India’s Soft Power | Current Affairs & Hindu Analysis: Daily, Weekly & Monthly - UPSC PDF Download

Introduction

In recent decades, Soft Power has gained significant attention alongside economic and military power. India's rich cultural heritage, including its arts, festivals, music, culinary diversity, yoga, and spirituality, has attracted people worldwide for centuries. The Committee on External Affairs recently released its Sixteenth Report on India's Soft Power and Cultural Diplomacy, recommending the creation of a policy document on India's soft power projections and a Soft Power Matrix for evaluating their outcomes. The committee emphasized the need for greater coordination among various Ministries, Departments, and agencies involved in India's soft power projections and cultural diplomacy.

• The term "soft power" was introduced by Joseph Nye and refers to the ability to persuade others to support one's goals through cultural, political, and foreign policy attractiveness. 
• Soft power is a less costly means than military or economic incentives to achieve desired outcomes, even though it may take longer to yield results. 
• According to the Brand Finance Global Soft-Power Index 2020, India made it into the top 30 for the first time, indicating that India's soft power potential remains underutilized despite its significant cultural influence.

Background

• Over the last decade, India has become more systematic in playing its soft power cards. It established a public diplomacy division within the Ministry of External Affairs in 2006 and is expanding the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) globally.
• The Ministry of Tourism and the external affairs division work together to showcase India's social, political, and cultural assets abroad.

India's Performance

• India's spiritualism, yoga, movies and television, classical and popular dance and music, democratic institutions, plural society, cuisine, and principles of non-violence have attracted people worldwide. The International Day of Yoga exemplifies the global popularity of yoga and its potential as a soft power resource. India's soft power is used alongside larger foreign policy initiatives such as the Look East Policy, which aims to increase people-to-people contact through India's Buddhist roots.
• India's soft power diplomacy, particularly in Afghanistan, involves winning "hearts and minds" and strengthening cultural and political ties, backed by ideas of nation-building and political stability. India has built the Parliament building, Salma(Friendship) dam, and a hospital in Afghanistan. It is currently upgrading the Habibia High School, a project worth more than 1 million USD.

Challenges:

• Inadequate state-led cultural diffusion: India's efforts to promote its culture through government initiatives have been ineffective compared to those driven by private sector and citizen-led efforts.
  • Although India has successfully spread its culture to overseas audiences through yoga and Bollywood, for instance.
  • The Indian government is also promoting the study of Hindi abroad, largely due to its linguistic diversity at home.
• Tourism struggles: Despite having many UNESCO World Heritage sites, India performs poorly in terms of tourism and education on a per capita basis.
• Lack of infrastructure for cultural development: India's lack of investment in cultural diplomacy, coupled with poverty and a reputation for deep-rooted corruption, has hindered its cultural development.
• Brain drain: Many Indian-origin scientists and engineers at NASA, for example, are not recognized as contributing to India's achievements.

Is Soft Power Enough?

• India is facing challenges in using soft power to change the behavior of its neighboring countries such as Nepal and Maldives, who have leveraged their relationship with China against India. These countries still perceive India as a dominant power. Soft power has not proven effective in countering terrorism and radicalism, and India needs to balance it with hard power. 
• In the 21st century, diplomacy requires the use of smart power, which combines hard and soft power with agility and adaptability. Despite India's growing soft power, some countries are not supporting India's permanent membership in UNSC, and it has not been successful in negotiating WTO or FTA agreements. Soft power is not a quick-fix solution and takes a long time to become significant, whereas hard power can produce immediate results. Soft power alone has not been able to stop China from opposing India's membership to NSG.

Conclusion

• To have a comprehensive approach, a nation must balance both soft power and hard power. Soft power provides the intellectual and cultural edge, while hard power provides the necessary tools and weapons for expansion.
• A good balance of both will make a country stronger militarily, economically, and culturally. India must continue to invest in soft power while building its hard power capabilities, especially given the hostile neighborhood it faces with two nuclear powers.