Wife Michelle watching, Barack Obama grins as he stumbles over the wording of the oath of office. (AP)

Washington, Jan. 20: The world witnessed a new interpretation of people’s democracy enacted in Washington today.

Barack Obama urged Americans to “pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America”, after a swearing-in ceremony sanctified by the tears of at least half of an estimated crowd of between one and two million people.

In a speech, written mostly by 27-year-old Jon Favreau, the new White House director of speechwriting, Obama borrowed a famous phrase from Indira Gandhi: “a government that works”.

“What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them — that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works — whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified,” Obama said.

Like Indira Gandhi, in her 1980 comeback election campaign fought on the plank of a “government that works”, Obama continued in his inaugural address that “where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programmes will end. And those of us who manage the public’s dollars will be held to account — to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day — because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.”

Obama stunned his nation by using his Muslim middle name, Hussein, for the oath of office administered by the chief justice of the US Supreme Court, John Roberts Jr., a conservative whose appointment he opposed and voted against as a Senator.

Obama never used his middle name throughout his election campaign. But his detractors had often tried to cash in on the name, Barack Hussein Obama, to mobilise hatred against the new President among xenophobes and sow a suspicion that Obama is a closet Muslim.

Obama’s decision to use his Islamic middle name immediately struck a chord in Arab countries even as Obama tried to reach out to the Muslim world and warn Islamic fundamentalists in his speech.

“To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect. To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society’s ills on the West — know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy.”

Obama became the first President in US history to acknowledge a Hindu America, a growing, increasingly influential and affluent segment of the immigrant population in the US. “We know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus — and non-believers.”

No other President has acknowledged atheists in his inaugural address although their number in the US is more than Jews, Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists combined, according to some estimates. In many states, atheists feel persecuted and are reluctant to reveal their religious orientation.

The fundamental theme of Obama’s speech, which was heard with rapt attention and frequent applause by the biggest crowd in Washington's history, was that “the world has changed, and we must change with it”.

Missing from the new President’s agenda were unrealistic goals such as a US-administered democratic panacea for the rest of the world that characterised the speeches of Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush.

Instead, the 44th President promised a return to American values, which Bush was widely seen to have trampled upon. Obama reminded Americans that the “values upon which our success depends — hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism — these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths.”

In an otherwise smooth day of transition to an Obama administration, the only hitch was a delay in the Senate confirmation of the new secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, who was expected to be sworn in today.

Republican Senator John Cornyn last night put a “hold” on clearing Clinton, a prerogative for any Senator to delay appointments. As a result, Obama is starting his presidency without a secretary of state who is on the road to office.

Ironically, Cornyn is the co-chair of the Senate’s India Caucus. Until last week Clinton was the Democratic co-chair of this Caucus.