India’s Vibrant Soft Power & Cultural Diplomacy often rises to the Occasion

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When Natalie Di Luccio, an Italian-Canadian classical-crossover singer from Toronto sings Bollywood hit songs- ‘Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na’ and ‘Pehla Nasha’, Luo Ping- a Chinese TV reality show Super Idol 13’s contestant sings ‘Tujh main rab dikhta hai’ from a Shah Rukh Khan movie, a US school chorus decides to sing a superhit Tamil song ‘Balleilakka Balleilakka’ from the hit movie ‘Sivaji’ at a yearly event, Ary- a Canadian girl sings ‘Kolaveri’ originally sung by Tamil superstar Dhanush, a Turkish boy sings the famous ‘Awara Hoon’ song from Raj Kapoor’s movie in a reality show and when Dubai appoints Shahrukh Khan as its ambassador — they are not just an aberration or eccentricity, but they adequately exemplify how India’s ever rising soft power, amply bolstered by rich and age old moral, spiritual and cultural value system, is being embraced all across the globe.

Indian serials like ‘Saas bhi kabhi bahu thi’, ‘Kumkum’, ‘Intezar’, ‘Kasauti Zindagi ki’, and others were a craze for the people of Afghanistan until they were banned. When ‘Saas bhi kabhi bahu thi’ happened, the roads in Afghan cities wore a deserted look like the ones we witnessed during ‘Ramayana’ and Mahabharata’ happening in India some three decades ago. Indian popular films may not be rewarded at the Academy Awards or at Cannes, but have massive fan followings, especially in China, Central Asia, Middle East and African countries. Former Prime Minister, Manmohan singh once told that while in power, wherever he went from Africa to Middle-East, he heard praising words for Indian songs, music, film and other soft sides of our culture.

Only a couple of days earlier, Argentina federal police decided to effectively use the techniques of Yoga for stress management of its personnel. Yoga is truly considered to be India’s greatest modern gift to the world. Though, it has been in practice in several parts of the globe for last several decades, but, in recent years, yoga and awareness of Indian culture have increased rapidly across the world. The Ministry of Ayush has also been striding forth to establish yoga’s curative and calming impacts and trying to integrate it with diverse disciplines in order to promote psycho-physiological well-being of the people across the globe. Observance of International Day of Yoga is the latest feather in India’s hat, thanks to the persistent efforts of the Narendra Modi government at the Centre. This celebration has not only boosted Yoga’s popularity in the last few years, but also expanded its geographical presence by inspiring its adoption across the length and breadth of the globe.

You can discover a ‘Mini India’ as termed by ‘The India Council of Cultural Relations’, in Kazakhstan with a group of over 300 people there in the capital humming, dancing and practicing Indian classical and Bollywood songs. They are being trained various under forms of yoga including complex Asnas. Meditational practices under Indian spiritual Gurus are a rage in a number of countries including USA, Russia, European countries. Guru Saumya Acharya, who spends around three to six months in a year in Russia, told this correspondent (Umanath Singh) that his Russian disciples often engage in spiritual discourse delineating different facets of Yoga, meditation, traditional Indian spiritual paths, exuding great regard for Indian spirituality.