The soft power of India:
Power is the the ability to control people or things or to do something
लोगों या वस्तुओं को नियंत्रित करने या कोई काम करने की योग्यता; सामर्थ्य, क्षमता
Power is the political control of a country or area.
किसी देश या क्षेत्र पर राजनीतिक नियंत्रण; सत्ता
In1980s,Joseph Nye introduced the concept of "soft power" For Nye, soft power is the ability to influence the behavior of others to get the outcomes you so want.
In politics soft power is the ability to co-opt rather than coerce. In other words, soft power involves shaping the preferences of others through appeal and attraction.
Whereas Hard power is a coercive approach to international political relations, especially one that involves the use of military power.
Hard power is the use of a country's military power to persuade other countries to do something, rather than the use of cultural or economic influence. Recent opinion surveys suggest that people outside the United States question American hard power.
The soft power of America: Examples of America's soft power are the number of foreign students enrolled in the U.S., the extent of academic exchanges, the worldwide consumption of American media products , America as the beacon of modernity with its values of openness, mobility, individualism, pluralism, voluntarism, and democracy and freedom.
The soft power of Japan:The projection of soft power is a conscious, focused and highly prioritized effort by the Japanese government to exploit the country's popularity among young people worldwide multitudes of whom share a passion for Japanese fashions and fads and to create a broader sympathetic image in the host country.
The Soft power of India:
During his travels, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi makes a point of promoting India's soft power including multiculturalism, Bollywood, Sufi music and Ayurveda, Yoga as well as shared heritage in art, architecture, cuisine and democratic values. It's too early to assess if India's efforts are having any substantive impact in meeting the nation's foreign policy objectives, but for the first time a coherent effort is underway to raise India's brand value abroad. This is likely to have significant implications for the conduct of Indian diplomacy and the broader role of India in global politics in the coming years.
As India builds upon a range of ongoing political and diplomatic efforts from improving its ease of doing business rankings, unveiling its Incredible India tourism campaign, getting International Yoga Day on June 21st recognized by the United Nations(UN) or investing in Buddhist diplomacy we can expect its soft power to gradually grow.The four of the fastest growing airlines in the world by aircraft orders (Indigo, SpiceJet, GoAir and Jet Airways) are Indian, all privately owned and operated. India has more UNESCO World Heritage sites than all .The most successful export of India’s largest car manufacturer Tata Motors is Jaguar Land Rover, manufactured primarily in Britain. To give a very different example, Buddhism has hundreds of millions of adherents around the world While Buddhism has become indigenized in such places as Japan, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Mongolia, India has only recently made efforts at appealing to these countries as the fount of Buddhism, by facilitating pilgrimages and sponsoring religious renovations, in China and Myanmar.
India’s universities continue to attract a large number of students from across the developing world, including Nepal, Afghanistan and Africa .
(Source of information:
Brookings ;India The rising: Soft power and the world’s largest democracy
Author:Dhruva Jaishankar September 17, 2018).
The index shows levels of 18 different types of strengths and combines them into an aggregate measure of power for the top 24 countries.
Brand finance's Global Soft Power index ranking 2022 :
Rank of Country as soft power:
1 United States
2 United Kingdom
3 Germany
4 China
5 Japan
6 France
7 Canada.
8 Switzerland
9 Russia
10 Italy
India has improved it's ranking and is presently at 29th position and hope that it will be in first top 20 countries of world in soft power index ranking.
World super power ranking: India is ranking 13 in
World Superpowers ranking 2022. China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States are often referred to as great powers by academics due to "their political and economic dominance of the global arena". These five nations are the only states to have permanent seats with veto power on the UN Security Council.
The Top 10 Most Powerful Countries in the World (2021 Best Countries report):
(1)United States
(2)China
(3)Russia
(4)Germany
(5)United Kingdom
(6)Japan
(7)France
(8)South Korea
(9)Saudi Arabia
(10)United Arab Emirates UAE
According to the 2020 survey (released in 2021), the United States is the world’s most powerful country. The United States has the world’s largest economy, with a GDP of $20.93 trillion in 2020 and the most massive military budget of $778 billion in 2020.In its World Economic Outlook, published in October 2021, the IMF projected that India's GDP will grow at 9.5% and 8.5% during 2021-22 and 2022-23, respectively. That would place it among the fastest-growing economies in the world.
India is an emerging and developing country (EDC) found in southern Asia. It is the world's largest democracy , and one of the world's fastest growing economies.
Author: Dr Bhairavsinh Raol
