 "Jimmy Carter was the first American president to visit India after the emergency was lifted. Image courtesy: X/@MM87689255")
Jimmy Carter died at his home in Georgia on Sunday at the age of 100.
The longest-lived US President and Nobel Peace Prize laureate had been receiving hospice care since mid-February 2023 at his home in Plains.
ALSO READ | From Camp David Accord to Olympics boycott: 5 moments that shaped Carter’s presidency
Carter, who shared a special bond with India, has a village in Haryana named after him.
It is known as ‘Carterpuri.’
Carter’s visit to India
Jimmy Carter was the first American president to visit India after the emergency was lifted and the Janata Party emerged victorious in 1977. During his address to the Indian Parliament, he spoke out against authoritarian rule.
“India’s difficulties, which we often experience ourselves and which are typical of the problems faced in the developing world, remind us of the tasks that lie ahead. Not the Authoritarian Way,” Carter said on January 2, 1978.
He added, “But India’s successes are just as important because they decisively refute the theory that in order to achieve economic and social progress, a developing country must accept an authoritarian or totalitarian government and all the damage to the health of the human spirit which that kind of rule brings with it.”
Notably, Carter also had a personal connection to India, as his mother, Lillian, had worked in the country as a health volunteer with the Peace Corps during the late 1960s.
ALSO READ | Jimmy Carter, the peanut farmer-turned-US president whom history judges kindly
‘Carterpuri’: Jimmy Carter’s India connection
According to the Carter Centre, an NGO founded by Jimmy Carter, on January 3, 1978, Carter and then First Lady Rosalynn Carter visited the village of Daulatpur Nasirabad, located an hour southwest of New Delhi.
“The visit was so successful that shortly after, village residents renamed the area ‘Carterpuri’ and remained in contact with the White House for the rest of President Carter’s tenure,” the centre said.
Since then, January 3 has been declared a holiday in ‘Carterpuri.’
“The trip made a lasting impression: Festivities abounded in the village when President Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, and January 3 remains a holiday in Carterpuri,” the Centre said, adding that the visit laid the groundwork for a strong and enduring partnership between the two countries.
Carter recognised that shared democratic principles formed the foundation for a long, fruitful relationship between the US and India. It is, therefore, no surprise that the two nations grew steadily closer in the decades following his presidency, according to the centre.
“In fact, since the Carter administration, the US and India have worked closely on energy, humanitarian aid, technology, space cooperation, maritime security, disaster relief, counterterrorism, and more," it said.
In the mid-2000s, the United States and India signed a landmark agreement to pursue full civil nuclear cooperation, and bilateral trade has since surged, according to the Carter Centre.
ALSO READ | From Trudeau to Orban: World leaders react to Jimmy Carter’s death, recall his long-lasting legacy
Jimmy Carter dies at 100
The peanut farmer who became president in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal and the Vietnam War, Jimmy Carter faced challenges such as a struggling economy and the Iran hostage crisis. However, he is remembered for brokering peace between Israel and Egypt and later receiving the Nobel Peace Prize for his humanitarian efforts.
US President Joe Biden has declared January 9 a national day of mourning throughout the United States for Carter.
A Democrat, Carter took office in January 1977 after defeating incumbent Republican President Gerald Ford in the 1976 election. He went on to live longer than any other US president and, after his presidency, earned a reputation as a dedicated humanitarian. Many believed he was a better former president than he was in office - a view Carter himself acknowledged.
The Carter Centre has announced that public observances will be held in Atlanta and Washington, followed by a private interment in Plains. Final arrangements for the former president’s state funeral are still pending.
Though Carter left office profoundly unpopular, he spent the following decades working tirelessly on humanitarian causes. In 2002, he won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in promoting human rights and resolving conflicts, from Ethiopia and Eritrea to Bosnia and Haiti. His Carter Center also sent international election-monitoring delegations worldwide.
Carter lost the 1980 election to Ronald Reagan, who won 44 of the 50 states and claimed an Electoral College landslide.
In his later years, Carter battled several health issues, including melanoma that spread to his liver and brain. In February 2023, he chose hospice care over further medical intervention. His wife, Rosalynn Carter, passed away on November 19, 2023, at the age of 96. Carter appeared frail at her memorial service and funeral, attending in a wheelchair.
Throughout his life, Carter wrote more than two dozen books, including topics from presidential memoirs to children’s books, poetry, and works on religious faith and diplomacy. His book ‘Faith: A Journey for All’ was published in 2018.
With inputs from agencies