India as a World Soft Power

[Apollyon]

Double Post

 

[W.G.Ewald]

New Soft Power IA sniper rifle rifle

Seriously, "soft power" is influence, not really a variety of power of any kind.

 

[hit&run]

India is unfortunately not a power, not even a soft power, and not even a soft regional power. Reality check:

Russia has fallen from her peak glory during the cold war, but is still a world power by 3 reasons: land, oil and nukes.

China is a rising world power bcause China is world's 2nd largest economy and the so-called world factory. Anything happening in China now has a direct impact on the individual lives in the west.

And not forget that both China and Russia are permanent members of the UN security council.

Japan is true soft world power. They have a small yet powerful armed force, but their real strength lies in the technologies and money they have.

Then, you have US, the daddy of all powers.

Compared to the heavy weights India has little money, little technologies, only a huge but impovelished population, is situated in an isolated corner surrounded by even poorer neighbors, has little resources (relative to her huge population) and her economy, despite of all teh growth in recent years, is still largely irrelevant to the outside world. And spiritually contrary to what many indians believe, india is a light weight too. Outside the indian dispora few practice hinduism, indian food is still more exotic than mainstream, and beyond s.asia Bollywood comes up only when people make fun of India, and still very very few westeners visit India.

Do you even understand what we are talking here ?

 

[tony4562]

Do you even understand what we are talking here ?

Of course, as the person above points out, soft power = influence. And exactly in this regard India scores very poorly.

Japan is influential because they got the money, they got all the big companies selling goods both corporations and private people need. And sushi is of course big time these days.

China is influential because China has deep pockets and sits on the UNSC with veto power.

Russia is influential because they sell arms world over, is by far the world's largest country and possess nuff nukes to pulverize any nation on earth. They too of course sit on UNSC.

Then US, no explaination needed.

Now take a look at India:

Major exporter/importer? nope

Major aid donor? nope

Major supplier of natural resources? nope

Major source of technologies? nope

Home to lots of fortune 500 companies? nope

Holds lots of debts to the west? nope

Major arms supplier? nope

Sits on the UNSC permanently? nope

Major source/destination of int'l tourists? nope

Major market for western consumer goods? OK, getting there, still no comparison with China/Japan.

Is the spiritual mekka for world's religions , that is Christianity, Judaism, Islam and Buddhism (which originates from Nepal but is mainly associated with east asian culture these days)? nope

A big sports nation? nope

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Sorry, you just can't find too many good things to write about India. If you are forced to pick 100 good words and 100 bad words to distrbibute among Japan and India, all the good ones will go to Japan, all the bad ones will go to India. That's why India is not a power, not even a soft power, a nobody.

 

[W.G.Ewald]

This is the National Portal of India, a government site. Is this what the world should see to know about India?

Home: National Portal of India

Personally, I think it could be made more appealing, like this one.

Incredible India

Or this.

India Travel Information and Travel Guide - Lonely Planet

 

[hit&run]

Of course, as the person above points out, soft power = influence. And exactly in this regard India scores very poorly.

Japan is influential because they got the money, they got all the big companies selling goods both corporations and private people need. And sushi is of course big time these days.

China is influential because China has deep pockets and sits on the UNSC with veto power.

Russia is influential because they sell arms world over, is by far the world's largest country and possess nuff nukes to pulverize any nation on earth. They too of course sit on UNSC.

Then US, no explaination needed.

Now take a look at India:

Major exporter/importer? nope

Major aid donor? nope

Major supplier of natural resources? nope

Major source of technologies? nope

Home to lots of fortune 500 companies? nope

Holds lots of debts to the west? nope

Major arms supplier? nope

Sits on the UNSC permanently? nope

Major source/destination of int'l tourists? nope

Major market for western consumer goods? OK, getting there, still no comparison with China/Japan.

Is the spiritual mekka for world's religions , that is Christianity, Judaism, Islam and Buddhism (which originates from Nepal but is mainly associated with east asian culture these days)? nope

A big sports nation? nope

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.
.


Sorry, you just can't find too many good things to write about India. If you are forced to pick 100 good words and 100 bad words to distrbibute among Japan and India, all the good ones will go to Japan, all the bad ones will go to India. That's why India is not a power, not even a soft power, a nobody.

You are not enforced to write good things about India you can simple poke your nose at other threads. In the meantime we will build this thread without any time constraints with good things about India if there will be any. Lay off....

I can be reasonable to you not because I have all the patience in the world but I simply do not know your real nationality and ethnicity. Please direct me to any thread of your Introduction or use this opportunity to help me/us out.

Thanks.

 

[Bangalorean]

^^ He is a Chinese-American.

 

[spikey360]

^^ that means, he is a person unsure of his origins. And we all know how insecure such rootless people are.
But fret not Tony, your words will find resonance with kids of rich Indians today, those coconuts, who know nothing about their origin and know more about their uncle sam than their own uncle.
In any case, a soft power doesn't have to produce oil or weapons or give aid or even be a mecca of religions. So, you've to get your definitions right first. It can do absolutely nothing of those and still be a power. How? For that you've to read history.

 

[LETHALFORCE]

Rich Chinese are exploiting SLAVE Chinese Labor Force of millions to feed their luxury ambitions and guess what they all want to leave the Chinese paradise for a better life in western democracies
Top of Chinese wealthy's wish list? To leave China - Yahoo! News

Chinese are not rich they are the poorest member of the UN security council
look at the average GDP/PPP of nations in the UNSC China is in the same league as African nations.
China is the only third world country in the UNSC.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)_per_capita

 

[civfanatic]

Seriously, "soft power" is influence, not really a variety of power of any kind.

Influence is power. As far as geopolitics is concerned, power is nothing more than the ability to influence the actions of other polities, which can be accomplished through both "hard" and "soft" means. As of late, soft power is proving to be a more effective tool in international diplomacy than hard power.

 

[W.G.Ewald]

Influence is power. As far as geopolitics is concerned, power is nothing more than the ability to influence the actions of other polities, which can be accomplished through both "hard" and "soft" means. As of late, soft power is proving to be a more effective tool in international diplomacy than hard power.

I will read the entire thread to see if I can find examples of what you are saying. It is refreshing to see that point of view rather than "India needs longer range ICBMs to nuke all the bastards we don't like."

 

[W.G.Ewald]

^^ He is a Chinese-American.

In Cayman Islands?

 

[badguy2000]

Chinese are not rich they are the poorest member of the UN security council
look at the average GDP/PPP of nations in the UNSC China is in the same league as African nations.
China is the only third world country in the UNSC.

List of countries by GDP (PPP) per capita - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

china's nominal GDP is 1/8 of USA's while India's nominal GDP is 1/4 of CHina's.

 

[hit&run]

There are few constructive criticism for such school of thought. Going by those If I have read them right, even if Soft power has done nothing for us so far; it wouldn't need much grooming to be projected when complementing hard power (adequate) we be able achieve in near future.

Once you start talking about hard power the purpose of soft power gets defeated. Soft power influence can bypass hard power, hard power may complement soft power but its not mandatory. America has no hard power effect on us, never there was, nobody give a squat even when they were militarily siding with Pakistan during 1971 and onwards, rather we hated them for this but still their democratic values, coca cola, movies, baywatch, MTV etc were popular amongst middle class and above in India. Same logic should apply with Indian soft power, we don't need aircraft carrier floating in Atlantic ocean for people talk about yoga, food, Bollywood, Gandhi, colorful weddings, hinduism, sufi Islam, Indian classic music etc.

 

[hit&run]

I doubt if an American couple would use japanese or cantonese songs for their wedding. I can be wrong.

 

[hit&run]

@ Chinese poster with some commonwealth nation flag

Bollywood is not used to mock Indians but world class sports competition as well.

 

[hit&run]

 

[xingapore]

india must takle its rape problem as its softpower is zero.

 

[TrueSpirit]

Rape problem is not a recent development. it's of the same proportion like in all sizeable countries.

By the way, where are you from.........err... ?

 

[praneetbajpaie]

To all the Chinese commenting here about Indian Soft Power being non existent, I have one word - Buddhism.

Surely with a population where 18% are Buddhists, you guys should at least know this.