SOFT POWER OF INDIA – UNMESHA 2023

Let me start with the most talked about film of the year, Oppenheimer.

I was most intrigued to discover an Indian link during the promotions of the Christopher Nolan film about the father of the atom bomb; and no, I am not talking about the obvious scene here.

During a media promotional, two actors of the film – Matt Damon and Emily Blunt – face off over American vs British food. The British actress manages to silence the American actor by saying: “Do you know what the number one, most eaten food in England is? It’s the Chicken Tikka Masala… how cultural is that?!”

A film on an American scientist, made by a British-American director, starring an Irish actor in the lead, distributed by US giants Universal Pictures, tipped to be an Oscar favourite – and the Chicken Tikka Masala makes its way to the promo table, effortlessly.

That, dear ladies and gentlemen, is a taste of the soft power of India!

अंतर्राष्ट्रीय संबंधों में ‘सॉफ्ट पावर’ वाक्यांश का जितना दुरुपयोग हुआ है, उतना शायद किसी का हुआहो।

अमेरिकी विदेश नीति के अपनी पीढ़ी के सबसे प्रभावशाली विद्वानों में से एक जोसेफ नी ने जब इसवाक्यांश को गढ़ा तो उन्होंने बेहद महत्वपूर्ण लेकिन कभी भी ढंग से समझी न गई अंतर्राष्ट्रीय रिश्तों कीएक ऐसी प्रक्रिया पर रोशनी डाली, जिसके ज़रिये दूसरों से ऐसे परिणामों को मनवाया जाता है, जैसापरिणाम आप ख़ुद दूसरे की संस्कृति, राजनीतिक मूल्य और विदेश नीति पर होते हुए देखना चाहते हैं।

आज, दुनिया के सबसे बड़े लोकतंत्र के रूप में, भारत सॉफ्ट पावर का बेहतरीन मॉडल है, और आने वालीचुनौतियों का आईना भी।

By popular wisdom, the three primary components of India’s soft power are: cuisine, culture and tourism.

In all of my travels abroad, through the years, sampling the Indian food on offer has been a constant. Nothing Indian permeates different cities, countries and continents quite like our cuisine. From the ubiquitous Tikka Masala to the Daal, Biryani to the Samosa, Curry to the Kebabs…. At any table in the world serving Indian cuisine, the conversation invariably starts from food and meanders through cultural explorations that inform and enrich.

From cuisine to culture.

From India? Amitabh Bachchan!

From India? Shah Rukh Khan!

This has brought a smile to countless Indians travelling abroad for several decades now.
Bollywood remains our potent instrument of Soft Power. With an increasingly vocal and empowered diaspora, the importance of Indian mainstream cinema cannot be overstated.

What one hopes to see in the years to come is India, in its many-splendoured cinematic glory, becoming a favoured destination for global film crews and post-production operations. Already, VFX studios in India or run by Indians are propelling the big Hollywood dream forward. One hopes to see Indian cinema and Indian cinematic expertise growing in strength and stature under the global spotlight.

The Indian arts, culture, yoga and spiritualism, music and dance, festivals and folk forms, have attracted people from all around the world for centuries. These are all now travelling faster and further. The International Yoga Day, for instance, is now embedded in the international calendar around the world. Traditional Indian medicine, Ayurveda, and alternative forms of treatment are also gaining ground year on year.

AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga, Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, Sowa-Rigpa and Homeopathy) centres overseas could well become central to our Soft Power strategy in the days ahead.

Yoga Certification Boards for certifying Indian yogic practices and therapies, under the AYUSH and External Affairs ministry can also be a step in the right direction.

While browsing some of my earlier blogs, I came across this passage penned back in 2018:
Overall, what I realized during my trip to the UK is that there is a growing eagerness among the Britishers as well as among the prominent Indians residing there to engage in events and activities related to India and know more about Indian culture. The cultural capital base of India in the UK has certainly moved up a notch. As a visitor, I could feel a newfound interest, recognition and warmth towards India’s cultural heritage. The positive impact of all this is the flowering of a vibrant cultural scenario in which India is the fulcrum.

Five years on, this has only flourished and flowered ever more.

As for Tourism…

Few countries offer the kind of expanse as India does when it comes to tourism. From the Himalayas to the seas, to one of the world’s largest deserts, to the lagoons and backwaters of Kerala, to UNESCO World Heritage Sites (India has more WHSs than all but 5 countries in the world), to ancient civilisational and pilgrimage sites, we have a luxury of tourist spots. Incredible India is now an international brand, which can only grow bigger and better. Especially with the kind of thrust on infrastructure development – roads to highways to bridges to speed trains – that the government has embarked upon.

And so many unique stories dot the Indian landscape. A small personal example of a magical discovery on my travels through our wonderful country is Bera.  A little-known leopard colony in the forests of Rajasthan, where leopards live harmoniously with humans. Thanks to Shatrunjay Pratap Singh, who despite his royal lineage and US education, lives in Bera and devotes himself to preserving its ecosystem and photographing its wildlife, I could discover the diverse ecosystem of Bera, and was witness to the camaraderie that exists between the leopards and the locals of the area, the Rabari tribe. This, I have tried to capture in a picture book, The Bera Bond.

Hundreds of such magical discoveries dot the India we still don’t fully comprehend and celebrate.

At a personal level, if I was to sum up our endeavours at Prabha Khaitan Foundation, we showcase India to the world, we make all efforts to connect India to India and we also try to bring the World to India.

हम दुनिया को भारत के बारे में बताते हैं, हम पूरे भारत को असली भारत से जोड़ने की क़ोशिश करते हैं, और हम पूरी  दुनिया को भारत लाने केलिएभी प्रयत्नशील है।

Through the Prabha Khaitan Foundation, we carry out various cultural activities with the aim of preserving and promoting India’s rich cultural heritage. Round the year, indeed round the year, we at the Foundation are busy conceptualising and curating, strategising and managing a plethora of social and cultural activities in around 50 cities in India. So, in our own humble way, we are part of the Soft Power chapter that is so vital to the India growth story.

I would like to end by touching upon the growing linkages between Soft Power and Creative Economy.

There are multiple definitions of creative economy. But for this forum, if one was to stick to the UNESCO-World Bank framework, Creative Economy would encompass:

• Audio-visual and Interactive Media (films, TV, radio, streaming, podcasts and video games)
• Literature and Press (books, newspapers, magazines, libraries and book fairs)
• Performing Arts (drama, live music, dance, festivals, feasts and fairs)
• Visual Arts and Crafts (fine arts, photography and crafts)
• Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) (Festive events, rituals and social practices, oral traditions, knowledge, skills and traditional crafts, culinary traditions and gastronomy)
• Design and Creative Services (architecture, fashion design, graphic design, interior design and advertisements)
• Heritage and Tourism Activities (historical places, archaeological sites, natural heritage and cultural landscapes, museums and tourism activities)

स्पष्ट है, भारत के पास क्रिएटिव इकोनॉमी क्षेत्र में विस्तार की अपार संभावनाएं हैं, जिन पर ध्यान देने सेवे भारत की सॉफ्ट पावर को और भी पोषित करेंगी, उसे और बढ़ावा देंगी।
यहां उन्मेष में मौजूद हममें से हर कोई इसका हिस्सा है।
यहां सॉफ़्ट पावर को और भी अधिक शक्ति दी गई है!

This above is an excerpt from the presentation by Sundeep Bhutoria during the UNMESHA-International Literature Festival in Bhopal on the panel ‘Soft Power of India’.