwali to its list of major holidays when street cleaning would be suspended. The City Council passed the bill in 2005 and the Mayor vetoed it. In 2007 it was finally approved. Phew.

Then there was the petition for the Diwali stamp. If Muslims could get the Eid stamp, why not a Diwali stamp? Diwali is our Christmas said the Hindus. There was an online petition for signatures. According to SAJA the petition was started by an Atlanta businessman Bob Ghosh and it even got dead signatories like former Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru. The US Postal Service told them respectfully that the signatures didn’t count. But like the NPR funding being cut right now hoax email, the Diwali signature email would pop up in Indian-American mailboxes every year.

That fight started a long time ago. You can tell. The stamp was worth 37 cents. In 2009 the Hindu American Foundation formally asked the US Postal Service’s Citizens Stamp Advisory Committee for a Diwali stamp. Earliest that can happen – 2012. No one claimed this was express mail.

But the big fight was always about the Presidency.

Next year, Diwali in the White House.

They got close with George W. Bush. But it was always Diwali in the annex to the White House. And it was always with a “senior administration official”, never the Big Boss himself.

One can’t blame Bush. In 2007 When Rajan Zed, a Hindu priest was invited to offer the morning prayer in the Senate protesters shouted “this is an abomination” from the gallery.

The American Family Association urged its members to protest because Zed would be “seeking the invocation of a non-monotheistic god.” (Note the small g). Former Navy Chaplain Gordon Klingenschmitt said Zed “committed the sin of idolatry” with the “permission” of the government.

Now that abomination has moved from the outhouse to the inner sanctum itself. The historic East Room of the White House was the site of the DIwali celebration. Hindu Americans are tickled pink. The Hindu American Foundation has issued a press release saying “”Never before had a sitting US President personally celebrated the Diwali holiday, and with that one gesture, two million Hindu-Americans felt a bit more like they belonged—one more reason to feel at home.”

Of course for those who think Obama is the anti-christ this is one more proof that godless heathens have taken over the White House. But the president was careful to make sure he didn’t make it seem like the ten armed goddesses were taking over the administration. (But I think a ten-armed kick ass Goddess with a lot of Second-Amendment protected weapons would not be a bad ally to have in pushing through health care reform).

Obama invited people of different faiths to the ceremony. And he talked abot the larger significance of a festival of lights – a time for celebration and contemplation.

He explained what Diwali meant for Hindus, and what it meant for Jains and what it meant for Sikhs. I was startled because having grown up in India I didn’t know all that myself.

I just knew Diwali as fireworks, oil lamps and platters of sweets. It needed President Obama to explain my culture back to me with professorial authority.

It was a little embarrassing.

But anyway what are the brave Diwali fighters going to do now?

I guess they could always go back to the great battle for the Diwali stamp.