Pakistan’s endemic denials notwithstanding, the Pulwama carnage and its aftermath became a catalyst to cognizable shift in regional political scenario leaving its vibrations to reach other parts of the region under discussion. IAF’s Balakot blitzkrieg is a turning point in the three-decade-old Pakistan sponsored proxy war in Kashmir. Major world powers have begun to take a pragmatic view of India obliged to react to terrorist outrage in which the limits of her tolerance are subjected to a test. States have the prerogative of demonstrating their might in situations of self-defence.

The news of India’s airstrike on Azhar’sJaish stronghold was more stunning for China; it amounted to indirect rebuff to her for her sustained effort of taking Azhar under her protective wings against the Security Council’s resolve to designate him. It took the wind out of China’s sail. The first reaction which knowledgeable circles noted was Beijing’s subtle hint to Pakistan that she had to respond to the opinion of the world community. Ever since China vetoed the resolution for the fourth time and the big three decided to take the issue to an open debate, China was ill at ease and loath to be publicly exposed.

China’s antics of making the SC drop reference to Pulwama and Kashmir from the text of the resolution is to keep Pakistan in a state of false expectancy. Nonetheless, both know that after the resolution was passed the US, UK and France conceded in their individual statements that Pulwama proved the catalyst to the passing of a unanimous resolution. This is indirect recognition of India’s right to make bigger strikes on Pakistan-based terrorist installations if the need arises. India and the US are committed to taking joint action in a counter-terrorism bid.

Suspecting that Indo-Pak spat, if allowed to escalate, would gravely impact Afghan situation and the role of Pakistan and her army at Doha negotiations, the US seriously intervened to desist both India and Pakistan from crossing the red line.

The US achieved some success in its interventionist mission primarily because of a critical financial situation bedevilling Pakistan. American authorities bluntly told her that the US would not encourage IMF to sanction loans which Pakistan would pay to liquidate burgeoning Chinese debts.Pakistan’s economy at its nadir would not sustain a war with India for more than a day.

Not losing the sight of astute statesmanship, the Western powers very carefully maintained stoicism over two developments on Indo-Pak political chessboard. One was not to dig into or even randomly underplay India’s claim of having decimated the Balakot terrorist camp, and the second was to remain non-committal about IAF Mig shooting down an F-16 fighter craft of PAF. Though at one point of time India did raise the issue of Pakistan’s infringement of the conditions of sale of F-16s by the US to Pakistan but she mysteriously did not push the matter obviously because of American pressure to refrain from giving media hype to the vulnerability of her so-called impregnable F.16. The US did not like adverse impact on the marketing of her war machine.  The US and the western media somehow saw prudence in keeping the issue under wraps to the entire satisfaction of Pakistani GHQ. India, too, would not overplay Pak’s incredulous deniability. The world knew what Pakistan did not like it to know and forthwith release of Indian pilot was a face-saving rather than a goodwill gesture.

Somehow, the Indian media did not seriously debate the decision of the Modi government to give a green signal to Balakot airstrike. In the process, the recklessdomestic opposition front tried to play cheap vote bank politics and avoideddiscussing the situation from an exclusive nationalist perspective. It revealed its inherent weakness rather than an element of unbridled vengeance let loose during the election campaigning.

Modi government took ten days to frame the outlines of reacting to Pulwama carnage. The Balakot airstrike was less a tactical compulsion and more the unfolding of a decisive policy of meeting the challenge of terrorism emanating from our western neighbour. The PMO and the Defence Ministry both burnt the midnight oil in analyzing and anticipating the grave and perilous outcome of a proposed airstrike deep inside Pakistan. It meant war. India was prepared for an armed clash short of a nuclear strike. The Americans were kept informed and Beijing’s ownupdated intelligence input also spoke almost identically. Both were told that the time had come for cleaning the slate. In a grave situation like this, suspension of the ongoing election through a presidential decree would not be a surprise. That exigency, too, did not escape the notice of policy planners.This objective analysis is to be understood from repeated warnings by the Home Minister that India had to take all necessary steps to ensure her national sovereignty and territorial integrity.

When the news came next morning that PAF had tried to bombard our ammunition dumps and arsenals close to the border, the flash went from New Delhi.  It was a matter of hours not days. Not more than an hour was taken for emergent exchange of communication among Washington, Islamabad, UAE and New Delhi.

Heaving a sigh of relief, President Trump made a laconic remark pregnant with meaning.  He said that he was expecting good news from Islamabad. Imran Khan had to decide within minutes that Wing Commander Abhinandan, would be set free to go back to India that afternoon or the next day. The scare of a massive Indian missile attack on all airbases in Pakistan was so alarming as to force senior PAF officers to spend two or three nights in the bunkers and underground shelters. Pentagon czars would have laughed in their sleeves on hearing Prime Minister Imran Khan saying his decision to free the Indian pilot was an “expression of goodwill”.

De-escalation of tension is temporary because it is compulsive. Its stability is conditional upon Pakistan containing terrorism at home and playing a positive role in persuading Taliban for a peace deal in Afghanistan. For Pakistan, the priorities are (a) to mollify the US so that IMF loan could be obtained without loss of time, and (b) a face-saving mechanism that would help administration neither to antagonize nor fraternizing the terrorist organizations and their leaders.

At a recent news briefing, a senior US official told reporters that without getting involved in Pakistan’s internal politics, Washington expects her civil and military leaders to correct the situation. The official went on to say, “We support the fact that Prime Mister Imran Khan says right things and appears to be trying to make some changes within Pakistan, But only time will tell if he is successful in doing that.” Acknowledging that recently both civil and military leaders in Pakistan have taken steps to eliminate terrorism, the official said that Pakistan’s military was also supporting these changes. “So far, we do see support from the military to the direction that Prime Minister Khan seems to be going in,” he said.

The senior administration official noted that Pakistan was not only saying the right things, it had also taken some right steps. Elucidating what he meant by the right things, the official said that Prime Minister Khan was “very public about wanting stability in the region, pointing out how important that is for Pakistanis to prosper and to have economic development which is one of his core campaign promises”.

This statement of the American senior official gives the impression that Pakistan (meaning both civilian government and the GHQ) had found that they need to give a different direction to their state policy in the light of the ground situation. There is more of expectation than expediency in the statement of the American official, and hypnotizing that there is a mode of giving a new direction to her policy.What do we expect Pakistan to do? It has to dismantle the terror structure which is hydra-headed. The question is will that be a reality? This is not what we but what the world community and the peace-loving segments of Pakistani civil society will have to ask.  To put it crudely, will Pakistan army surrender to the diktat of the civilian government which it has been toppling whenever it desired to do so?

American officials believe that the Pakistan army is on board in regard to the dismantling of the terrorist structure. If that is the case, then it is the beginning of the end of Pak army’s long – tested superlative role in the framing of the foreign policy of that country.

In summing up this analysis, the note has to be taken of the 2-day visit of US Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, South and Central Asia, Alice G Wells to Pakistan on 29 April. This visit comprised two inter-connected components. The first component dealt with Afghan situation for which US Special Representative for Afghan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad and his team held meetings with Pakistani officials with Wells in the chair. In the second component, Assistant Secretary Wells held extensive meetings with a wide variety of Pakistani official representatives that included top civil and military echelons with the Pakistan Army Chief Bajwa included among them. She also met with Pakistan think tank members and representatives of political parties. It is important to note that these wide-ranging talks and with a wide range of Pakistani officials (army in particular) indicate that the US wants to keep a close track on (a) What Pakistan would be doing in the context of finding a solution to Afghan crisis, and (b) what steps Pakistan will be taking to impose curbs on terrorist organizations operating from her soil against either Afghanistan or India in Kashmir. In her press conference, Secretary Wells made two very clear and unambiguous statements by way of response to the questions put to her by the media persons. She said (a) resumption of a peace dialogue between India and Pakistan depends on how far  Pakistan succeeds in imposing effective curbs on terrorism and denies terrorists all facilities for conducting operations against the neighbours, and (b) How far Pakistan plays a constructive and positive role in strengthening peace and normalcy in the South Asian region. Perhaps Ambassador Wells’ threadbare expression will not go down well with Pakistan, but then Pakistan has to re-assess the consequences of a frozen and fossilized policy in the South Asian region.

(Prof. K.N. Pandita is the former Director of the Centre of Central Asian Studies, Kashmir University, Srinagar. Views expressed are personal.)

 

“Friendship is a flowing river”, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed quoted Mexican Nobel Laureate Octavio Paz in her Op-Ed article[i] in an Indian daily to describe India-Bangladesh relations. There is no doubt that Indo-Bangla friendship streams like a river, overcoming all the obstacles. Neighbours that share a porous land border of 4096.7 km, 54 rivers, culture, language and history, have always attempted to find a way to make things work. The two countries have genuine concerns for maintaining their fraternal relationship. With Awami League leader Hasina’s fourth term as the PM, Indo-Bangladesh bond remains strong and stable. Interesting enough, Awami League and BJP, the two incumbent parties, have a similarity in their party symbols. The boat of Awami and the lotus of BJP – both are aquatic.

Bangladesh has always been at the core of India’s neighbourhood policy. Dhaka’s foreign policy reflects the principles of Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). Dhaka is a beneficiary of Modi’s Act East policy – a revised, reviewed and renamed framework of Look East policy. In addition to South Asian Associationfor Regional Cooperation (SAARC), the regional clubs like Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal Initiative (BBIN) and Bangladesh, China, India, Myanmar Forum for Regional Cooperation (BCIMforum) have presented additional opportunities to engage Dhaka and Delhi. Prime Minister Modi and Prime Minister Hasina Wajedvow to maintain the upward trajectory of Indo-Bangla ties.

High-level Visits and Transactions

The present India-Bangladesh relations are an outcome of highly transactional diplomacy. The two neighbours have inked several deals in recent years to strengthen bilateral relations.

Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury, the speaker of Bangladesh Parliament, attended Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s swearing-in ceremony on May 26, 2014. During his maiden visit to Bangladesh in June, 2015, PM Modi settled the forty-one-year-old boundary dispute. As per the Land Boundary Agreement 1974 and protocol of 2011, 51 erstwhile Bangladeshi enclaves in India and 111 erstwhile Indian enclaves in Bangladesh were physically transferred to the other country. India lost 10,000 acres of land in that land swap deal, but Narendra Modi won the hearts of thousands of Bangladeshis. In his hour-long address at Dhaka University, the Indian premier read out a few lines in Bengali and emphasized on Bangladesh’s successes on the social and economic fronts. Mamata Banerjee, Chief Minister of West Bengal, also joined the two leaders in Dhaka. The three leaders flagged off two Bangladesh-India bus services. Modi extended a fresh $2 billion Line of Credit (LoC) support for 15 projects to Bangladesh. Dhaka heaved a sigh of relief hearing the announcement of full disbursement of $200 million. The two South Asian supremos inked 22 agreements on different areas like cooperation in maritime safety, curbing human trafficking and fake Indian currency notes. Bangladesh made a few important announcements to appease India. Access to Chittagong and Mongla Ports made India happy. PM Hasina praised Modi for his charismatic role and Modi appreciated Sheikh Hasina for her farsightedness. The two premiers raised the global issues like climate change. PM Modi called on President Md. Abdul Hamid, former PM and opposition leader Khaleda Zia and many other dignitaries.

PM Hasina reciprocated Prime Minister Modi’s state visit. She has visited India five times since 2015. She got a warm reception – whenever she arrived in India. She attended the BRICS-BIMSTEC Goa summit in October 2016. A year later, Delhi hosted Prime Minister Hasina and extended an additional $4.5 billion third LoC support to Bangladesh in 2017, following China’s $24 billion LoC assistance. She came to West Bengal on a two-day official visit at Modi’s invitation in 2018. Hasina and Modi inaugurated the Bangladesh Bhavan, a Rs. 25 crore project of Bangladesh, at Shantiniketan in West Bengal. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had a tête-à-têtewith her. Kazi Nazrul University in West Bengal conferred an honorary D.Litt. degree on PM Hasina.

External Affairs minister Sushma Swaraj,her deputy VK Singh, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Commerce minister Suresh Prabhu and other heavy weight leaders travelled to Bangladesh and announced many initiatives. President Md. Abdul Hamid,Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali, the then foreign minister of Bangladesh, visited India and made important announcements.

Trade

India surrounds Bangladesh on three sides plus there is a long maritime border. The two countries are connected through all modes of transport – land, air and waterways. The connectivity and transport facilities have propelled the growth of bilateral trade. Trade is the main driver of Dhaka’s foreign policy dynamics. The two burgeoning economies have fulfilled each other’s’ commercial requirements and ultimately become trade partners. The nation of 170 million is the largest regional trading partner of India. The trade between the two neighbours crossed $9.3 billion mark in 2017-18 financial year[ii]. Under the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) agreement, India allows duty and quota free entry to most of the Bangladeshi goods.

Bangladesh is the second largest garments exporter after China. India traditionally imports raw jute and jute products, apparels, hosiery products, knitwear, leather shoes, fruit juices, jams and pickles, fish from Bangladesh. In the last five years, trade between Bangladesh and India has soared. Informal and illegal cross-border trades remain unaccounted.  In spite of the security checkups, border patrolling and hi-tech surveillance of Border Security Force (BSF) and Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB), smugglers are expanding their empire.

The smuggling of fake Indian currency, cattle, gold, cough syrup and other goods has reduced in recent years – especially after Hasina and Modi’s arrival in power. Border-haats are set up in Tripura and Meghalaya to promote local businesses. The Economic Times reports, “The inflow of foreign direct investment (FDI) to the country has almost tripled during ruling Awami League’s nine years in office under Hasina.”[iii]

PM Hasina accompanied a business delegation, during her India visit in 2017. Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industries (FBCCI), the two industrial ombudsmen of India and Bangladesh raised a six-point agenda to boost bilateral business ties as well as investment. They proposed to set up a Joint Task Force on Tariff and Non-Tariff Barriers and a Joint Task Force to promote business and investments in several sectors of Bangladesh. India-Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry was formed to boost the bilateral trade.

India’s newly implemented unified tax system GST has benefited the Bangladeshi entrepreneurs. Indian enterprises relish the taste of success in several business sectors in Bangladesh. Indian and Bangladeshi Inc inked a deal worth $9 billion to invest in Bangladesh. Reliance Power signed a deal worth $1billion with Bangladesh’s Ministry of power, energy and mineral Resources for the first phase of the 3000 MW power project at Meghnaghat in Bangladesh. Energy behemoth Adani Power signed an agreement worth $2 billion to supply 1600 MW of power from its Jharkhand plant to Bangladesh[iv]. Big Indian enterprises like Indian Oil Corporation, ONGC Videsh, Numaligarh Refinery Limited, Petronet LNG Ltd have significant presence in the oil and gas sector of Bangladesh.

 

Defence Diplomacy

Bangladesh is a success saga of defence. Mukti Bahini, with the help of Indian forces, heralded a new era in 1971. Bangladesh still expresses her gratitude to India for her liberation. During her 2017 India visit, PM Sheikh Hasina met with the families of seven Indian soldiers who died in the 1971 Liberation War. A cheque of Rs 5 lakh

Bangladesh and India, both are victims of terrorism. The two nations have not come out of the shock of deadly attacks on them. There are similarities between the attacks in Mumbai and Artisan bakery in Gulshan, Dhaka’s diplomatic enclave.

Modi and Hasina government have come forward to fight terrorism. The two leaders are hailed for remarkable success in strategic co-operation. The AwamiLeague government has been assisting India to crack down on northeastern militants. In recent years, India’s defence relation with Bangladesh is not competitive. The two defence forces co-operate and collaborate each other even though there are serious allegations against B[v]. During Awami League’s tenure, Bangladesh has shown a genuine concern for regional security. BGB (erstwhile BDR), Bangladesh Police, and Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) took several initiatives to curb terrorism, illegal trades and smuggling. BGB catches up with BSF, conduct flag meetings – whenever the situation demands. Policing the border is now easier through direct engagement of BGB and BSF.

India has provided expert training, technical and logistic support to Bangladesh defence forces. In a friendly gesture, Indian Air Force aircraft airlifted 25 Bangladesh Army officers and their spouses from Dhaka to New Delhi in 2018. A coordinated patrol (IN-BN CORPATby two naval forces was kicked off in last year. Indian forces reached Bangladesh with aids during severe natural disasters. Indian Navy’s rescue operation in 2017 after the cyclone Mora is the most recent example. Apart from BSF and BGB meetings, the forces of both the countries exchange communications and participate in tactical drills. Hosted alternately by the two countries, Exercise Sampriti is an important bilateral defence cooperation. The last edition of Sampriti was held in March 2019. The 36 East Bengal Battalion of Bangladesh and 9th Battalion of the Rajputana Rifles took part in the round held at Tangail, Bangladesh. The two countries have huge contributions in UN Peacekeeping operations.

Two agreements were signed in 2017 on co-operation in the peaceful use of nuclear energy and cooperation in the regulation of nuclear safety – during PM Hasina’s stay. Besides, an inter agency agreement was signed between the Global Centre for Nuclear Energy Partnership of India and Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission. India’s Defence Services Staff College and Defence Services Command and Staff College of Bangladesh signed an MoU. An agreement was signed between the National Defence College of Bangladesh and India’s National Defence College. Prime Minister Modi extended a separate LoC support of $500 million to Bangladesh for purchasing defence hardware while Hasina was in India on a state visit in April, 2017.[vi]

Most recently, in March 2019, in a video-conference with PM Modi, Hasina condemned Pulwama terror attack and clearly stated about her government’s zero tolerance policy against terrorism. In the video-conference, she also asserted that Indo-Bangladesh relations have now become “a role model of good neighbourliness for the rest of the world.”

Diplomatic Outreach

The two nations have engineered give-and-take diplomacy. Dhaka’s “friendship to all, malice to none,” policy goes well with the South Block doctrine. Even though, BJP’s parliamentary victory was a matter of concern for the Islamic Republic, the two governments shook hands and became friends.

Modi government has taken a few remarkable initiatives to please Dhaka. A road in Delhi has been named after Bangabandhu. A Hindi edition of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s autobiography was released during Hasina’s state visit.[vii] A biopic of Bangabandhu, jointly produced by two countries, will be out by 2021. Several services have been started to tribute the Muktijoddhas such as five-year multiple entry visa for all Muktijoddhas and free of cost treatment for them.

India is literally empowering her partner Bangladesh. In addition to other aids under the ITEC programme, India is supplying 1.16 gigawatts of power to Bangladesh. The construction of India-Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline from Siliguri to Parbatipur is funded by India. India has contributed in road, water and railway construction, connectivity and other areas in Bangladesh. In the last seven years, Bangladesh has received three LoCs worth $8 billion from the Indian Government.

A Hindi chair was set-up in Dhaka University in January, 2017[viii]. ICCR is the bridge between two societies. India’s Yoga-diplomacy is drawing good responses from Bangladesh.More and more visas are being issued by both the governments. More patients from Bangladesh are now coming to Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi and Bangalore for treatment. While in Dhaka in 2018, Rajnath Singh and his Bangladeshi counterpart Asaduzzaman Khan Kama inaugurated world’s largest Visa Application Center.[ix] In Chennai, Bangladesh is opening her sixth diplomatic mission in India. The workers, toiling in India, hugely contribute to the economy of Bangladesh. Bangladesh receives almost half amount of its total remittances from her workers in India. Indian workers on the other side remit million rupees from Bangladesh.

Like their citizens, the two states have great affection for each other. Bangladesh boycotted the 19^th SAARC summit to protest Pakistan. Dhaka stood by India’s side in most of the cases – but the Sinophobia is irritating New Delhi. After Xi Jingping’s historic Bangladesh visit, Beijing has come closer to Dhaka. China is now a strategic partner and largest arm supplier of Bangladesh. Bangladesh is also the second largest destination for Chinese investment under the Belt and Road Initiative.

If the relation between the two governments deteriorates, the brotherhood of Islamic and separatist terror outfits will be stronger. Without Dhaka’s support, it will be very difficult for Delhi to defeat the insurgents and militants. On the other hand, Bangladesh is a den to ferocious species like Al-Qaeda,Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami Bangladesh (HUJI-B). The ISIS footprint in Bangladesh, terrifies all the South Asian states. After the Artisan attack, Pulwama terror attack and most recent carnage in Sri Lanka, South Asia should take the emerging security threats seriously.

India’s internal policy immensely affects Bangladesh. What happens in Bangladesh, impacts on her external relations. While the daughter of democracy at the helm of political affairs, critics say, the political plurality of Bangladesh is under threat. Religious minorities, freethinkers, activists and ahamadias are living in a dystopian democracy. Some Bangladeshis are relinquishing their nationalities and migrating to India and other countries.

On the other hand, New Delhi’s announcement of deporting infiltrators irked Dhaka. Teesta pact is not resolved yet as West Bengal Chief Minister vetoed. A dry and downstream Teesta affects nearly 21 million people in Bangladesh. There’s not adequate water in Teesta. If Bengal agrees to share Teesta water, people in West Bengal’s Teesta basin will suffer. While commenting on this PM Haisina said, “We sought water, but Didi (Banerjee) has given us electricity. However, we have got something.”

CM Banerjee has proposed of sharing water of Teesta’s cousin Torsa, Sankosh and Raidak. But it does not appear to be feasible. Dhaka has pulled off the proposal.A river can’t disobey the flow of politics. A river goes where the current takes her along. But in geo-politics, a set of interests leads a friendship. The two states have to ensure that their friendship continues to flow like a river.Politics not always stops at water’s edge!

(Ayanangsha Maitra is a freelance journalist, tweets @AyanangshaViews expressed are personal.)

[i] The Hindu, April 7, 2017 https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/friendship-is-a-flowing-river/article17854490.ece

 

[ii] India proposes free trade agreement with Bangladesh, The Economic Times, Sep 26, 2018,

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/foreign-trade/india-proposes-free-trade-agreement-with-bangladesh/articleshow/65965232.cms

 

[iii] Bangladesh seeks wider investments from India, The Economic Times, September 26, 2018

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/foreign-trade/bangladesh-seeks-wider-investments-from-india/articleshow/65816460.cms?from=mdr

 

[iv] Bangladesh, India sign finance deal for Rampal plant, Dhaka Tribune, April 12, 2017

https://www.dhakatribune.com/business/2017/04/12/bangladesh-india-sign-finance-deal-rampal-plant/

 

[v] Why border killing has not stopped, Dhaka Tribune, Dec 27, 2017

https://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2017/12/27/border-killing-not-stopped

 

[vi] List of Agreements/MoUs exchanged during the State Visit of Prime Minister of Bangladesh to India (April 07-10, 2017)

 

https://www.mea.gov.in/bilateral-documents.htm?dtl/28360/List_of_AgreementsMoUs_exchanged_during_the_State_Visit_of_PrimeMinister_of_Bangladesh_to_India_April_0710_2017

 

[vii] Bengali News Article, Daily ProthomAlo, April 8, 2017

https://www.prothomalo.com/bangladesh/article/1138351

 

[viii] Bengali News Article, Banglanews24, Jan 10, 2017

https://www.banglanews24.com/education/news/bd/546540.details

 

 

 

 

On 10 March 2019, India’s Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora announced the much awaited poll dates for elections to the 17th Lok Sabha, in seven phases from 11 April to 19 May. With this, the model code of conduct came into force and the biggest democratic exercise of the world was set in motion. Over the next few weeks, India will see the setting up of over one million polling stations, to enable over 800 million voters to cast their vote to elect the next government. Electronic voting machines will be used in all the polling booths, each of which will have a voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) to obviate charges of rigging. More than 8,000 contestants will fight for 543 seats. An estimated 1,841 political parties recognised by the Election Commission will contest the polls, which are estimated to cost an unprecedented Rs 500 billion (approx. USD 7 billion, as per estimates of the Centre for Media Studies, New Delhi). Democracy, obviously, does not come cheap.

But this election is more than a matter of mere statistics. In many ways, Election 2019 will be the most defining election for India since the country achieved Independence in 1947. This is an election which will set the course for what India chooses to be. Will the ancient wounded civilisation, colonised and vandalised for over a millennia, seek to rediscover itself and embrace its heritage? After all, India is perhaps the only civilisation that has survived the ravages of time. Or will India continue to be in a state of denial about its true potential, and remain unmindful of its rich heritage, ethos and culture? Election 2019 will determine that too. It is therefore, more than a matter of merely electing its representatives. It is a battle for the Soul of India.

To understand this stream of thought, let us go back in time, first to the early years of the 19th Century and then further back to Indian history dating back 1300 years. It would be interesting to first course through the account of Lt Col James Todd, an officer in the East India Company and the celebrated author of ‘Annals of Rajasthan’. James Todd was born on 20 March 1782 in Islington, London, and died aged 53 on 18 November 1835. When he returned to England, his main job was to advise the Board of Directors of the East India Company on matters concerning India. At that point of time, there was a group of very influential people, including the Governor General of India, Lord William Bentinck who wanted to wipe out all traces of Indian civilisation, which they considered as barbaric. This group was opposed by Col Todd and his friend William Jones Prinseps and also by others at the Asiatic Society who were not only aware of India’s civilisational heritage but were also strong promoters of it. They considered India to be the original source of all knowledge, languages and philosophy of all Europe, and preserving of such a  heritage to be in the best interests of not just India, but also for the rest of the world.

The British Parliament consequently held hearings to determine the future course of action by the British Government and the British East India Company. Todd gave sage advice about the wisdom of preserving Indian heritage and allowing local rulers to govern their kingdoms with minimal interference. On the other hand, James Mills, author of History of British India, espoused the cause of proselytisation, and pitched for the whole of India to be taken over by the East India Company, the population converted and put to work as semi-slaves for England and John Company. In his arguments he said: “The entire population should be subdued and cowed. Their role was to be passive and obedient…we take all military power in our hands. Now it is considered what military power implies; that is, in truth, the whole power; the company must get rid of the abomination of indirect rule…” Mills further urged that panopticons be established all over the country. Panopticon is a modern prison system where people are kept under surveillance and control! Finally he said that he found all of Todd’s reasoning in favour of Indians absurd and irrational. “Nothing is more ridiculous” he told the Parliamentary Committee.

The British Parliament went with the arguments put forward by Mills, and that became the policy for the East India Company. It however led to disaffection amongst the Indian population, resulting in the First War of Independence in 1857. Fortuitously for the British, the Crimean War had just ended a year earlier and that enabled them to bring more troops to India to restore the situation, albeit with the help of some turncoats. But the British government had learned its lesson. The British Parliament withdrew the right of the British East India Company to rule India in November 1858 and India came directly under the Crown, through its representative called the Governor General. But the cultural invasion continued, albeit with a greater degree of sophistication and finesse, the impact of which is still seen, seven decades after Independence. The heirs of Macaulay and Mills tragically continue to live in our midst, and their narrative forms the dominant discourse in the country.

Now let us go back in time to the eighth century CE, when the Arab hordes began invading India. In 712 CE, Mohammed bin Qasim, invaded Sindh, defeating the local ruler Raja Dahir. The Raja died on the battlefield for his people, his daughters were taken as sex slaves for the Umayyad rulers and the land was pillaged and plundered. Despite that, it is Qasim who he is revered today in Pakistan as the first Pakistani and the Raja, who fought for the honour of his people lies forgotten. This is a classic example of one culture subsuming another. The Arab hordes, whenever they plundered the Indian land mass, desecrated the temples, killed the priests and destroyed all institutions of learning. Nalanda is witness to what such destruction entails as are the thousands of ransacked temples and monuments all across India.  That the Indian civilisational structure survived is testimony to its strength and vibrancy. But a thousand plus years of subjugation has dented the psyche of a proud people, many of whom now suffer from the Stockholm syndrome and seek to justify the acts of the perpetrators of violence, as being the customs of those times. India has shed its chains which physically kept the country under subjugation, but the mental chains still hold us captive. These need to be broken as the spirit of India seeks rejuvenation.

This is the battle which now confronts India, as the people go forth to cast their ballots. What is the India we want? And whose idea of India shall prevail. For the first time since Independence, there is a real choice available to the people, with two competing ideologies battling for the soul of India. The elections of 2014 were fought on the plank of rooting out corruption, which had taken a form so venomous and brazen that its perpetrators would openly boast of their misdeeds and flaunt their ill gotten gains. But 2019 is a different matter. The issues are not just about development, jobs and good governance, but also about how we look at ourselves and at our history. Should India be held hostage to ideologies that seek to demean our culture, our heritage and our very way of life? Or should we reclaim with pride the ethos and spirit of a proud people, whose land was pillaged for a thousand years but whose spirit could not be subjugated. The process of rejuvenating the Indian mind began in 2014 and has gone a short distance, but the journey is long and would require to be sustained if we truly wish to unshackle our minds. This too, is what election 2019 is about.

Election 2019 is thus a challenge to the ideologues who deny the very existence of Lord Rama and question his birthplace. The Ram Temple issue at Ayodhya is not just about building a temple, which in any case can be built anywhere. It is about respecting a long held and sacred belief, which transcends religious barriers and which rightly, should not have been disputed in the very first place. It is a challenge to the ideologues who had control of the education system and who used their time in power to corrupt and distort our history. It is a challenge to those who still occupy high positions in India and who with shameless abandon, slipped into the shoes of the British and continued the legacy of Macaulay and his ilk. It is a challenge to the corrupt who so easily looted the land and pillaged it at will. And as many of these ideologues still continue to occupy positions of power and pelf, whether in India’s bureaucracy, the media, the corporate sector, the social circles and even in the  political space, they will resist with all their might and all the cunningness at their disposal, the emergence of alternate ideas which can derail the gravy train that they have fed upon these last seven decades and who have desecrated this sacred land and impoverished its people.

Election 2019 is thus also about reclaiming our heritage, our culture, and our history. It is about acceptance of the good in our scriptures, our traditions and our way of life and embracing our heritage in full measure and with pride. That is why, Election 2019 is not just about electing the lawmakers to the 17th Lok Sabha. It is, in a very true sense, a battle for the soul of India.

(Maj Gen Dhruv C Katoch is a Director of India Foundation. Views expresssssed are personal.)

The recent rapid growth of the economy has positioned India more seriously than ever as a major power in world politics, and it is often paired with China as part of the vibrant rise of Asia. But how should India understand and invest in its growing power?

Traditionally, power in world politics was seen in terms of military power. The side with the larger army was likely to win. But even in the past, such a view underestimated the non-tangible aspects of power. And that is more important than ever in the information age. While military power remains important, it does not produce power on the Internet or in dealing with climate change or financial instability. Judging power is more complex than it first appears.

Simply put, power is the ability to alter the behavior of others to get what you want, and there are basically three ways to do that: coercion (sticks), payments (carrots) and attraction (soft power). If you are able to attract others, you can economize on the sticks and carrots. Of course, drinking coke or watching a Bollywood film does not automatically convey power for the United States or India. Whether the possession of soft power resources actually produces favorable outcomes depends upon the context. This is not unique to soft power. It is true of hard power as well. Having a larger tank army may produce military victory if a battle is fought in the desert, but not if it is fought in a swamp.

The soft power of a country rests primarily on three resources: its culture (in places where it is attractive to others), its political values (when it lives up to them at home and abroad), and its foreign policies (when they are seen as legitimate and having moral authority).  Soft power depends upon attraction, and this can vary among countries, groups and generations. For example, America’s culture produces soft power among some young people, but not others. Similarly, Indian films produce attraction among some viewers more than others.

Economic resources can produce both hard and soft power behavior. A vibrant economy like that of China or India produces a capacity for hard coercion or payments, but a successful economy is also an important source of soft attraction. Sometimes in today’s world, it is difficult to distinguish what part of an economic relationship is comprised of hard and soft power. For example, China’s “Belt and Road Initiative” (BRI) produces both, but the harsher the terms of loans, employment and control in a country, the less soft power the BRI produces in that country.

Because soft power has appeared as an alternative to raw power politics, it is often embraced by ethically-minded scholars and policymakers. But like any form of power, it can be wielded for good or bad purposes. Hitler, Stalin, Mao and bin Laden all possessed a great deal of soft power in the eyes of their acolytes, but that did not make it good. It is not necessarily better to twist minds than to twist arms. We often judge ethics on the three dimensions of  motives, means and consequences. Fortunately, while soft power can be used with bad intentions and wreak horrible consequences, it does differ in terms of means because it depends upon the attraction of the subject. Contrast the consequences of Gandhi’s choice of soft power with Yasser Arafat’s choice of the gun. Gandhi was able to attract moderate majorities in Britain to favor India’s independence, and the consequences were impressive both in effectiveness and in ethical terms. He left an important legacy for India’s soft power. In contrast, Arafat’s strategy of hard power, particularly in the second intifada, undercut Israeli moderates and drove politics into the arms of the hard right. The unfortunate consequences persist to this day.

Military force remains crucial in world politics for deterrence and defense. But military resources can also contribute to soft power. A well run military can be a source of attraction, and military to military cooperation and training programs, for example, can establish transnational networks that enhance a country’s soft power. The skills and professionalism of its military is an important source of both hard and soft power for India. The impressive cooperation of the Indian and American militaries in providing humanitarian relief after the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004 enhanced the soft power of both countries. Such exercises continue.

On the other hand, misuse of military resources can undercut soft power. The Soviet Union’s resistance to Hitler produced a great deal of soft power for it in the years after World War II, but the Soviets destroyed it by the brutal way it used its hard power against Hungary and Czechoslovakia in 1956 and 1968. The US similarly damaged its soft power by wars in Vietnam and Iraq. Brutality and indifference to just war principles of discrimination and proportionality can destroy legitimacy. The efficiency of the initial American military invasion of Iraq in 2003 created admiration in the eyes of some foreigners, but that soft power was undercut by the subsequent inefficiency of the occupation and the scenes of mistreatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib. How India responds to jihadist terrorism will affect India’s soft power.

There is very little likelihood that the United States, India or other democracies can attract jihadist terrorists. India suffered terribly in the Mumbai attacks. We need hard power to deal with such hard cases. But the current terrorist threat is not Samuel Huntington’s clash of civilizations. It is a civil war within Islam between a mainstream majority and a small minority such as the Islamic State who want to coerce others into their simplified and ideologized version of Islam. Neither India nor the United States can win this struggle unless the mainstream Muslims win. That is impossible without soft power, and we cannot win hearts and minds without it. Soft power is more relevant than ever.

Looking ahead, China and India are the looming giants of Asia, with their huge populations and rapid economic growth rates. Not only are their hard power resources growing, but both countries have attractive traditional cultures. In 2007, President Hu Jintao told the 17th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party that it needed to invest in soft power and President Xi Jinping has continued that line. China has invested in Confucius institutes to promote Chinese culture, and it is promoting its film industry, but Bollywood produces more movies every year than China – or Hollywood for that matter. Indian writers reach large audiences overseas. Large expatriate communities in the United States have increased interest in their home countries in America as well as in Europe. Moreover, the transnational connections in the information industry are close, as high-tech companies increasingly employ affiliates in Bangalore and Silicon Valley.

The real soft power promise for China and India still lies in the future. A country’s soft power rests upon the attractiveness of its culture, the attraction of its domestic political and social values, and the style and substance of its foreign policies. In recent years, both China and India have adopted foreign policies that have increased their attraction to others. But as the Soft Power 30 Index produced by the London consultancy Portland shows that neither country yet ranks as high on the various indices of potential soft power resources as the U.S., Europe and Japan. Polls show that this remains true despite the damage that President Trump’s policies have done to American soft power. Fortunately, much of the soft power is produced by civil society, not government. That helps to explain how American soft power recovered after Vietnam, and will probably do so again after the Trump years. While culture provides some soft power, domestic policies and values set limits, particularly in China, where the Communist Party fears allowing too much intellectual freedom, censors the internet, and resists outside influences.

This is where India possesses an advantage. China has grown more rapidly and done more to reduce poverty over the past two decades, and should be applauded for that, but China has not yet come to terms with the problem of increased political participation and recent events seem to be going in the wrong direction. India was fortunate to be born with a democratic constitution and political structure. This means that it has already passed a test that China still faces in the future, and that makes India a source of attraction to other countries. Of course, India still faces daunting challenges of poverty, unequal treatment of women, inequality tied to a caste system, and corruption and inefficiency in the provision of public services. But India is also changing and adapting within a broad democratic framework, and many foreigners find that attractive. Despite its many problems, it is a safe bet that India’s hard and soft power are both likely to increase in the coming decades. If India can combine the two successfully, it will be a “smart power.”

Fortunately, soft power does not have to be zero sum. If we wish to avoid conflict, we can all benefit if the attraction of another country rises in our own country. Similarly, given the rise of new transnational challenges like climate change, financial stability, pandemics, and terrorism which no one country can solve by itself, increases in soft power can pave the way for the cooperation the world will need to meet such problems. Fortunately, soft power can be part of a vision which understands the importance of power with others rather than merely over others. India can help lead the way.

 

(Prof. Joseph S. Nye, Jr. is a professor emeritus at Harvard University, a former assistant secretary of

defense, and author of ‘Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics’.)

(This article is carried in the print edition of March-April 2019 issue of India Foundation Journal.)

 

 

One of the most common criticisms of the annual Soft Power 30 study is the conspicuous absence of India in the rankings. Admittedly, India’s non-appearance in the top 30 countries does give one pause. So much so, it is worth exploring why this is the case, looking ahead to see when India might expect to break into the top 30, and understanding what changes the government might need to usher in to do so.

For those unfamiliar with The Soft Power 30, it is an annual study produced by Portland, a strategic communications consultancy, and the University of Southern California’s Centre on Public Diplomacy. The annual report is built around a composite index that assesses the soft power resources of the world’s leading countries through a combination of objective metrics and international polling data. The index – developed around Joseph Nye’s argument that the sources of soft power are based primarily on political values, culture, and foreign policy – is designed to give a comparative snap-shot of countries based on their soft power assets. It is not a measure of absolute influence, but more the potential for influence. Objective metrics are structured into six sub-indices: Culture, Digital, Education, Enterprise, Government, and Global Engagement. International polling data is drawn from nationally representative surveys of 11,000 people in 25 countries, covering every region of the world. Survey respondents rate countries based on a set of factors that are most likely to drive perceptions of a foreign country. These factors include foreign policy, culture, liveability, and technology exports, among others. While the study only publishes a list of top 30 countries, there are a total of 60 countries included in the study, of which India is of course one. The Soft Power 30 has been produced annually since 2015, but it draws on the earlier work of the Institute for Government Soft Power Index which was published in collaboration with Monocle Magazine from 2010 to 2014.1

The 2016 edition of The Soft Power 30 report identified India as ‘a country to watch’, arguing that an upward lift in its ranking (from 2015 to 2016) was likely the start of a trend that would see it break into the top 30 in the near future.2 Surprisingly, this prediction has failed to materialise. Not only has India not built on its earlier momentum, its overall ranking has actually fallen since 2016. So, what happened and how can India reverse the trend?

There are several factors at play driving what feels like an underperformance in the Soft Power 30 index for India. The first is that we need to recognise there is at least some element of Western bias to the concept of soft power, as developed by Joseph Nye.3 As conceived, and as borne out in some (but not all) of the Soft Power 30 metrics, developed-economy countries do enjoy an advantage. This, in turn, puts India at a relative disadvantage. The other aspect of the index to bear in mind is that it is a composite measure, aggregating data across a diverse range of soft power metrics to produce a single score for each country. Thus, an especially poor performance in several of The Soft Power 30 sub-indices drags down a country’s total score. But this does not mean that such a country will not have clear strengths and useful tools in its array of soft power assets.

Bearing those caveats in mind, a breakdown of India’s performance across The Soft Power 30 can provide insights into both the factors dragging down India’s overall ranking, as well as the country’s soft power strengths that can serve India’s foreign policy priorities if used effectively. India’s biggest challenge, in terms of soft power assets – as assessed by TheSoft Power 30 index – stem from the ‘harder’ elements of soft power. Said differently, it is systemic issues like corruption, poverty, inequality, gender inequality, and pollution that weigh on global perceptions of India, and thus its soft power. Often the most commonly covered topics on India in international media focus on these more negative stories. Subsequently, these issues have an outsized impact on international views of India, and not in a positive way. Table 1 below provides India’s relative ranking and scores for each of the objective data sub-indices.

Table 1: India’s scores and ranking for objective data

	Ranking	Score
Overall	41st	40.64
Digital	35th	54.51
Government	37th	51.76
Culture	38th	30.01
Enterprise	47th	37.50
Global Engagement	47th	24.79
Education	51st	37.84

 

Looking at India’s performance across the objective sub-indices, India’s strongest soft power assets are found in Digital, Culture, and Government. In the digital sub-index, Prime Minister Narendra Modi powers India’s extraordinary digital diplomacy reach, which is among the best in the world. Prime Minister Modi is second to only to US President Donald Trump for Facebook followers in other countries. This means India’s Government can reach a huge international audience directly through social media platforms. In the Culture sub-index, India benefits from 36 UNESCO world heritage sites, ranking 6th in the world; it is 13th for average tourist spend; 22nd for international tourist arrivals; and 23rd for entries into major international film festivals. India’s performance in the Government sub-index paints a mixed picture. India does well on some metrics that capture the vibrancy of being the world’s largest democracy. But it performs less well on measures that capture citizen outcomes and government effectiveness, such as the UN’s Human Development Index.

Turning to the international polling data we see a set of results that broadly reflect the objective data. India’s best performance in the polling, as shown in Table 2 below, is in Culture, where it ranks inside the top 30 at 23. It is encouraging to see India’s cultural assets cutting through to international audiences. Chief among India’s culturally-driven soft power assets are the richness of a millennia-spanning continuous civilization, the films of Bollywood, the global appeal of yoga, ubiquitous Indian cuisine, India’s huge (and often successful) global diaspora, and India’s cricketing prowess. Likewise, international public opinion gives India credit for its well-established digital and tech sector, with India’s ‘technology exports’ being ranked 34th out of a total of 60 countries.

Table 2: India’s rankings and scores for international polling data

	Rank	Score
Aggregated	43rd	42.87
Culture	23rd	7.03
Cuisine	35th	6.87
Tech	34th	6.43
Luxury goods	40th	6.53
Welcoming to tourists	42nd	6.93
Global affairs	42nd	6.08
Visit for work or study	47th	6.10

 

With a better understanding of India’s performance across the different components of The Soft Power 30 index, we can turn our focus to what might be done to improve India’s relative soft power assets and the capacity to better leverage them. On the systemic issues that weigh on India’s soft power identified above, the Government should be – and likely already is – aware that these domestic issues have implications for India’s influence abroad. They are complex challenges that will take time to address.

In the absence of immediate solutions, it would be wise to focus on what the Indian government can control in the more short term. One action that would immediately benefit India’s soft power is an expansion of its diplomatic network, as well as the number of international cultural missions of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations. India would benefit significantly from more international platforms to engage global audiences and communicate not only what India has to offer the world in terms of its wider cultural offer, but also articulate its values, aspirations, and a clear vision for India’s positive role in the world.

Extrapolating from the international polling data on perceptions of India’s foreign policy – where it ranks 42nd out of 60 countries – there seems to be a lack of understanding around what India wants from the world, and what it stands to contribute. Again, a larger diplomatic network with expanded platforms for articulating India’s aspirations and vision would be a boon for Indian soft power. With greater understanding and more familiarity, international publics are likely to increase their trust in India and see it as a potential partner. In combining India’s excellent digital reach with a greater international diplomatic presence, India will be better able to explain itself and its aims to the world, as well as leverage new platforms to engage international audiences with its formidable cultural assets. Results would not come overnight, but if resources could be mobilised, the returns on investment for India’s influence abroad would be significant.

References:

1   McClory, J. (2010) The New Persuaders, London: Institute for Government, https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/sites/default/files/publications/The%20new%20persuaders_0.pdf

2   McClory, J. (2016) The Soft Power 30, London: Portland, https://softpower30.com/wp-content/ uploads/2018/07/The_Soft_Power_30_Report_2016-1.pdf

3   Nye, J., (2004) Soft Power: The means to success in world politics, New York, Public Affairs.

 

(Mr. Jonathan McClory is the creator and author of The Soft Power 30 andGeneral Manager for Asia at Portland.)

(This article is carried in the print edition of March-April 2019 issue of India Foundation Journal.)

 

The notion of soft power is associated with the work of Harvard political scientist, Joseph Nye and was defined by him simply as ‘the ability to attract people to our side without coercion’. The phrase was first used by Nye in an article published in 1990 in the US journal, Foreign Policy and expanded in his 2004 book Soft Power. Despite Nye’s focus being primarily on the United States, and the vagueness associated with the concept of soft power, the phrase has acquired global currency and is routinely used in policy and academic literature, as well as in elite journalism. The capacity of nations to make themselves attractive in a globalizing marketplace of ideas has become an important aspect of contemporary international relations, as has been the goal of communicating a favourable image of a country or countering negative portrayals in an era of digital global flows.

As the world’s fastest growing large economy and with a pluralist polity, India is increasingly viewed as a global economic and political power. Since 2013, India has been the world’s third largest economy behind China and the United States on the basis of purchasing-power parity, while, in overall GDP terms, its $2.6 trillion economy has become the sixth largest, surpassing France in 2018. Nevertheless, the country is still home to the world’s largest number of people living in extreme poverty.

Parallel to its rising economic power are the growing global awareness and appreciation of India’s soft power – its extensive and globalized diaspora, mass media, celebratory religiosity (Yoga and Ayurveda) and popular culture. India’s soft power has a civilizational dimension to it, the Indic civilization, dating back more than 5000 years, being one of the major cultural formations in the world, with wide-ranging influences from religion and philosophy, arts and architecture to language, literature, trade and travel. India is the point of origin of four of the world’s religions – Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism – and, as the place where every major faith, with the exception of Shintoism and Confucianism, has coexisted for millennia, India offers a unique and syncretized religious discourse.

The dissemination of Hindu and Buddhist ideas across Asia is well documented: it is no coincidence that the official airline of Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim country, is named Garuda, the Sanskrit name for the Hindu God Vishnu’s flying creature. The Indian contribution to Islamic thought (and via that to European) on mathematics, astronomy, and other physical and metaphysical sciences is widely recognized.

India’s soft power in historical terms was directed not towards the West but to Asia. India’s cultural influence across East and Southeast Asia during the early centuries of the Christian era was spread through the dispersion of Hinduism and Buddhism and thus the millennia-old relationship between India and the rest of Asia has a strong cultural and communication dimension. Buddhism was at the heart of this interaction, with the widest dissemination of ideas emanating from what constitutes India today, and remains a powerful link between the Indic and the Chinese civilizations. Narratives on Buddha’s life and teachings are still a cultural referent in much of Asia, while traces of Indic languages, cuisine, dance, and other art forms survive in parts of Southeast Asia, notably in Indonesia.

Two of the world’s other great religions – Christianity and Islam – also have long associations with India. Some of the earliest Christian communities were established in India: St. Thomas is supposed to be buried in Chennai and one of the world’s oldest mosques is also located in India – in Kerala, where Jewish communities have lived for millennia. Adding to this legacy is India’s long and continuing encounter with European modernity and its contribution to a distinctive worldview epitomized by leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, the apostle of non-violence and tolerance – whose thoughts influenced such leaders as Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela. This rare combination of a civilization which has strong Hindu-Buddhist foundations, centuries of Islamic influence, and integration with Western institutions and ideas, gives India cultural resources to deal with the diverse, globalized and complex realities of the twenty-first century.

In Prime Minister Modi’s ‘faith-based’ diplomacy, promoting Buddhism is particularly pronounced. Emphasizing the millennium-old cultural and communication links with other Asian nations, especially China, the Indian government has propounded the idea of ‘sanskritievamsabhyata’ (culture and civilization) as a core principle for promoting India’s image globally. It is not without symbolic significance that the first foreign visit Modi made after being elected Prime Minister in 2014 was to Buddhist Bhutan. Since then, in his official visits to Asian nations such as Nepal, Japan, China, Mongolia and South Korea, he has repeatedly invoked Buddhism. With its focus on peace and non-violence, Buddhism is seen as a useful soft power tool for India, which has traditionally been a peace-loving nation. Another aspect of Modi’s faith-based diplomacy is the promotion of yoga as part of soft-power projection, in which his government has been active, as evidenced by the adoption of International Yoga Day by the United Nations on June 21.

With its history as the only major democracy that did not blindly follow the West during the Cold War years, pursuing an autonomous foreign policy, India also has the potential now to take up a more significant leadership role. Despite growing economic and strategic relations with Washington, it maintains close ties with other major and emerging powers. India’s presence at the Group of 77 developing nations and at the G-20 leading economies of the world has been effective in articulating a Southern perspective on global affairs. India is also a key member of the BRICS grouping of countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa), the Shanghai Cooperation Organization as well as the Commonwealth. As the 2017 annual report of India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) noted: ‘India’s diplomatic approach and engagement with the wider world is reflective of its confidence as a rising power capable of shaping the global discourses in the emerging multi-polar world’, a sentiment also reflected in a 2017 documentary, India Boundless – A Place in the Heart of the World, produced for the Public Diplomacy Division of the MEA.

How effective are India’s soft power initiatives? The intangible nature of soft power makes it hard, if not impossible, to measure. Has India’s civilizational communication with Asia given New Delhi a greater voice in the continent’s geopolitics? One major problem India faces is that it has not successfully communicated its soft power resources apart from its popular cinema. Indian news and current affairs continue to be largely domestically oriented and therefore absent in the global news arena.

As a result, the capacity to communicate India’s cultural attributes – classical or con-temporary – to a globalized audience is largely underdeveloped. Of the countries with ambitions for a global role, India is the only one whose national broadcaster (Doordarshan) is not available in the major capitals of the world. Although international news channels are still dominated by Anglo-American broadcasters, most major non-English speaking countries have entered the arena to ensure their views on the world are heard via their English-language 24/7 news networks, such as China (CGTN), Russia (RT), Qatar (Al Jazeera English), Iran (Press TV) and Turkey (TRT-News). However, the Indian viewpoint is notably missing in the global news sphere, at a time when news media are a key instrument of public diplomacy.

While India’s English-language private news networks, such as NDTV 24×7, CNN-News 18, India Today Television, Times Now and WION (World Is One News) are available globally, they have rarely ventured out of their diasporic constituencies.  For a nation with a developed model of journalism and one of the world’s largest English-language news markets, it is ironical that Indian journalism is losing interest in the wider world at a time when Indian industry is increasingly globalizing and international engagement with India is growing across the globe. Despite its penchant for managing media messages and Modi’s personal reputation as a formidable communicator, his government has done little to address this shortcoming in India’s external communication strategy.

(Prof. DayaKishanThussu is currently Disney Chair in Global Media and Distinguished Faculty Visiting Professor at Schwarzman College, Tsinghua University, Beijing. For many years he was Professor of International Communication at the University of Westminster in London. Among his many publications is Communicating India’s Soft Power: Buddha to Bollywood (Sage/India, 2016).)

(This article is carried in the print edition of March-April 2019 issue of India Foundation Journal.)

 

 

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Food is the visible manifestation of God. When we see food, we see the Divine in it. The physical, as well as metaphysical aspects of food cannot be ignored. Man is born of food, nourished by food and becomes food of other creations. Matter draws energy from food to become alive, gets nourished and then grows. Rasa – the juice of food, converts into rakta, the juice of life, to cajole the seed of tomorrow, to propagate life.

Food is an integral part of our cultural philosophy since it comprehensively reflects the essence and experience of life. Food in our culture is never merely a material substance of ingestion, not just a transactional commodity. Maybe that is why India has never been loud about its food and the knowledge behind this food evolved over centuries. Now, the time has come to aggressively promote knowledge — which I argue is the greatest soft power of any nation.

The Vedic science of gastronomy now referred to as the ‘anthropology of food and nutrition’ is still as relevant today as it was in the ancient and medieval times, and will continue to play a crucial role in the future as well. This knowledge which is universal will help gain a better understanding of gastronomy and recognizing a crucial place of the interdependence between food and wellness living. Given the importance of fire in the cooking process, AGNI or fire finds its place of pride in the first sloka of the Rig Veda. The verse means: “Oh Agni, you who gleam in the darkness, to you we come day by day, with devotion and bearing homage. So be of easy access to us, as a father to his son, abide with us for our wellbeing.”

Just as the oldest text of the human race – the Vedas – acknowledge the value of Agni in the wellbeing of mankind, we must understand its role in the evolution of man in the context of food since the Stone Age, and how it is responsible for our existence. With fire began cooking. The deeper connect between food and fire was discovered – as man realised that fire was required to digest food in its digestive form – Agni. Fire helps to cook food, improves ingestion, making food easily digestible, enhances absorption and makes metabolism more efficient. Man soon learnt that nutrients absorbed from the food provided for the energy needs of the body, helping improve the immune system, which in turn helped the organs function the right way. The development of the brain occurred in a complementary fashion.

Slowly, with time, man also began to understand that food not just nourishes the body, but also the mind, which in turn, leads to evolution – through developments of culture, language, knowledge. Wellness and sustainability – the twin objectives have always been driving the evolution of Indian cuisine. With these in mind, our food passed through various stages of evolution on the basis of continuous learning and observation from nature by saints, sages and wise men, who refined it through experimentation – over centuries! What they found was that eating is not to be considered in isolation as satiation of hunger. Rather, food is a source of nourishment for the body, mind and soul. They discovered the link between the five elements of nature, six seasons and the six tastes. Our ancestors have very well documented the essentials of cooking food:

1) One must have complete understanding of the characteristics of each food ingredient and the bearing on cooking and its impact on the body. The characteristics include seasonality, the taste of the naturally-occurring ingredient and its therapeutic effects on the body. All of these will assist you in making the correct choice and mixing of ingredients (which you may also call “pairing” or combinations).

2) One must be emotionally involved in the cooking process. You must touch and feel the ingredients. Just by touching the food ingredients, you can judge their quality from their texture, and observe their colour, and smell it. No wonder, the Indian philosophy relates to cooking as a spiritual process.

3) The process of cooking can be considered as a high level of meditation. It requires utmost concentration of the mind, and deep involvement of the one who cooks. And it is not easy to control the mind! Bringing the focus of the mind on the act of cooking and holding your concentration there to create sumptuous, soulful and tasty food which creates happiness and wellness of the diners – makes the cooking process nothing short of a highly spiritual activity.

4) The mind must be filled with good thoughts, and must be devoid of all negativity.

This is the understanding of food we have inherited through our culture, and it forms the basis of the immense wealth of knowledge of our cooking.

The first vertical of Indian gastronomic science (Ayurveda) is wellness. Food is the only source of serving the nutritional needs of the body. For over 5000 years, our gastronomy which is a vertical of Ayurveda has been practised to promote wellness. It has influenced our philosophy of gastronomy. It was true in the olden times as much as it is relevant at present – beginning to find its place in the diet trends of the day. It is considered to be a sacred system that unites natural elements of the body and is tethered to the nourishment of the mind and the soul.

The second vertical of Indian gastronomic science is Sustainability. For a life with peace, harmony and happiness, we need to ensure that our surroundings are healthy, clean and balanced. Taking care of the environment around us is just as important, or even more, than taking care of our individual health or our body, mind and soul. Simply because, our individual ‘balance’ is contributed by the ‘balance’ of the environment around us. It is as simple as this: Every time we contaminate our surroundings or the environment, we end up contaminating ourselves. It is usually taught in Ayurveda that whenever you throw something outside, assuming it to be a waste, rest assured it will always come back to you. If it is in the form of harmful fumes, we will breathe it back.

After travelling across the world’s nations and experiencing their cuisines, I can summarise my exploration as a culinarian thus: What we found and laid stress on for centuries has become the motto driving all the food concerns today – which is wellness and sustainability! It is being accepted that eating food in courses has no scientific basis. This neither aids in digestion, nor does it lead to satisfaction and happiness. The world is waking up to the exploration of tastes, and the impact of seasonality on the body. But, we have known it for aeons!

The knowledge of our gastronomy – Why eat seasonal? Why eat tasty food? When to eat? What to eat? How much to eat? What is the effect of food on the mind and the soul? This knowledge is already with us. I appeal to all the knowledgeable stakeholders – in the government (AYUSH), various agencies, scientists, ayurveda practitioners, nutritionists, and the most important ones who put food in our stomachs – the chefs – to make people aware of this food in a presentable manner that encourages them to appreciate it by stimulating salivation. This can happen through food that is good to look at, but it must be complemented by the well-balance of tastes as per season, which triggers the neuro-systems for the digestion process.

Some time back, I had an interaction with Paul Newnham – who is the Coordinator of the UN’s SDG2 Advisory Hub working towards Zero Hunger. We were at a place where poppy seeds were served in the form of a beverage. It led to a discussion on seasonal food where we spoke about the element of seasonality in food consumption which does not apply only to fresh produce. Even the seeds have a bearing on the body according to season. Now, poppy seeds are best-suited during the summer or grishmaritu. For winters or hemantaritu, one could rather consume alsi (flax seeds), or til (sesame seeds). This is the knowledge which we already have, and if this can be stated in a simple, understandable and accessible document for the average person, it will help fix most of our common day cooking misadventures. It will lead to the spread of good practices and produce wellness longevity from our routine food.

It is difficult to cook something well without understanding the philosophy of any cuisine. Indian gastronomy goes beyond rules to discover the underlying ’Gastro-semantics,’ which can be understood as a culture’s distinct capacity to signify, experience, systematize, philosophize and communicate with food and food practices, rendering it as a central subject of attention. Our food is deeply grounded with five elements, five senses, three strands, three humors, six tastes and nine feelings. The five elements are earth, water, air, fire and ether. The five senses are hearing, sight, touch, smell and taste. The three strands are benevolence, passion and indolence. The three humors are Pitta or bile, Vatta or wind and Kapha or mucus. The six tastes are sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter and astringent. The nine feelings are love, joy, wonder, calmness, anger, courage, sadness, fear and disgust.

As per our Ayurvedic gastronomic science, food cannot be nutritious, even while it has the essential nutrients in it, unless it is a well-balanced experience of six tastes. This literally means, that “If food is not tasty, it is not nutritious!” The six tastes are each composed of two elements: Sweet is water and earth, sour is earth and fire, salty is water and fire, pungent is air and fire, bitter is air and ether and astringent is air and earth. Further, even the body types Pitta, Vatta and Kapha are also determined by these elements. Pitta is fire and water, Vatta is air and ether, and Kapha is fire and water. The interaction of the five elements of nature through food, whether in the tastes or humors, determines what kind of body one has and the life one leads. Further, it is the basic gunas – sattva, rajas and tamas that have permeated all matter to form their basic nature. Human personality, too, is a blend of these three gunas and the dominance of any of the tattva (matter) determines behaviour patterns.

Sattva is a benevolent, unobstructiveguna. Sattvic tattva enhances the longevity, mental power, health and the feeling of contentment. Rajas, reminiscent of royalty, is characterised by passion, valour, pride and possession. Known to be the manas or mind of the human cycle, the rajasic tattva in food triggers activity and the wish to conquer.

A verse from the Bhagavad Gita is simply interpreted as “You eat what you are and, you are what you eat.”

Food as a Soft Power

This wealth of knowledge of food must now be disseminated through the various agencies and practitioners to the culinary enthusiasts and the Chefs, so that food as wellness becomes the norm. Our science of gastronomy has a universal basis – the philosophy, principles, guidelines, fundamentals, applications – can be easily customised to prepare traditional wellness food anywhere across the world, using their unique geo-tropical ingredients and techniques.

My own experience by visiting and interacting with the professionals at various seminars, forums, workshops, demonstrations relating to food, I found in every country that people are very anxious to know the goodness behind the great food. Not just the recipe! But, what is the knowledge behind this food? What makes it so good? There is no doubt in my mind that Indian food science is the foremost culinary philosophy backed by our ancient gastronomic wisdom. It is scientifically validated through research by scientist Dr Ganesh Bagler of IIIT-Delhi who worked with data analysing 2,500 recipes of Indian food, and found that Indian cooking is all about using spices without overlapping their tastes.

It’s not just how much spice and in what form, but how intelligently they are incorporated into the dish. Spices used in our dishes are much more carefully selected to produce the least amount of “flavour and taste overlap.” Every spice and ingredient has a purpose and they all work together in harmony to produce the taste of the dish. People from the world over who are seeking hints to the wellness quotient of our food are coming here to learn cooking under the Ayurvedic gastronomic science. They want to visit our country and spend time to understand this practice as wellness is a global concern – and food lies at the heart of wellness.

An Ayurvedic doctor – Dr RamniwasPresar – recently shared with me that there is a growing number of foreigners seeking him out to learn cooking as per Ayurveda. Nothing prevents us from exploring this growing interest in our cuisine on a large scale and it is imperative to take this great knowledge to global platforms and various forums to disseminate it. This will serve the twin purpose of promoting the right route to wellness, as well as establishing the knowledge of our food as supreme.

In the world of food and wine, French cuisine has reigned for the last couple of centuries, setting the standards for professional cooking. We are all aware of how France took its food to this position through structuring of the kitchen, standardisation of their recipes, and innumerable documentation and publication of literature. Many other countries followed suit, such as Italy, Germany and others in the Mediterranean region. In the recent times, countries such as UAE, Singapore, Australia, and even USA, have worked towards presenting their traditional food to the world. Most of them have marketed it innovatively with great success, becoming sought-after tourist and food destinations. Now, many of these countries have no substantial legacy of food worth talking about, but they have consolidated their food from other influences in the region, branded it as their own cuisine, and “sold” it as their own food to the world.

What about us? We already have a repository of knowledge which we have inherited from our past, complemented by diversity of food. But we are yet to go to town with it. With careful planning, branding and selling of this cuisine, we can establish Indian food as the dominant cuisine of the world – with all the right assets – backed by science and knowledge. It is also something we owe to the world that is seeking the right answer after misguided and misrepresented takes on food.

And I strongly believe that if we recognise our food as a soft superpower, it will not only make our food popular, but also enhance our tourism experience with knowledge, contribute to revenue for the economy, and generate employment. As we somehow strayed from our understanding of seasonality of food following the international trends, this knowledge will put pressure on the Chefs to produce diverse seasonal foods that would in turn encourage farmers to adopt diverse agriculture as opposed to mono-cropping. This could critically help improve the agro-economy of the country.

Paraphrasing a quote from Turkey, “Once, we say that ‘we belong to the Indian nation‘ we will begin to show in our language, aesthetic, morals and law and even in theology and philosophy, the originality and personality which befit Indian culture, taste and consciousness.”

Gastro-diplomacy as a Soft Power tool to enhance nation brand

The soft power of food would also help us in diplomacy as Gastro-diplomacy or the practice of sharing a state’s cultural heritage through cuisine. Thailand has established its own gastronomy product abroad. It is called Thai Kitchen with over twenty standard recipes as part of the brand that sells Thai food-based culture to foreigners, thus attracting prospective visitors to visit Thailand. Politicians like Hillary Clinton, former US Secretary of State, ushered in a whole new approach to the provision of food, as a part of what she terms “smart diplomacy”. Indeed, as Natalie Jones, a deputy chief of protocol in the US Government puts it: “Food is crucial because tough negotiations take place at the dining table.”

During my participation in San Sebastian Gastronomika, I met the Indian ambassador in Spain last year. In January this year, I called him ahead of my visit to Madrid. Food lives in the memories. The recall of food is very strong as opposed to many other cultural experiences as it involves ingestion of food in the body and a complete multi-sensory experience. A popular quotation says, “It is hard to sing praises of the Lord on an empty stomach.”  What must we do to harness it?  The Yoga brand. Yoga has to be complemented with the correct food.

Conclusion

Even celebrated author Mulk Raj Anand has famously quoted from the old manuscript KhemKuthal: “I will just record a few lndian considerations about food which might serve to show how, with their remarkable genius for systematising life and its functions, the Indians had raised cookery to a fine art.” The fine art of cooking and dining must include: Food on the basis of its nutritive quality; in respect of its flavor and taste as judged by the palate; and in regard to the delight it gives to the artistic faculty of man’s mind. This transforms the food into a fine dining experience.

What is Indian food? Food that draws upon the vast knowledge from our scriptures, is well-balanced of the six tastes, in sync with the season, includes the local flora and is based on the fundamentals of Indian gastronomy anchored on wellness and sustainability qualifies as Indian food. Indian food is not restricted to food cooked in India. Anywhere, any cuisine across the globe can qualify as Indian food if it fulfils the above criteria. In India, we can and must bank upon this well-established science of food.

(This article is a summary of the speech delivered by Mr. Manjit Singh Gill, Chef and President,
Indian Federation of Culinary Association on 18th December 2018 at the Conference on
Soft Power at New Delhi organised by India Foundation.)

(This article is carried in the print edition of March-April 2019 issue of India Foundation Journal.)