Since India’s emergence as a BRIC country in 2001, the possibilities of scaling the heights of success have seemed endless. Beyond its emerging economic might, India has sought to utilise its vast population, military strength and cultural attractiveness to advance its interests globally. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been particularly adept at manipulating and projecting India as a soft power nation. India is a land with immense soft power capabilities and has the potential to dominate not just the sub-continental region, but even reach the status of global superpower.
Soft power, to begin, is a form of influence that one government may have over another. Soft power instruments are strictly non-military, usually comprising political ideas, cultural practices, historical integrity and moral strength. A nation that projects soft power is able to gain allies by influencing the decision-making of others without using direct military aggression or coercion.
India’s current surge in soft power usage – and thus global popularity – has stemmed from Prime Minister Modi’s decision to fuse soft power with hard power in his “smart power doctrine” of foreign policy. Modi has sought to combine India’s unprecedented military strength while preserving its image as a lovable icon. In his first term, Modi has made visits to more than 20 foreign countries. Despite the controversial nature of these visits (many in India feel he is neglecting the needs of the domestic population in favour of becoming a global “celebrity”), his attempts to make friends across the world will help tremendously in presenting India as a global player. His attempts to leverage India’s abundance of soft power by conducting universal engagement are vital if India wishes to keep growing as a diplomatic and political force internationally.
Modi has proven himself to be particularly adept at using social media. His 17.9m Twitter followers are second only to US President Barack Obama when it comes to political leaders, while his “selfie” with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has been described as the “most powerful selfie in the world”. Being at the cutting edge of modern communications has allowed Modi to project himself as a progressive world leader and reach out to the younger generations in particular. Social media has also allowed him to demonstrate the great benefits and positives India has to offer on a daily basis, providing a constant, subtle view of India as a great soft power.
But Modi’s attempt to project India would be ineffective if India had little to offer. The fact remains that India is sitting on a gold mine of untapped soft power potential. Its culture and spirituality have connections not just on a regional basis, but a global one. The most obvious example of this is Bollywood. Second only to Hollywood in terms of global revenue, Bollywood films sold over 2.6bn tickets in cinemas in 2014, nearly double that of Hollywood. Bollywood also produces nearly 1,000 films per year, well over double to the output Hollywood, and more than the Chinese film industry and Hollywood combined. Bollywood’s global popularity and reach means it has great scope for projecting a positive cultural image of India.
Another source of great soft power for India is its sport, with cricket being particularly popular. The Indian Test match and T20 international cricket teams are currently ranked 2nd in the world, while the ODI side currently sits at number 4 in world rankings. But more important than the international side is its domestic T20 league. The IPL (Indian Premier League) has a global audience, with 335 million viewers being drawn from over 40 nations. In total, the League contributes $182m to India’s GDP annually, while the new TV deal that has been signed between the IPL and Sony Entertainment is worth over $1bn over the next 10 years. The IPL also attracts top foreign players worldwide, with the likes of Shane Watson and Kevin Pietersen choosing to compete.
Of all India's soft power exports, perhaps the most underrated is yoga. A practice that has grown exponentially in popularity over the past decade, yoga is a fantastic way for India to connect with all cultures on a spiritual level. Not only is yoga a practice that is extremely popular in the sub-continental region but it is also being used as a medicinal practice in most of Asia for centuries. Western populations have begun to embrace yoga as an important part of their cultural fabric. Such is its popularity that, following lobbying by Prime Minister Modi, the UN officially declared the 21st of June as International Yoga Day. After its astonishing success in 2015, millions more took part in mass events globally this year. In fact, now that yoga is a highly fashionable practice, Modi has looked to capitalise on his strategy of “yoga diplomacy” – his belief that yoga has the power to cure many global ills, including even potentially climate change.
Beyond its cultural prowess, India has even greater capabilities to influence other cultures through its vast expatriate and student communities. There are currently over 30 million Indian expats worldwide (more than the entire population of Australia) with 1.5 million living in the UK and 3 million living in Saudi Arabia. There are also over 150,000 Indian students studying abroad for higher education. Not only do these students provide a fantastic opportunity for India to spread its cultural practices, they also bring back to India the added benefit of having received a more diverse skill-set and multicultural education. These students study at many of the world’s leading universities (including Oxford, Harvard and Yale) while also gaining enriching cultural knowledge of their own. India is a nation that prides itself on having an exceptionally well-educated population, and so exporting its great and youthful minds gives it the global image of being an intellectually prominent society.
But perhaps the greatest tool in India’s soft power arsenal is its image as a great democratic power. Often referred to as the world’s largest democracy, India has gained many great allies through its history of democracy-promotion since Independence. Known as the birth place of Mahatma Gandhi, India has a particularly strong relationship with the USA through its desire to be democratically peaceful. Its desire to spread democracy to the subcontinental region has made it very popular with many great western powers. Prime Minister Modi has spent much of his 20 foreign trips discussing India’s belief in democracy and creating democratic partners. In a speech in Seoul on a trip to South Korea, he called the two nations “democratic allies”. He also spoke to a vast audience in the UAE to celebrate the two lands' “cultural links”. In an attempt to lure Japanese business to India, Modi not only referenced the spiritual connection between the two countries (through the historical links between Buddhism and Hinduism) but also referenced the openness of the Indian economy and politics, stating “there is no red tape but red carpet in India”.
While many have doubted India’s ability to project themselves beyond the local region, it has become abundantly clear over the past five years that India has the ability to become a global superpower. Modi’s media savvy coupled with India’s democratic and cultural prowess mean Indians worldwide should feel nothing but optimism. A future of great influence and prosperity lie in wait for a nation of already great repute.
