A resource crunch need not hurt our soft power

When Haile Selassie I, former emperor of Ethiopia, visited India twice more than 60 years ago, he came scouting for not only investments and capital goods, critical requirements for his nation, but also for intellectual capital. He was impressed by how we had managed to integrate an ancient knowledge system with a modernist and formal education system; Selassie was instrumental in recruiting hundreds of teachers and professors for Ethiopia’s schools and universities, which, in turn, supplied it with hundreds of trained ministers and bureaucrats. Over the past few decades, it has been the avowed policy of many MNCs to hire Indian talent for senior positions globally; many seem to view their operations here as talent acquisition platforms more than revenue sources. Groaned about as ‘brain drain’ in the past, this vast and visible swarm of educated Indians across the world holds enough sway today to constitute a vital component of the myriad ‘soft’ ways in which India can project the ‘power’ of influence over external stakeholders. This then should also be viewed as a projection of India’s ‘soft power’. Yet, sadly, these ambassadors of ours rarely find mention in official documents or in the voluminous geopolitical literature on soft power.

This week, our parliamentary committee on external affairs tabled its 16th report, titled India’s Soft Power and Cultural Diplomacy: Prospects & Limitations, in which it has made a raft of recommendations on how better to project this power in conjunction with conventional diplomacy. The panel was particularly dismayed to note that despite a vast array of soft resources at the country’s disposal—fine and performing arts, literature, cuisine, traditional medicine, cinema and entertainment, sports, historical monuments and democratic traditions, among others—there has been little or no perceptible attempt by the government to leverage this rich mother-lode towards fulfilling foreign policy goals. Numerous reasons were put forth to explain that laxity, with lack of inter-ministerial coordination and a resource crunch on top of the list. The first is not hard to resolve, but the other deficit can easily short-change our diplomatic ambitions.

It goes without saying that as India enlarges its footprint of influence, especially after assuming presidency of the G20, we need a renewed focus on deploying our vast reservoir of soft-power assets; this remains a big but under-used strength. The shortage of funds is a direct consequence of our developmental priorities intersecting with budgetary dilemmas and no immediate fixes in apparent sight. Two options spring up as alternatives. One, our record of having built liberal democratic institutions and traditions, after shaking off the colonial yoke, is a template that finds much resonance in many regions and countries. As the world’s largest democracy, Indian soft power should not remain limited to sharing only election best-practices, but must extend to the intricate framework of democratic institutions which counter-balance executive over-reach. The other way to overcome a shortage of money and minds on the job is to examine how the private sector can be marshalled to fill some of the gaps left by official agencies. Bollywood already does its bit, but perhaps India Inc can also be roped in to partner the government in sharing India’s inexhaustible talent pool with the rest of the world and winning people over.