THE SHASHI THAROOR COLUMN
The new global mantra
Making a fashion statement abroad... designer Ritu Beri.
IN an earlier column (August 17), I mused about India's celebration of the 56th anniversary of our independence two days earlier. To some Indians, the occasion may not have promoted many stirrings of patriotism; indeed, the fact that August 15 fell on a Friday this year meant that many may have celebrated a long weekend instead (their own recreation, in other words, rather than the re-creation of the Indian nation in 1947). I wrote about 1947 myself, and I'm gratified by the feedback I've received from many readers. But one loyal fan observed that focusing on the past was a curiously backward-looking thing to do on such an occasion. Shouldn't we, instead, have taken a look ahead to the new century unfolding before us?
As we do so, we must determine where our strengths lie as we seek to make the 21st Century our own. Much of the conventional analyses of India's stature in the world relies on the all-too-familiar indices of GDP, impressive economic growth rates (5.9 per cent a year over the last five years, a friend at the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) tells me), and our undoubted military power. But if there is one attribute of independent India to which we have not perhaps paid enough attention, it is a quality which we would do well to cherish and promote in today's world: our "soft power".
The next golden girl of atheletics... Anju Bobby George.
The notion of soft power is relatively new in international discourse. The term was coined by Harvard's Joseph Nye to describe the extraordinary strengths of the United States that went well beyond American military dominance. The fact is that the U.S. is the home of Boeing and Intel, Microsoft and MTV, Hollywood and Disneyland, McDonald's and Kodak — in short of most of the major products that dominate daily life around our globe. The attractiveness of these assets, and of the American lifestyle of which they are emblematic, is that they permit the U.S. to maximise what Dr. Nye calls its "soft power" — the ability to attract and persuade others to adopt the U.S.' agenda, rather than relying purely on the dissuasive or coercive "hard power" of military force. Its subtly-deployed soft power is therefore as important to the U.S. as — perhaps more so than — its well-established "hard" power.
In his recent book The Paradox of American Power, Nye took the analysis of soft power beyond the United States; other nations too, he suggested, could acquire it. In today's information era, he wrote, three types of countries are likely to gain soft power and so succeed: "those whose dominant cultures and ideals are closer to prevailing global norms (which now emphasise liberalism, pluralism, autonomy); those with the most access to multiple channels of communication and thus more influence over issues are framed; and those whose credibility is enhanced by their domestic and international performance". At first glance this seems to be a prescription for reaffirming today's reality of U.S. dominance, since it is clear that no country scores more highly on all three categories than the United States. But Nye himself admits this is not so: soft power has been pursued with success by other countries over the years. When France lost the war of 1870 to Prussia, one of its most important steps to rebuild the nation's shattered morale and enhance its prestige was to create the Alliance Francaise to promote French language and literature throughout the world. French culture has remained a major selling-point for French diplomacy ever since. But soft power does not rely merely on governmental action: for the U.S., Hollywood and MTV have done more to promote the idea of America as a desirable and admirable society than the Voice of America or the Fulbright scholarships. "Soft power," Nye says, "is created partly by governments and partly in spite of them." What does this mean for India? It means giving attention, encouragement and active support to the aspects and products of our society that the world would find attractive — not in order directly to persuade others to support us, but rather to enhance our country's standing in their eyes. Bollywood is already doing this by bringing its brand of glitzy entertainment not just to the Indian diaspora in the U.S. or the United Kingdom but to the screens of Syrians and Senegalese — who may not understand the Hindi dialogue but catch the spirit of the films, and look at India with stars in their eyes as a result. (An Indian diplomat friend in Damascus a few years ago told me that the only publicly-displayed portraits that were as big as those of then-President Hafez al-Assad were those of Amitabh Bachchan.) Indian classical music and dance have the same effect. So does the work of Indian fashion designers, which recently dominated the show windows of New York's chic Lord and Taylor department store. Indian cuisine, spreading around the world, raises our culture higher in people's reckoning (the way to foreigners' hearts is through their palates). When India's cricket team triumphs or its tennis players claim Grand Slams; when a bhangra beat is infused into a Western pop record or an Indian choreographer invents a fusion of kathak and ballet; when Indian women sweep the "Miss World" and "Miss Universe" contests, or when "Monsoon Wedding" wows the critics and "Lagaan" claims an Oscar nomination; when each of these things happens, our country's soft power is enhanced. And when Americans speak of the IITs with the same reverence they used to accord to the Massacheussetts Institute of Technology (MIT) or Caltech, and the Indianness of engineers and software developers is taken as synonymous with mathematical and scientific excellence, it is India that gains in respect.
Aamir Khan and "Lagaan".
But it is not just these material accomplishments that enhance our soft power. Even more important are the values and principles for which India stands — above all our precious pluralism, which used to be widely admired till the barbarous mobs at the Babri Masjid and the goondas of Gujarat devastated both their victims and the country's image. India must reclaim its true heritage in the eyes of the world. Our democracy, our thriving free media, our contentious NGOs, our energetic human rights groups, and the repeated spectacle of our remarkable general elections, all made of India a rare example of the successful management of diversity in the developing world. This has been an immeasureable asset for our country.
Let us not allow the spectre of religious intolerance and political opportunism to undermine the soft power which is India's greatest asset in the world of the 21st Century.
Visit the writer at www.shashitharoor.com
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