New Delhi: The Vice President, Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu has said that India must use its moral and cultural strength to influence public opinion for establishing a truly peaceful, just and more equitable world order.
Inaugurating a three-day conference on Soft Power, here today, the Vice President said that soft power has been defined as the ability of nations to shape the preferences and influence the behavior of other nations through appeal and attraction as opposed to coercion. It includes the ability to affect others through persuasion, agenda-framing and positive attraction using culture, values, inherent knowledge, spirituality, wisdom and foreign policy, he added.
The Vice President observed that Soft Power represents one of the newest frameworks through which India could leverage its role in the international order. He said India has, from time immemorial, been one of the foremost cultural forces in the world and was known as Vishwaguru as it provided cultural, spiritual and intellectual leadership.
Calling for using India’s soft power to combat the biggest menace humanity was facing in the present times – terrorism, he said that public opinion world over should be built to isolate nations which shelter terrorists.
Shri Naidu said India never had ambitions of hegemony or attacked anybody and always believed in peaceful co-existence with other nations in an equitable world order. India always believed in using soft power for the welfare and betterment of the entire humanity. Share and care is the core of Indian philosophy, he added.
Pointing out that soft power includes any element of a country which is attractive to other people, communities or countries, Shri Naidu cited the examples Indian cuisine, Yoga, films, sports, music and dance. Many nations the world over were practicing Yoga following the initiative taken by the Prime Minister, Shri Narenda Modi at the UN, he said.
The Vice President said that the popularity of dosa and butter chicken was an example of India’s soft power. Also, several Indian actors like the legendary Amitabh Bachchan, Rajnikanth and Priyanka Chopra are popular in several countries. Similar was the case with sports icons like Sachin Tendulkar, M.S. Dhoni, Virat Kohli and Viswanathan Anand.
Shri Naidu said that from Yoga to spirituality to Bollywood, from Bharatnatyam to Budhism, from cuisine to tourism, India has immense potential to use its soft power for expanding global outreach. He also suggested that the all-pervading presence of the internet should be used to project India’s soft power.
The Member of Parliament and the President of Indian Council for Cultural Relations, Dr. Vinay Prabhakar Sahasrabuddhe, the Founder of Isha Foundation, Sadguru and other dignitaries were present on the occasion.
Following is the text of Vice President’s address:
“Soft power has been defined as the ability of nations to shape the preferences and influence the behaviour of other nations through appeal and attraction as opposed to coercion. It consists of three major categories –a nation’s culture, its political values and its foreign policy. These categories affect the image and perception of the country with respect to the wider international community.
Soft Power is a term that entered foreign policy lexicon in the 1990s when Joseph Nye, an American scholar, referred to it as “the ability to get what you want through attraction rather than coercion or payment”.
It includes the ability to affect others though persuasion, agenda framing and positive attraction using culture, values, inherent knowledge, spirituality, wisdom and foreign policy. In other words, soft power has the ability to affect the behavior of others by influencing their preferences through persuasion.
It represents one of the newest frameworks through which India can understand and leverage its role in the international order.
In this backdrop, it is timely and appropriate to focus on India’s rise as a soft power nation and also engage in discussions on the need for an India-centric discourse on soft power; how to maximise and deploy soft power assets, particularly to furthering national, regional and global interests.
India has, from time immemorial, been one of the foremost cultural forces in the world. It was known as ‘Vishwaguru’ as India provided cultural, spiritual and intellectual leadership. Here I would like to quote what some of the eminent personalities from the West had said about India.
“India is the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great-grandmother of tradition. Our most valuable and most instructive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only,” said well-known American writer Mark Twain.
Scientist Albert Einstein had said: “We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made.”
Similarly, Max Mueller, German scholar remarked : “If I were asked under what sky the human mind has most fully developed some of its choicest gifts, has most deeply pondered on the greatest problems of life, and has found solutions, I should point to India.”
India has spread its knowledge and culture to all corners of the world. In fact, knowledge-seekers from other countries used to come to well-known Indian Universities like Takshashila and Nalanda. History tells us that India’s educational strength was its soft power in those days.
In 1893, Swami Vivekananda attended the Parliament of the World’s Religions, where he was able to persuade and attract, numerous people from all over the world through his charisma and his spiritual and cultural teachings based on timeless and universal Indian values.
Today one need only to look at the spread of Hinduism, a way of life which evolved over thousands of years of our civilization and Buddhism across the world, or the popularity of Indian cuisine and cinema. It is therefore clear that India has had an undeniable impact in shaping the minds of people across the world through appeal rather than force.
And now, as India continues its rise in the international order, it is important that we recognize the cultural impact that the nation has had on the world, and leverage it in a way that is best for the nation.
And so, with this goal in mind for the next three days, I would like to take this moment to officially welcome all the distinguished speakers and the participants, and officially begin the inaugural Conference on Soft Power.
From Yoga to Spirituality to Bollywood; Bharatnatyam to Buddhism; cuisine to tourism, India has immense potential to use its Soft Power for expanding its global outreach. As has been stated earlier, Soft Power is non-coercive. It has the power to create an attraction and influence opinions in a rather unobtrusive manner.
I feel that India’s Soft Power should be used to combat the biggest menace humanity is facing in the present times—terrorism.
While the governments normally have their own limitations, the biggest advantage of Soft Power is its ability to cut across all barriers and reach out to every segment.
Dear sisters and brothers, ours is one of the oldest civilizations with a rich culture and heritage. With the world becoming a global village and the social media further shrinking the barriers, the all-pervading presence of the internet should be used to project India’s Soft Power.
As a matter of fact, India must use its moral and cultural strength to influence public opinion to establish a truly peaceful, just and more equitable world order. Public opinion world over should be built to isolate nations which shelter terrorists as terrorism is the enemy of mankind.
One of the major reasons for India’s respect all over the world is the non-violent manner in which we fought the colonial rule and attained Independence. A country may obtain its desired outcomes in world politics in multiple ways, including through war or arm-twisting. But India never had ambitions of hegemony at any time and always believed in a peaceful co-existence with other nations in an equitable world order. India always believed in using soft power for the welfare and betterment of the entire humanity. That’s what is expounded in this Shanti mantra: ‘Sarve Bhavantu Sukina, Sarve Santu Niramaya, Sarve Bhadrani Paschyantu and Maa-kaschith dukh baagh bhavet”, which means let everybody be happy, let everybody be disease-free, let everyone see only the good things, may no one be subjected to miseries.
Although, it is important for countries to set agenda in world politics by attracting others through soft power, we should always remember what the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi had said and I quote: “I do not want my house to be walled in on all sides and my windows to be stuffed. I want the culture of all lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible. But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any”
I am told that today, soft power forms an important aspect of foreign policy with many countries, including China, Japan and the US, including it as a part of their national policies. In India, the Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR), an arm of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), delineates India’s soft power resources and its articulations abroad.
Soft power is not restricted to culture alone. It can include any element of a country that is (or seems) attractive to other people, communities or countries. Below are some prominent examples of soft power:
1. Cuisine – the popularity of Dosa and butter chicken masala is an example of India’s soft power, while McDonald’s is America’s soft power.
2. Democracy- The parliamentary democratic system of India definitely appeals to many people across the globe. The smooth manner in which power gets transferred from one party to another either at the national level or in various States is India’s USP.
3. Films – I have already mentioned about Bollywood. Many of our actors like the legendary Amitabh Bachchan, Rajnikanth and Priyanka Chopra are popular in several countries. One of the best examples is the extreme popularity of “Awara Hoon” song in Russia. The most recent example is that of ‘Baahubali’.
4. Sports: India’s Sachin Tendulkar, M S Dhoni, Virat Kohli and Viswanathan Anand and many other sports stars are well known in many countries.
5. People – Prominent Indian CEOs like Satya Nadella and Sundar Pichai.
6. Music and dance: Different genres of Indian music and various dance forms, including Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi, have legions of followers across the globe.
7. Diaspora: The presence of Indian diaspora can be effectively leveraged through soft power to project India’s viewpoint and increase the outreach.
The Minister of State in the Ministry of External Affairs, General V K Singh, while outlining India’s soft power strategy to a question in the Lok Sabha in 2017, included India’s cultural traditions, activities such as Festivals of India conducted abroad, educational scholarships to foreigners, “technical assistance and capacity building inputs to partner countries” and extending of humanitarian assistance and disaster relief to countries and communities in need.
I am happy to note that the Center for Soft Power is the first center in India that is dedicated to the study of Indian soft power. I am told that it aims to map the various elements of Indian soft power while also carrying out research and engaging with practitioners and academics in the field of soft power. I am told the Center was established in collaboration with Indic Academy, an institution focussed on bringing about an intellectual, cultural and spiritual renaissance based on our civilisational thought.
I have also noted the interesting themes of this conference, which include Ayurveda, art, craft and design, cuisine, film, language and literature, music and performing arts, spirituality, tourism and Yoga
I am sure, the experts, academics and researchers, who are attending this two-day conference, will come out with more meaningful suggestions on leveraging India’s soft power in various forms.
