Diplomatist Magazine Diplomatist October 2019 | Page 24

India’s Soft Power in Russia
K. B. Usha*
I
ndian government under Prime Minister
Narendra Modi is currently engaged in
giving a new direction to its foreign policy
by strengthening India’s soft power credentials
abroad. Modi doctrine promotes soft power
diplomacy through Yoga, Buddhism, Indian
Diaspora, education, language, literature, cinema,
media, history, the commemoration of legendary
fi gures, and the like to bring about a positive
image of India in front of the international
audience. Russia, with which India has a history
of close relations dating from the Tsarist era
to the Soviet Union to the present, is unique to
India. Historically, culture played a powerful
role in strengthening mutual relations. The joint
statement “Reaching New Heights of Cooperation
through Trust and Partnership” signed by President
Putin and PM Modi on the outcomes of the 5th
Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) meeting and
20th annual summit held in Vladivostok on
4-6 September 2019 refl ects the signifi cance of
culture/soft power.
Joseph Nye in 1990 coined the term soft power,
a power of attraction, that rests on a country’s
“three resources: its culture in places (where it
is attractive to others); its political value (when
it lives up to them at home and abroad); and its
foreign policies (when they are seen as legitimate
and having moral authority” (Nye 1990, 2005:
11) The aim of demonstrating soft power is to
project a positive image of the country in front of
international audience to gain traction in various
24 • Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Diplomatist • Vol 7 • Issue 10 • October 2019, Noida
spheres of cooperation. Government’s foreign
assistance and public diplomacy programmes
are important soft power instruments. Shashi
Tharoor (2011: 341), pointed out India’s soft
power potential in enhancing credibility at the
world stage is constitutive of its culture, political
values and a moral foreign policy. Tharoor (2011:
342-343) has claimed that the Indian civilizational
ethos, quality of culture and the unique credential
of being the world’s largest democracy has the
potential to make the country truly infl uential in
the 21st century.
India’s evocation of soft power is done to gain
a signifi cant role, as a rising global power, in the
21st-century world. Through soft power, India
aims to improve its image abroad, overcome/
compensate for lack of hard power, mitigate
international anxieties about India’s rise as a
global power, attract foreign investment, engage
with the Indian diaspora, invite foreign tourists to
visit and defi ne India’s position on various global
and regional issues.
The soft power is evoked partly by the Indian
government and partly by the civil society,
individuals, organizations, artists, intellectuals,
educational institutions, etc. The Indian embassy
in Moscow, Indian Council of Cultural Relations
(ICCR), Ministry of External Aff airs and Joint
Working Group on Culture has taken initiatives
to spread soft power instruments to Russia. Public
diplomacy programmes are being organized in
association with various NGOs. Jawaharlal Nehru