There’s probably no such thing as soft power any longer

livemint.com:

Over the past five years, the West has worried that India is losing its values, by which it means that India is not trying to imitate the West. Even despots are wondering what is up with India. Every country wants other countries to have Western values.

India does not seem to care about its image in general, but in some regards, it clearly does. So, now and then, it contemplates using something called ‘soft power.’ A nation’s soft power is usually a bit of weird overrated food, and a bit of song-and-dance by mediocre artists who are close to the establishment, all in the hope that the display would make the world think highly of the nation. The concept of soft power presumes that people in Belfast would eat some biryani and think India is wonderful.

There is indeed such a thing as soft power. Just that I don’t think governments have much to do with it. For instance, according to my taxi-driver journalism in the Maldives, people there seem to have no affection at all for India, politically, except when they speak of the Chinese.

But many of them love Hindi films. I’ve not even heard of some of the films they go on about. I do not believe that they have developed any affection for India because of their love for Bollywood.

The Indian film star is distinct from the Indian government. Hindi film stars may even be popular in many Asian countries precisely because they are not from the government. A few weeks ago, news broke that eight Indian Navy vets were facing the death penalty in Qatar on espionage charges.

When they were released, there was a rumour that India had requested Shah Rukh Khan to persuade Qatar to spare their lives. He vehemently denied this, but when I first heard it, it struck me as probable. Even so, I do