Leveraging soft power

External Affairs minister S. Jaishankar often gives diplomatic answers drawn from Indian scriptures and mythology.  He once famously cited Lord Krishna and Lord Hanuman as the world’s greatest diplomats and strategists.

Cultural exchange programmes through embassies, foundations, philanthropies and museum exhibits have often played a role in building bridges between countries, diluting conflicts, cold-wars and easing tensions. The basketball diplomacy of Dennis Rodman and the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had unfolded famously in 2013, resulting in melding of hearts and laying the foundation of much-needed empathy for engagement. Whether it is the ping-pong diplomacy of 1971 between the US and China, triggered by the exchange of gifts by table tennis players on a bus or the checkered cricket diplomacy between India and Pakistan or giga events like the Olympics or mega-exhibits like the 1986 Aditi held at the Smithsonian as part of the Festival of India, the soft-power of cultural diplomacy has proven to yield positive, often heart-warming results to seemingly unresolvable differences, reminding us to celebrate and cherish the humanity within.

India today finds itself girded by a gauntlet of grudging geopolitical postures, emanating from Pakistan, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, Nepal, China and Bangladesh. The passive aggressive stance of checkmating potential moves is a double edged gambit.  While the socio-cultural denominator draws on the same ethos of faith, heritage, values, aspirations and inclusivity at its core, the geopolitical discord couldn’t be more pronounced today than it has ever been in decades. The recently held Republic Day Parade on 26 January 2025 demonstrated the growing need to flex fortifications of air, naval and military might with the latest lethal delivery systems of mass destruction and precision power, which comes at an immense cost to the tax payer, with each adversarial army upping the ante in a race towards reciprocal annihilation.

With the UN becoming decidedly irrelevant and incapable of bringing ‘peace’ to a conflict-torn world, giving way to groups of nations forming sectoral bands of security in ideologies of Quad, NATO et al, ‘soft diplomacy’ is the only hard weapon wielding the wand of promise to save humanity from itself.

Every nation’s diplomatic missions and heads of state bear ceremonial gifts to their counterparts – drawn from heritage, traditional crafts and indigenous arts. Indian artifacts, jewels, peace offerings and living icons have made their presence felt from the White House to the Buckingham Palace.

India seems to be adopting a two-pronged approach to ‘cultural diplomacy’ almost concurrently. First, it has realised the importance of investing in building indigenous awareness to the incredible 7,000-year-journey of the Indian civilisation and its welcoming portals that have strengthened its cultural cradle through the millennia. There is a systematic impetus to museums, living heritage sites, monuments and archives at a fast and unprecedented scale. Almost every state and the national capital region is witnessing this transformation. Virasat-e-khalsa, Patna Museum, Vadnagar Archaeological Experiential Museum, Ambedkar Museum, Museum of Temples, Humayun’s tomb Museum and the Abhay Prabhavna Museum are some of the newly minted centres of cultural communication that exemplify this emerging trend. The momentum received a mighty endorsement with Prime Minister Modi launching the world’s largest museum project in French collaboration aptly called Yuga Yugeen Bharat National Museum that would span a staggering 11.7 million sq ft of adaptive re-use at the current North and South Blocks combined, housing thousands of objects that offer a glimpse into the prowess of AI laced curation that ties India’s past to its future as a tech super-power in the making. The minister for external affairs had joined the signing ceremonies of the memorandum of understanding with France Museums on 19 December 2024.

Second, concurrent to restoring cultural awareness, India is sprinkling its stardust of diplomacy through its movies, music, sports, cuisine, traditions, festivals and literature, that is becoming indispensable and inseparable from any political discourse and or dialogue as recently witnessed at the World Economic Forum in Davos. With the recent announcement by the Uttarakhand government to restore Maharshi Mahesh Yogi’s Chaurasi Kutiya complex in Rishikesh, which will also hold a Beatles Museum, the potential of uniting a divided world lends a lyrical hope upon the immortal musical wings of ‘imagine all the People…’  Indian cultural diplomacy is on a trajectory of steady impactful rise, effectively extending the Peace Promise of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam – the world is ONE family.

The author is an India-born Silicon Valley futurist and chief advisor to UNEP, known for envisioning living Climate Change Museums and Sustainable Oceanaria. He hosted the first Climate Concert with Grammy-winning artists in co-operation with UNCCD at UN COP28 in UAE