On India’s soft power

By

Jayabalaji Sathiyamoorthi

India, once considered being the land of kings, forts and snake charmers, now
poses an incredible image and identity to the world. The identity of India is not
having a monotone culture and life style [1]. The drastic developments which the
sub-continent has undergone in the last decade are astonishing. From a socialist
shell to a very promising open market, coupled with the billion population has
became a total asset to liability. How do these developments of India affect other
countries? Why should it be brought to the understanding of the world citizens?
The ideas discussed in this article will address these questions and put forward
the thoughts on how does India’s image has changed from a snake charmers’
den to a land of opportunity. The instrumental factor is nothing but the unique
soft power in India.

What is a soft power? Wikipedia defines Soft power as the ability to obtain what
one wants through co-operation and attraction. Soft powers bring an identity
which is unique and special for a particular nation. Soft power is a type of
indicator to a nation, which bespeak the country’s acquaintance to the world
citizens. Soft powers are mostly not imposed, they are very candid, and they in
fact have the potential to bring a new dimension to national identity.
Demonstrating a countries soft power is an amicable way of getting people
together and to have a healthy relationship with other nations forgetting
boundaries, a simple way of bridging people [2]. To name a few instances, the
concept of Olympics - the host country flaunts its soft powers by its hospitality
and sportsmanship to rest of the world, McDonald’s – the chain of restaurants
play a role in the soft power of US and so is the case with Hollywood, MTV etc.
These soft powers are some examples where the state’s participation is very
meagre; hence it is obtained as a beneficial sub product. Adding to the list, the
Germany’s Bavarian beer festival which attracts people all around the world, the
Brazilian Rio carnivals, Swiss watches etc., and for India it is her people – from
the mathematical geniuses, computer wizards, IT gurus who established
universally.

In most cases it brings a positive attitude towards a country, as long as the soft
power doesn’t hurt the sentiments & rituals of the locals [3]. As in case of
Afghanistan citizens, they don’t need a particular soft power to know US better.
Using Soft powers a country could attract other countries in terms of its culture,
foreign policies and political values. In case of India the people are the valued
ambassadors, from mathematics saints to computer gurus, leaving a strong
identity.

Another interesting area to discuss about India is its diversity. It is more diverse
than EU [1]. Nothing is being imposed on, so being and living oneself is
appreciated. Ofcourse this leads to a situation where many ideologies get put
forth, nevertheless people are free to choose what they want to be. The festivals
of Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and other are given equal
importance, with the state declaring holidays on these important festivals [4].
From history it is known that Jews were welcomed long before colonised India.

With 23 different official languages in India [5] coupled with its diverse culture, it
is of no wonder if you travel 400+ KMS in one direction and you and up in a state
with its own distinct language, food habits, culture, dressing style etc., most
importantly they try accepting you as you are, they don’t want to impose their
culture and belief on others and prefer to live in peace with the diversity and just
go on with their lives.

India’s role in liberalisation and opening the doors for foreign direct investments
paved the way for a huge success. It facilitated enriched education, seamless
employment, infrastructure improvements, women education and
empowerment. At this point talking about the telecommunication revolution in
India is appropriate for the discussion. Two decades ago possessing a telephone
was considered sumptuosity, though the quality of service was negligible. One
had to be gifted to hear the dial tone in the telephone and it took hours to
contact a person through trunk calls which needed advance bookings. Most
popular one was telegraph, a lighting text service which normally took a few
hours to strike the customer and it was a very costly service.

What is the situation now? Of the one billion+ populations [6], now 505+ million
people posses a cellular phone [9] [10]. It is estimated that a huge 8 million
subscribers [9] [10] are added to this list every month. Who are all these
subscribers? Is it the rich people who enjoy this luxury? Not at all, from white
collars to blue collars and even to “NO collars” are the valued customers. It had
made a lot of difference in their lives.

Another significant area to explore India’s soft power is the Information

Technology arena. India's growing stature in the information age enabled it to
form close ties with both the United States of America and the European Union.
The major sub-sets of the industry include, IT services, IT Enabled Services, R&D,
Engineering service, software products and hardware products [11]. Bangalore is
the hub of India’s IT industry, once garden city now turned to a silicon city. IT
industry paved a way for an improved earning capacity, consistent employment,
enriched education, infrastructure developments and most important the women
development.

Teacher jobs, government jobs and banking jobs are considered to be most
secure and lucrative, which has already been surpassed by IT techies.
Emergence of IT had a very positive impact on the development of women and
their economic independence from men. It is very worth to mention that the
actual financial empowerment for women was visible with advent of IT and ITES
as they were typically women-friendly industry and with equal pay. Certainly IT
industry which is certainly a significant soft skill for India exposed the existence
of Indians to the world and so the Indian youth got a chance to look at the world
culture.

The greatest asset which the British Empire left in India is the English language.
English has got a prominent place in Indian education, from the language of the
colonizers to the language of jobs. Though there have been agendas to phase
out English and to establish Hindi throughout India, the attempt acutely failed
due to the extreme agitations in the southern part of the nation [13]. So there is
no wonder to see why two Indians in an alien nation talking with each other in
English, and to know a team in India, with five members from different states
who speak different Indian languages work effectively and communicate in
English. This ability of Indians has demonstrated great success; it is evident from
the amount of Indians being employed globally [8]. Not to mention the large
number of Indians being employed by NASA, Airbus, Microsoft, Intel etc., [14]

India is the young country in the aging world [12]. The youth population accounts
to 40% of the total population of India [7]. Being introduced to the world culture
and possessing the India’s soft power, these youths generate aspirations and
ensure the abilities to do things differently. Eminent scientists like Dr. APJ Abdul
Kalam were instrumental in germinating the idea of the developed India by 2020
in the hearts and minds of the Indian youth [15].

The art and dance of India is very different and celluloid stardom showed its
existence and popularity to the world by Bollywood. Investment for a high
budget movie has reached as huge as €20 million [16] and has become a
promising industry for Hollywood corporate to co-produce Indian movies. Indian
starlet names are known to most of the world population and movies are
translated now into most of the European languages. Certainly, Bollywood is a
soft power which India demonstrates.
Since 1991, continuing economic liberalisation has moved the economy towards
a market-based system. A revival of economic reforms and better economic
policy in 2000s accelerated India's economic growth rate. India is the 5th largest
economy [17] in terms of purchasing power parity terms 6.7 percent growth. It has
over billion populations which represents one sixth of the world population. It is
the place where growth and democracy married together. It has maintained
consensus for years, emerging from an ancient civilization, united by a shared
history and above all sustained by pluralist democracy. The people (Indian
citizens) no more a burden but are the engines of growth, they are the human
capital of India’s Economy. This study and understanding makes it interesting for
all the world citizens to know about the soft powers of India.

Everything comes out at a cost, which is the other side of the coin. The
continuous increase of population by about 20 million every year [6], poses a big
challenge. The current scenario facilitates rich to become richer and condemns
the poor to become poorer. There are people in some rural India who strive for
1€ a day. There is a lack of good infrastructure. But with the emergence of the
soft powers of India, the political power centres need to address important
problems of the nation and work on engaging the youth population for the
concept of developed India, ensuring food for all, improving health care,
deploying quality education, bettering sanitations and providing consistent
employment. But the chances of India being put into such situation are very
unlikely with the current progress.

References:

1. Article on India’s diversity, http://wikitravel.org/en/India accessed on

March 16th 2009.

2. India’s soft power, http://2ndlook.wordpress.com/2007/12/20/softpower-

india/ accessed on March 15th 2009.

3. The benefits of soft power, Harvard Business School,

http://hbswk.hbs.edu/archive/4290.html accessed on March 14th 2009.

4. Festivals and celebration of India, Unity in Diversity,

http://www.festivalsinindia.net/independence-day/unity-in-diversity.html,
accessed on March 18th 2009.

5. Languages of India, http://india.gov.in/knowindia/official_language.php

accessed on March 18th 2009.

6. National commission on Population, http://populationcommission.nic.in/

accessed on March 15th 2009.
 7. Youth portal, http://youthportal.gov.in/ accessed on March 17th 2009.

8. NRI, Indian Diaspora, http://india.gov.in/overseas/diaspora/nri.php

accessed on March 18th 2009.

9. Telecom industry, Indian telecom journey

http://www.telecomindiaonline.com accessed on March 18th 2009.

10.Indian Telecom market annual report 2008 -2009,

http://www.telecomindiaonline.com/indian-telecom-market-report-2008-
09.html accessed on March 17th 2009.

11.Indian Science & Technology,

http://www.ias.ac.in/currsci/mar252007/709a.pdf accessed on March 16th
2009

12.Young nation, article from rediff specials,

http://specials.rediff.com/money/2009/feb/10slide3-india-young-nation-in-
an-aging-world.htm accessed on March 16th 2009.

13.The madras Anti-Hindi agitation, 1965, political protest and its effects on
language policy in India, Duncan. B. Forrester,
http://www.jstor.org/pss/2755179 accessed on March 16th 2009.

14.36% of scientists at NASA are Indians: Govt survey, The Times of India,
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2853178.cms accessed on
March 16th 2009.

15.Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam – billion beats, lead India 2020,

http://www.abdulkalam.com/kalam/index.jsp,
http://www.abdulkalam.nic.in/ accessed on March 14th 2009.

16.High budget Indian movies, http://www.fulldhamaal.com/bollywood-

critics/10-most-high-budget-films-of-bollywood-21146.htm accessed on
March 17th 2009.

17.https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-
factbook/rankorder/2001rank.html accessed on March 20th 2009

Author’s Note:

I (Jayabalaji Sathiyamoorthi) would like to thank Mr. Vigneshwaran

Namachivayam for providing an opportunity to present my ideas in this forum. I
owe many thanks to Ms. Lakshmi Teja and Ms. Shrilakshmi for their thoughts and
support. I am grateful to Prof. Dr. D. Sankaran for his valuable comments.
Feedbacks are welcome at jaybeesathya[at]gmail[dot]com.

When we are united in action and addicted to deeds

Sky can’t be limit for my nation in action !!

- A.P.J. Abdul Kalam