India as a World Soft Power

ejazr

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More Indian cultural centres to showcase soft power: PM

More Indian cultural centres to showcase soft power: PM

New Delhi, Jan 8 (IANS) India will set up cultural centres in five more countries to showcase its soft power and acquire a global footprint for its rich diversity, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said here Saturday.

'Richness of India's classical traditions and the colour and vibrancy of contemporary culture are making waves around the world,' the prime minister told the 9th edition of India's annual event to connect with its 25-million-strong diaspora in 130 nations.

'The government has decided to establish new Indian cultural centres in the US, Canada, Saudi Arabia, France and Australia,' he said, and hoped the members of the vast Indian diaspora will support and patronise these centres.

'India's soft power is also an increasingly important element in our expanding global footprint,' he told what is formally called the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, attended by some 1,500 delegates from 51 countries.

With the stated mandate of promoting awareness of India's composite cultural heritage overseas, the Indian Council for Cultural Relations has set up 24 Indian Cultural Centres across the globe in cities including Kabul, Cairo, Johannesburg, Tokyo and Abu Dhabi.

'Under its expansion plan, the council is opening similar centres in India's immediate and extended neighbourhoods, in the capitals of Permanent Five in the UN Security Council, Africa and Latin America,' the council says.
 

amoy

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opening similar centres in India's immediate and extended neighbourhoods, i
welcome to set up one here
 

Neil

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India's Central Asia Soft Power

India may not have got the airbase it planned in Tajikistan. But hospital and research initiatives offer a chance of influence – without upsetting Russia.



After its ambitious plans for an air base in Tajikistan were thwarted, India appears to be reorienting its military strategy in Central Asia toward a more modest, soft power approach.

India began renovating an airfield at Ayni, just outside Tajikistan's capital of Dushanbe, in 2004. While it never publicly announced its intentions for the base, Indian press reports said New Delhi planned to station a squadron of MiG-29 fighter jets there. It would have been India's first foreign military base, and a dramatic entrance into the geopolitically volatile Central Asian region.

Indian analysts have spoken about the base's opening in grand terms. 'Once called the white elephant of Asia, India's strategic aspirations have now finally come of age,' wrote Shiv Aroor, an Indian journalist who obtained classified information about India's plans in 2007. 'The country's first military base in a foreign country will be declared ready for use next month"¦Bare minutes from Tajikistan's border with war-torn Afghanistan, the base gives India a footprint for the first time ever in the region's troubled history.'

In 2001, India set up a small field hospital in Farkhor, Tajikistan, just two kilometres from the border with Afghanistan, to treat the Northern Alliance fighters India was backing against the Pakistan-supported Taliban. But the US defeat of the Taliban obviated the need for that facility, and India was thought to be seeking a way to strategically balance Pakistan's influence in Afghanistan.

Work by Indian engineers at Ayni continued at least through last year, and has included renovations of the airfield's runways and hangars. India reportedly spent $70 million on the base. But at the end of last year, Tajikistan's Foreign Minister Hamrokhon Zarifi announced that the country was negotiating with Russia – and no one else – over the use of the air base.

Tajikistan is heavily dependent on Russian aid, and its fragile economy is kept afloat by remittances from Tajik labour migrants in Russia. Moscow has used that as a form of leverage over Dushanbe, occasionally threatening to restrict visas for the labour migrants if it doesn't get its way in Tajikistan. And it's a widespread – though uncorroborated – belief in Tajikistan that Russia pressured the government to not allow India to use the base. Some believe that Tajikistan's president, Emomali Rahmon, never intended to allow India to use the base but used New Delhi's interest as a bargaining chip with Russia: Now that Russia is the only apparent candidate for Ayni, Rahmon is demanding that Russia, which uses other military bases in the country at no charge, start to pay rent on them.

And last month, when a top Indian Air Force officer, Air Marshal Kishen Kumar Nakhor, visited Dushanbe, Tajikistan foreign ministry officials said ahead of time that the issue of Ayni wouldn't even be on the table.

Since that setback, though, India has shown signs of changing tack in its military outreach strategy in Central Asia. During Nakhor's visit to Dushanbe, Tajikistan's defence ministry announced that India would build and equip a hospital for Tajikistan's military officers. And in July, Indian Defense Minister A.K. Antony visited neighbouring Kyrgyzstan and announced plans to open a joint high-altitude military research centre there, as well as an initiative to train Kyrgyzstani soldiers to serve in United Nations peacekeeping missions.

Those may seem like unimpressive efforts, especially compared with the prestige of a foreign airbase, and indeed they do seem to signal a reduction in ambition. But unlike the air base, they are likely to bear fruit. India, which has a long history of military ties with the Soviet Union and Russia, doesn't set off the same alarm bells in the Kremlin as does the United States, whose military forays into Central Asia have been steadfastly opposed by Russia. But even so, the prospect of an Indian air base in what Russia considers to be its sphere of influence was a bridge too far.

Russia still wields considerable influence in Central Asian capitals and especially in the region's militaries. But lower-profile initiatives like military hospitals and research centres will allow Indian military officers to build relationships with their Central Asian counterparts in a manner less threatening to Russia. This may not cause the same splash as an airbase, but in the long run, it's more likely to be successful.


India's Central Asia Soft Power | The Diplomat
 

ajtr

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What's the use of such a soft-power when you cant even protect it home and abroad to bear favourable interests in your foreign policy.USA too has sofpower of its democracy and hollywood but it also has those 11-12 super carriers to protect that softpower worldwide.Thats other thing that they do overprotections many a time hence end up with vietnam ,iraq and afghanistan type fiascos.Today india has be shut out of afghanistan and central asia long time to come by airan-pak-china axis that it not even unable to protect its $1.2 billion worth investment of softpower in afghanistan.And only reason for it is that india lacks projection of its hard power .softpower withouth the punch of hard power is totally waste coz both compliments each other.
 

Armand2REP

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There isn't much use to soft power without hard power to back it up. It costs so much to have near absolute economic control over someone when a small amount of hard power can bring a country to its knees for much less investment. France had only passing investments in Libya, but with a bit of hard power sent the dictator running for the hills. You don't have to be a Super Power like USA to exert hard power, it just has to be expeditionary. That is the benefit of Europe with secure borders, more expeditionary means more hard power for less money, like China has to spend so much protecting itself it has little force projection.
 

kalkibhagwan

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With soft power , India must have an aggressive foreign policy where it can crush its enemy neighbours as well as other countires... but where our ministers themselves are 80-90 yrs old.... what aggression can u expect?? thats why a new bunch of young politicians are needed in this country.. as far as france is concerned... I havent heard anything on its so called libyan pressure... another boasting may be..
 

agentperry

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they openly fooled India, made to work hard, made to pump cash and in the end they served well decorated platter to russians to please them and on the other hand gave India hospital to take care of which is a continuous drain of money to these central asian pimps... they sell their land to chinese, they give airfields to russians and to us a huge bill....
 

Armand2REP

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With soft power , India must have an aggressive foreign policy where it can crush its enemy neighbours as well as other countires... but where our ministers themselves are 80-90 yrs old.... what aggression can u expect?? thats why a new bunch of young politicians are needed in this country.. as far as france is concerned... I havent heard anything on its so called libyan pressure... another boasting may be..
How are you going to crush anyone with soft power if you don't control their economy? Only answer is to have an expeditionary capability that can change the balance of power. Only the US and EU has attained the economic dominance to be able to make large masses run away from their targets and it is really only effective with both work in concert. No one country will ever have enough economic clout to do it on its own. However, one nation with an effective military can change the landscape of an entire region. Soft power is not only financial but also political and France proved she has political clout by getting two UNSC resolutions that implied regime change in less than a year.
 

amitkriit

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Soft Power is a pair of sticks in the hands of weaklings like us to beat our own drums. isn't the invention of phrases like "IT Superpower" :hail: enough already? When will we start accepting the reality? The reality is that we aren't even an established regional power, yet.
 

hit&run

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I am staring this thread for poster to contribute with any audio, video, news article or study material they have regarding Indian soft power influencing world all over for good.

The Introductory video I am posting is of Mr. Barak H. Obama's address to Indian Parliament. I think after ages if someone has better explained India and its history in a brief speech is no Indian but President of USA.


 
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hit&run

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Following video shows a light hearted, soft power effect India's bollywood has upon masses from different countries.

 
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hit&run

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Readily available religious enlightenment of India has provided salvation and shelter to doers; when explaining exceptional phenomenon.

 
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W.G.Ewald

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I am staring this thread for poster to contribute with any audio, video, news article or study material they have regarding Indian soft power influencing world all over for good.

The Introductory video I am posting is of Mr. Barak H. Obama's address to Indian Parliament. I think after ages if someone has better explained India and its history in a brief speech is no Indian but President of USA.
Fine. Here is new AirSoft assault rifle for IA.

 

Godless-Kafir

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All we need is a strong leader and we will take of like a Tiger but sadly all we get is MMS. Really what the hell cant we do when we can send a probe to the moon or make satellites, nukes, wind mills, cars or what ever the west does. All we need is strong leadership and that is where we are lagging badly.
 

balai_c

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India would truly bloom not before 2030,provided the current growth level is maintained. Soft power has meaning only in a country that has self confidence and self belief.
 

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