India’s focus on soft power
Numerous academics and experts have attempted to gauge India’s rise to global power status by examining such tangible markers as economic development, military expansion, and demographic change during the previous decade. As a result, these narratives have largely ignored New Delhi’s heightened focus on strengthening its ‘soft power’ credentials by leveraging the appeal of Indian culture, values, and policies. It has lately been suggested by Indian diplomats such as Sashi Tharoor, that India’s rise to dominance is not only based on its economic and political might, but on its capacity to share its culture with the rest of the globe. Identifying India’s actual soft power assets and determining which of these assets has truly helped India’s global status is a challenging task. However, with the end of the Cold War and India’s market opening up in 1991, Indian cinema has become very popular in Asia and outside of Asia. For instance, according to a report by Blarel, (2012) following Hollywood’s prominence, the Indian film industry is the largest film market outside of Asia. Of the BRICS nations, India has the most advanced and globalised film industry, and the Indian government and companies are increasingly relying on the influence of Bollywood in their international relations. A long tradition of India’s cultural and civilizational impact extends beyond the country’s borders, giving it a unique soft power status. This article argues that India’s public diplomacy may benefit from the globalisation of India’s popular cinema, partly thanks to the country’s enormous diaspora abroad as well as the popularity of the Indian cinema. It focuses on contemporary India’s growing Hindi cinema industry, which gives India an advantage over other rising countries in terms of reputation and engagement.
Soft power is described as “the capacity to persuade people to our side without the use of force,” and concept is often credited to Harvard political scientist Joseph Nye. A 1990 Foreign Policy essay by Nye first coined the word “co-optive power” to describe the capacity of a nation’s government to influence other nations into desiring what it wants, while “hard or command power” refers to the country’s ability to make others do what it wants. (Yukaruç, 2017). Nye’s “Soft Power of a nation” includes “its culture (in areas that are appealing to others), its political values (whenever it keeps faithful to them both at home and abroad) and its foreign policy” (when they are considered as genuine and morally powerful) (Blarel, 2012). Soft power, despite its ambiguity and Nye’s concentration on the United States, has been embraced or modified by governments throughout the globe as an increasingly prominent element of foreign policy strategy. Using the phrase “soft power” to characterise the United States’ worldwide reach and influence is common in international policy and academic literature, as well as in high-end media.
Today’s international relations are shaped by nations’ ability to position themselves favourably in an increasingly globalised marketplace of ideas, as well as their desire to counteract unfavourable portrayals of their countries in an era of digital global flows that involve states and non-state actors and networks. Many nations, according to recent research, have created sections inside their foreign affairs ministries dedicated to “public diplomacy”. Meanwhile, a number of governments have hired public relations and lobbying firms to help them plan and implement “nation-branding initiatives” to attract foreign investment and tourism (Thussu, 2018). According to Nye, it is obvious that the US’ soft power was predicated on exporting not just commercial items like MTV, Coca Cola, and McDonalds, but also ‘ideals’ such as democracy and freedom (Devasundaram, 2016). Some of India’s soft power initiatives, including Bollywood and Yoga, are modelled after Western soft power initiatives. As opposed to exporting cultural products, the goal is to build mutually beneficial religious and cultural ties, which serves as a basis for future collaborations.
The growing influence of Bollywood
India is becoming seen as a worldwide economic and political force because of its rapid economic growth and pluralist and secular political system. Contrary to popular belief, India had the third-largest economy by purchasing power parity in 2015, after only the United States and China, while housing 40% of the world’s poorest people (Thussu, 2016). India’s soft power, which includes its mass media, joyful religion (Yoga and Ayurveda), and popular culture, is becoming more widely recognised and admired across the world (such as Bollywood). As the country’s 5,000-year-old Indic culture, which encompasses everything from religious thought and architecture to literary and linguistic expressions and trading routes, is the foundation of India’s diplomatic soft power. Since Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism all originated in India, and since every major religion except Shintoism and Confucianism has coexisted in India for millennia, the country’s religious discourse is distinctive and syncretized (Kishwar, 2018).
The history of India’s worldwide impact is lengthy and complicated. In the past, its soft power was focused on Asia rather than the West. The dispersal of Hinduism and Buddhism over East and Southeast Asia in the early Christian period helped expand India’s cultural impact. The cultural and communication ties that bind India with the rest of Asia go back millennia. Because of its vast diffusion from what is now India, Buddhism was at the centre of this exchange and continues to serve as a vital connection between Indian Chinese and Sri Lankan cultures. In many parts of Asia, stories about Buddha’s life and teachings still serve as cultural touchstones and a strong cultural link between Asia and the Indian sub-continent. For instance, in 2015 Indian Prime Minister in his official visit to China has emphasised a strong cultural link between the two countries because of a common Buddhist heritage (Pib.gov.in, 2015). Again, Modi has made a concerted effort to highlight the common Buddhist history of countries like Sri Lanka and China during remarks given during official overseas trips (Kishwar, 2018). In addition, wherever feasible, Prime Minister Modi sets aside time on his international journeys to visit Buddhist monasteries. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has commented about the significance of the Buddhist religion in both India and the globe on a number of occasions. Buddhism isn’t the only religion affiliation being exploited to enhance foreign policy. Prime Minister Narendra Modi often referred to India’s close ties to Judaism and its role as a safe place for Jews during the Holocaust during his historic trip to Israel in July 2017. Again, with its second-largest Muslim population, India has also sought to join the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) (Kishwar, 2018). In addition, Mahatma Gandhi ideas of non-violence and Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister and a firm proponent of non-alignment in international affairs, have left a lasting impact for India towards the world. (Bayly 2011). Indian culture is well-positioned to face the new challenges of the globalised 21st century, thanks in part to its strong Hindu-Buddhist roots and long-standing linkages to Chinese and Islamic civilizations. It has also been deeply influenced by Western institutions and ideas.
The concept of Soft Power
But with the onset of globalisation and India opening up its market, Indian media and film industry has attained a new height giving India a leverage over other nation competing for regional hegemony in their own sphere. Despite the fact that India has been exporting films to nations all over the globe since the 1930s, Bollywood has only recently become a part of worldwide popular culture in the 1990s and the new century (Thussu, 2016). An increase in digital delivery and distribution options has ensured that Indian films are more prominently shown in the global media arena due to India’s rapid liberalisation, deregulation and privatisation of its media and culture industries. Although there was only one state-run television channel in 1991, there has been a large increase in demand for cinema material, not only because there has been an unparalleled growth of television from a single state channel to over 800 channels in 2013, but also because there has been a big increase in demand for content from the new channels (Thussu, 2021). Since then, the South Asian diaspora, which numbers 35 million people and is spread out over six continents, has adopted more globalised production, distribution, and consumption patterns thanks to the accompanying corporatization and synergies (Thussu, 2018). It is also because to Bollywood’s business relationships that Eros International is able to enter into markets in the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada, as well as Africa and the United Arab Emirates. These elements, in addition to the fact that the industry is based in one location, Mumbai, and produces films in a single language, Hindi, underscore the supremacy of Bollywood. Bollywood’s one-size-fits-all template makes it an excellent candidate for Nye’s global soft power strategy, which is meant to ignore internal conflicts and tensions inside countries. By virtue of its morphology, Bollywood’s major business has an advantage over other forms of Indian film from the onset, thanks to its partnership with financially endowed firms and investors. Bollywood is seen as a soft power advantage by the Indian government and corporations since it is one of the few non-Western countries with a strong presence in the global cinema industry.
India’s entertainment and media business was estimated in 2013 to be worth $29 billion by industry experts. Additionally, India is becoming a production hub for Hollywood and U.S. media companies, particularly in the areas of animation and postproduction services. According to the study by Hong (2021), with the help of Bollywood, Indian culture and values are being spread throughout the world while also bringing in millions of dollars in income for the nation. Box office receipts in Indian film exceeded US$2.5 billion, accounting for more than half of India’s GDP (Hong, 2021). As a sort of art form, films like Bollywood films are regarded to play a part in the establishment of soft power since they are significantly influenced by the culture, ideology, and institutions of the nation in which they are produced (Nye, 2022; Thussu, 2018). As a result, the acceptance of Indian films is considered as a first step in bridging the cultural bridge, uniting people, and enhancing India’s connections with neighbours and beyond, given the political, territorial, economic, and diplomatic frictions in world affairs. India’s developing cultural ties with U.S.-dominated multinational media conglomerates also facilitates the marketing and dissemination of Indian material. It is becoming more common for Indian media corporations to participate in Hollywood projects as cross-media ownership laws are loosened, resulting in synergies between the two. A new age of collaborations began in 2008 when Reliance Entertainment, controlled by Indian entrepreneur Anil Ambani, invested $500 million in Steven Spielberg’s flagship DreamWorks Studios (Thussu, 2018).
The importance of Public Diplomacy
Bollywood may be more successful in other nations of the global South when it comes to promoting soft power (Tharoor 2012). The Bollywood brand has become synonymous with a creative and self-assured India thanks to its appropriation by India’s business and political elite and celebration by Indians living abroad. Unlike Western individualism, Indian films have become increasingly popular in developing nations because of their emphasis on family and communal values. Muslim audiences in Arab nations and in South and Southeast Asia, for example, might appreciate Indian films because of their religious content and female depiction. The Hindi film industry has long been popular in Muslim-majority northern Nigeria. Indian films’ increasing popularity in the “Nollywood” market as a result of the proliferation of Hindi-to-Hausa video studios is evidence of the films’ importance as cultural relics that can be modified and remade to fit local preferences and sensibilities (Thussu, 2018). Films made in Hindi are appreciated by Nigerian viewers for its aesthetic similarities, gender segregation, and lack of sexual material. India has a long history of cultural and religious impact in Indonesia, where Bollywood films and music are prominent, influencing the local music. In South Asia Bollywood films, songs and dance are being consumed more than their local film industry. In both Afghanistan as well as Pakistan Indian films are not only seen but their actors are being regarded as cult as well as God like beings. According to Lahiri (2017) the friendly connection between India and Afghanistan as a result of Indian films and songs which are consumed among the Afghanistan with great amount of vigour and enthusiasm. Even though Afghanistan is in the midst of a civil war, Bollywood films bring a smile to everyone’s face. Second only to Pakistan, Afghanistan is known as the nation where Bollywood movies are the primary source of amusement. It has also been shown that Indian films have a strong following in countries with large Indian diasporas, such as Fiji, Australia, Africa, the United States, and Malaysia, according to previous studies (Thussu, 2018). In the wake of China’s burgeoning interest at Bollywood, Indian filmmakers and authorities are scrambling to discover the huge market in China. It is believed that the recent success of Dangal and the acceptance of Indian films by Chinese audiences is a first step in bridging the cultural divide, uniting people and improving India-China relations in light of the many political, territorial, economic and diplomatic tensions between these two adjacent nations (Hong, 2021). According to the book my Jairam Ramesh called “Chindia” opined those Indian films and its popularity in China act as a bridge and a case for track two diplomacy between the two countries (Ramesh, 2014).
Indian diasporic community remain a key market, with a recent revival in the UK/US part of that market. India’s Bollywood industry has invested extensively in London because of the city’s role as the global media capital, accounting for a fifth of Bollywood’s worldwide earnings (Thussu, 2016). The headquarters of Eros International, the world’s top Bollywood film production and distributor, are located in London. Rather than focusing on the box office numbers, For India’s soft power, it’s all about how its popular films are received by foreign audiences and their universal appeal (Thussu, 2016). Indian films have taken on a global attitude in terms of production quality, subjects and performers as well as subtitling in multiple languages to broaden its appeal beyond the typical diasporic electorate. M. G. Distribution, located in Melbourne, has been distributing Hindi films in mainstream theatres in Australia and New Zealand since 2002, helping to raise the reputation and awareness of Bollywood (Thussu, 2016). It is a testament to the rising appreciation of Indian popular culture’s soft opera power that Bollywood has reached previously unexplored regions like Latin America. Brazil’s Caminho das ndias (India – A Love Story), a prime-time soap opera that won the International Emmy Award for Best Telenovela in 2009, is a notable example (Rai and Straubhaar, 2016). As of its most recent episode’s airing in Brazil, it had an audience share of 81%, and was syndicated to nations all over the globe. Television network Globo spent the most money on the project. Thus, Bollywood has grown over the years setting its foot in all around the globe and the same time strengthening India’s communication power and reputation all-round the globe.
India’s economic and political rise
According to Niall Ferguson in the foreword of Colossus, soft power is ineffectual. One exception to this is Stephen Walt, who argues that players in international relations react solely to two kinds of incentives: economic incentives and force (Heng, 2015). According to the Neo-realists the structure of the international system is organised such a way that soft power has no role in the contribution of foreign policy initiatives. The concept’s lack of defensive value has also been published recently, and this has been a subject of dispute. Because of Nye’s emphasis on “getting other people to do your bidding,” some experts believe that emerging powers like China are developing their own strategies for soft power and use them defensively (liküçük Y?ld?r?m and Aslan, 2020). More attention should be paid to how players’ soft power initiatives may misfire, culminating in reputational injury or loss, or soft disempowerment. (Brannagan and Giulianotti, 2018). Because of the limitation surrounding soft power Nye has introduced the ‘Smart Power’ concept which take into account both the soft and hard power initiative. In the Indian context as well, there are some limitations in their soft power narrative. This country has a well-deserved (and widely held) reputation for high levels of corruption as well as widespread poverty and animosity toward foreign investors. Expats, tourists, entrepreneurs and other visitors have also been deterred by worldwide media reports of pollution in metropolitan areas, child labour, and brutality against women (Jaishankar, 2018). According to Thussu (2016), affluence and globalisation have established a middle class in India, but it has also widened the gap between the affluent and the poor, who have been disproportionately hit by the national as well as international excesses of economic and ecological liberalism. Until this image of India being changed the Bollywood penetration as an effective soft power diplomacy will be limited only to economic growth not political engagement.
Conclusion
In conclusion, India’s cinema has grown into a global brand, helping the country transition from a Third World socialist voice to a digital democracy in rapid development driven by the market. International development of American cultural industries should serve as an example for Indian policymakers. For example, in 2013, there was more Bollywood-related content on YouTube than Hollywood-related content, despite Hollywood having a significantly larger global presence. As a result, the Indian government and the business sector might leverage new digital distribution methods to significantly boost the circulation of Indian entertainment and information content.
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