Soft Power Can Make India a Superpower: Tharoor

[EjazR]

news.outlookindia.com | Soft Power Can Make India a Superpower: Tharoor

India should add its 'soft power' to its military and economic might to become a superpower, Union minister Shashi Tharoor said today.

Hollywood, MTV and McDonald have done more for American soft power than any specific government activity, the Minister of State for External Affairs said at the TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conference here.

Defining the "soft power" as the ability of a country to attract others with its culture, social values and foreign policies, Tharoor said India can join the rank of global superpowers with the impact of Bollywood, yoga, cuisine, ayurveda and others.

He also termed the Alliance Francaise, British Council and Beijing Olympics as parts of soft power of France, Britain and China respectively.

"In today's world, it's not the size of the army that wins. It's the country that tells better story, India is and must remain a land of better story," he added.

Combination of economic and military strength, among others, "aligned to something else....Attraction of India's culture... Soft power... Ability to attract others", would make the country the 21st century superpower, he said, citing the popularity of Indian TV serials in Afghanistan, Bollywood movies in Senegal, Indian restaurants in Britain and fame of Indian IT professional overseas as some examples.

 

[SinoIndusFriendship]

news.outlookindia.com | Soft Power Can Make India a Superpower: Tharoor

India should add its 'soft power' to its military and economic might to become a superpower, Union minister Shashi Tharoor said today.

Hollywood, MTV and McDonald have done more for American soft power than any specific government activity, the Minister of State for External Affairs said at the TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conference here.

Defining the "soft power" as the ability of a country to attract others with its culture, social values and foreign policies, Tharoor said India can join the rank of global superpowers with the impact of Bollywood, yoga, cuisine, ayurveda and others.

He also termed the Alliance Francaise, British Council and Beijing Olympics as parts of soft power of France, Britain and China respectively.

"In today's world, it's not the size of the army that wins. It's the country that tells better story, India is and must remain a land of better story," he added.

Combination of economic and military strength, among others, "aligned to something else....Attraction of India's culture... Soft power... Ability to attract others", would make the country the 21st century superpower, he said, citing the popularity of Indian TV serials in Afghanistan, Bollywood movies in Senegal, Indian restaurants in Britain and fame of Indian IT professional overseas as some examples.

First step to improving Bharat's soft power is to rid itself of its hateful anti-mongoloid anti-ch1nkie mentality. How can you have world-wide soft power when you alienate 1/3 of the population?

 

[Iggy]

First step to improving Bharat's soft power is to rid itself of its hateful anti-mongoloid anti-ch1nkie mentality. How can you have world-wide soft power when you alienate 1/3 of the population?

Anti -Mangolid??where did you get that idea??can you elaborate us alienating 1/3rd of our population??

 

[Nemesis]

Indians don't have any anti-mongoloid mentality. Indians genetically are a mixture of Aryan, Dravidian and mongoloid ethnicity. On the top of that 4% of our population is from the north east.

 

[navtrek]

Some more are also.......... increasing the soft power.

 

[New Shivaji]

First step to improving Bharat's soft power is to rid itself of its hateful anti-mongoloid anti-ch1nkie mentality. How can you have world-wide soft power when you alienate 1/3 of the population?

You are racist by calling all people with mongoloid features as ch1nkie . Indians dont hate chinese for their features but rather for their aggression into India, for claiming Arunachal Pradesh as thier own and for occupying part of J&K.

 

[Kavin]

First step to improving Bharat's soft power is to rid itself of its hateful anti-mongoloid anti-ch1nkie mentality. How can you have world-wide soft power when you alienate 1/3 of the population?

Can anybody explain me what is the connection between SOFT POWER and 'anti-ch1nkism' / 'alienation'?

 

[navtrek]

Bollywood

Bollywood has been making inroads elsewhere. One of the most popular current viral videos in India shows a man in the depths of Tajikistan passionately humming and singing a Bollywood theme song to his bemused Indian visitors-all in perfectly memorized Hindi. When the Indian TV soap opera ‘Kynunki Saas Bhi’ was dubbed in Dari and aired on Afghanistan’s Tolo TV it was such an astounding success that it became a national obsession. 90% of television-owning Afghan families would follow the show, sometimes incurring the wrath of mullahs who viewed it as being responsible for the desertion of mosques during evening prayers. In certain African countries, such as Senegal and Mali, villagers often trek out miles to the closest projection room just to be able to watch one of the latest Bollywood films.

India’s cultural influence is not only being felt in the developing world, however. Books by Indian English-speaking writers such as Vikram Seth, Amitav Ghosh and Arundhati Roy have wooed critics across the world and become instant modern classics. Films by progressive female Indian directors such as Mira Nair and Deepa Mehta have revealed that Indian films are more than escapist fantasies, and can be simultaneously contemplative and entertaining. The triumph of Slumdog Millionnaire at last year’s Academy Awards was not only that of a slick, elegantly crafted melodrama, but also that of a certain depiction of contemporary India, warts and all, which nevertheless swayed the hearts of the jury.

 

[Iggy]

Can anybody explain me what is the connection between SOFTWARE TECH and 'anti-ch1nkism' / 'alienation'?

That my friend will remain as a mystery

 

[navtrek]

India's soft power is also coz of the fact that ancient India never engaged in long-term occupation or widespread forcible conversion in Southeast Asia.

India is responsible for the spread of Buddhism and the Hindu concept of sacred kingship to Southeast Asia not by sword and flame, but via trade and itinerant missionaries.

---------- Post added at 06:49 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:48 PM ----------

The peaceful propagation of Buddhism is a multi-millennia old bond that India shares with the rest of the Asian continent that acts as a testament to the power of its civilizational pull.

 

[navtrek]

World dispersion of Hindu Community

 

[BSF]

First step to improving Bharat's soft power is to rid itself of its hateful anti-mongoloid anti-ch1nkie mentality. How can you have world-wide soft power when you alienate 1/3 of the population?

What is your problem dude.... No really ... why are you hell bent on ruining each and every thread posted in this forum... You do not see me coming to chinese forum and posting Tienanmen square and the genocide of MAO on each and every thread.Do you?

You are jealous.


I am reporting you to the mods!

 

[Trisonics]

Bollywood would be the biggest. Just look at this video of how much Pakistanis love bollywood. This in spite of all the tensions between the two countries

 

[conworldus]

Bollywood would be the biggest. Just look at this video of how much Pakistanis love bollywood. This in spite of all the tensions between the two countries

no_Ap1sHODQ[/media] - Pakistani shahrukh khan

Bollywood is very culture centric.
These Hindi films bore me to death. You have to be in that cultural circle to like it... I don't think it will ever make an impact outside Hindu community and maybe some closely related ethnicities...

 

[bigmoneymaker]

i am glad indians know that soft power concept, but the implemmentation of the influence is a total different matter. just the question: how to effectively exercise influence you inherited like usa does unscrupulously now rather than easy market promoting effort? more exactly to convince outsiders minds??? otherwise all will be wasted efforts to be utilised as dowry and assimilated into another stronger multistream culture and cilization.