FROM ABEYANCE TO A ‘STRONG’ SOFT POWER: THE PROGRESSION OF INDIA’S CULTURAL SUBTLETY

Abstract

The study of power has been one of the main features of global politics. It is said that sometimes in the current era, states win the wars by telling a better story instead of the state who has power and can prevail in a battleground. Though India has constantly had several soft power tactics, they had limited success as they were not combined with hard power such as a strong army and developed defense skills, particularly nuclear ability. Nevertheless, the previous decade was an important turning point that showed India’s growing hard power, driven by strong economic growth and vigorous maritime policies, which reinforced its soft power projection. Soft power has come to be one of the foundation stones of the current Indian Prime minister Narendra Modi Doctrine and is an important theme in most of his state visits. This paper analyzes the different soft power components such as civilization and ancient heritage (Buddhism, yoga, Ayurveda, Sanskrit, democracy, and Bollywood used by the Indian governments. Soft power tools have raised importance, mainly as concerns culture and values, which mixed with peaceful policies made for a truly great opportunity of using soft power. The study evaluates India’s soft power assets and liabilities, thus presenting how the state has been trying its best to make better use of its potential to realize the state’s interests. Hence, the research has largely analyzed and described numerous ways in which all over the world states have resorted their selves to soft power in the face of interdependent world order to garner influence and for the attainment of foreign policy objectives which all depend upon state resources that what they have and side by side abilities to mobilize. Keywords: India’s soft power, Hindutva, Narendra Modi, Diplomacy