What is India’s soft power today?

In a chaotic post-truth world where the old attractions of a nation are no longer appealing, what is brand India’s pull?

The allure of India’s rich civilizational history, spirituality, and yoga may not have the power they had in the old days; in a post-truth world where old tales are either commoditised or become pieces of propaganda, soft power needs new symbols.

Countries like Japan and South Korea have successfully marketed their unique cultures: Japan with its tech-driven urban lifestyles, anime, and at the same time, slow living; South Korea with K-pop, K-dramas, skincare, and street food. These elements make them attractive destinations, as seen in countless Instagram reels.

In contrast, India lacks a similar draw. Bollywood's influence has declined as it is no longer churning hits and seems to be suffering from a writer's block. On social media, our street food is perceived as unhygienic if one were to take a look at the comments from the world on the posts from food vloggers. Cricket is plagued by divisions, just look at Virat Kohli versus Rohit Sharma fan wars after every match and series.

Recently, our major soft power moment was the spectacle of the Ambani wedding.

The adage goes that history is written by the victors and they often present a skewed version of reality. So, we (afaqs!) asked agency professionals what is India's soft power today, if it exists at all.

Edited Excerpts:

Kainaz Karmakar, chief creative officer, Ogilvy

If you ask Google about the soft power of India it will tell you about Indian culture, cuisine and policies.

I thought hard about this and I think the soft power of our country is the resilience of the common person. This person perseveres to thrive in a land where people from privileged countries would not even be able to survive.

The people who make it here are not making it because of what this land is, but in spite of it. These people wake up every day to battle the weather, the population, the bureaucracy, and the corruption, and still manage to be optimistic enough to iron their clothes.

What soft power can we export to the world? Our resilience. How can we win in the world? By our ability to stay undefeated.

Kunal Joshi, chief strategy officer, Enormous

When Joseph Nye (Harvard academician) coined soft power, it was meant to be something highly strategic that could exert influence without using coercive means. India’s soft power, whenever and in whatever pockets we've seen it, has been sporadic, it's something that has just happened out of default.

When you look at the boom in South Korea’s cultural influence and its soft power, it has been in the works for the past three decades; the government deliberately put change into motion, and there was incentivisation.

Look at K-drama, BTS, Blackpink… the machinery was in place and they used it to create a sustained narrative. This is something we lack. You can't step on the pedal for six months and then take your foot off the pedal for the next three years. It doesn't work like that.

When you are thinking about building strategic soft power, you need to have a long-term view. If you're trying to build soft power on something that has already started emerging into the mainstream, it's much, much harder to own. Yoga has already crossed that tipping point.

I think it's hard to bet on any one thing that will drive India's soft power. There are a number of possibilities in popular culture as well as practices or traditions that are deeply rooted in Indian culture.

I do think however, Gen Z and over the next few years Gen Alpha will be instrumental in shaping and driving India's soft power and that the biggest role that government and the private sector can play is as enablers by providing these young people with the infrastructure and investment they will need to shape and ship Indian soft power globally.

Dheeraj Sinha, chief executive officer, FCB Group, India and South Asia

I feel that India's soft power is its talent and its people. If you look at many global companies, their CEOs are from India.

There was this news item which reported that once upon a time it was said if you're Indian, you will not become a CEO in the US. And today the saying is that if you're not an Indian, you will not become a CEO in the US.

There's a certain respect for the Indian intellect, for the Indian talent.

I always, for example, maintain that if you look at China's growth story, it's a policy-led growth story. Therefore, it will go up or down according to the policy changes. India's growth story has always been people-led. We've succeeded with or without the government.

That I would say is the long-term sustainable advantage for India.

Sumanto Chattopadhyay, creative consultant and former chairman and chief creative officer, 82.5 Communications

I think novelists such as Vikram Seth, Amitav Ghosh, and Salman Rushdie are household names not only in English-speaking countries but their works have been translated into several languages. The intellect and thoughts the novelists put forth into the world present a very different image of India that is beyond the standard image of the country being a land of yoga.

Amitav Ghosh’s Ibis trilogy revolves around the build-up and aftermath of the first opium war between the British Empire and the Qing dynasty from China and how the British opium cultivation in states like Bihar impoverished the entire region because the farmers were forced to grow it and the British bought it at an unprofitable rate.

I think the Westerners don't even know the extent to which colonialism was such an evil and these things can take hundreds of years sometimes to be overcome.

After his book, colonialism became a far more researched subject in the world.

Rabindranath Tagore who won the Nobel prize in literature is remembered all over the world even today. There's a school in Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, which follows Tagore's principles and it's named after him.

Writers have tremendous influence.

Aarushi Periwal, founding member and creative, Talented

Hallyu from South Korea is a concentrated effort to ensure that the globalisation of its internal culture is reflected in a way that strengthens its soft power. The problem with India is that it is too diverse to push in a single direction, causing efforts to start strong but fizzle out quickly.

One of the two biggest differentiating factors we have today is that most of our population is under the age of, say, 25 years. It is in stark contrast to countries like Japan, Germany, and Italy, where there's a decline in the fertility rate, there's a decline in population.

If India can manage to create sufficient employment opportunities, the youth can almost drive our growth and enhance the country’s global influence and then, of course, where the direction it takes, that could really determine our future standing.

Another one, in my opinion, is the Indian tech talent itself. But unfortunately, we're probably the largest exporters of tech talent to the US. Our people leave and go there because the opportunities are better, respect for talent is better… But if this talent pool positions India as a leading force in the tech-driven global economy and could be retained more at home, we become a tech giant right away.

We have the talent, the tech, and the start-ups; these three become our biggest soft powers.

Also, while Bollywood films may no longer dominate as they did, individuals continue to shine on these global stages very loud and proud like Deepika Padukone presenting at the Oscars or Shah Rukh Khan becoming a part of so many talks and shows.

Iraj Fraz Batla, creative head, DDB Tribal

India is a country of dark horses because it’s not by design, it’s not something planned by the government but somewhere people still find hacks to do extraordinary things. We may be a land of snake charmers but we’ve landed an explorer on the moon.

We have children with limited facilities and poor nutrition up to the age of six or 16 who still manage to win medals, and our size is also a strength. We learn to thrive in chaos, and start-ups that succeed here can succeed anywhere.

No matter how many things go wrong, there are enough things going right.

The ones who are doing well in India are rockstars and wherever they work, that place’s people will benefit. If I had to make my Avengers, I’d add a few Indians because they’d know how to survive and win.

Anupama Ramaswamy, joint MD and chief creative officer, Havas Worldwide India

India’s super power – I believe is the concept of healing. People come here for their spiritual awakening and soul searching. And that is the strongest power we have. I am not saying it from the land of rishis and yoga, but the heritage and legacy of the rich scriptures. The rich heritage which the government has been trying to revive, if done well, can be its soft power.

Cover Photo by Naveed Ahmed on Unsplash