Cultural Propagation in India’s Public Diplomacy

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As one of the world’s most ancient civilizations, India boasts numerous appealing cultural phenomena and a rich history. As a historical heritage and unique resource, Indian culture is gradually being used in cross-cultural exchanges, and it is transforming into soft power that serves India’s public diplomacy by virtue of the propagation means of modern media. As a result, India’s public diplomacy shows a distinct feature of cultural propagation. It is of research value to analyze Indian cultural propagation from the perspective of Indian public diplomacy policies and to search theoretical connections between cross-cultural exchanges and public diplomacy.

Historical Context of Cultural Propagation in India’s Public Diplomacy

After independence, India consistently sought to inherit Gandhi’s political ideas and diplomatic legacy in an attempt to make up for the country’s lack of hard power. During the Cold War, India was successful in participating in the global anti-colonial movement by promoting political culture like “nonviolent civil disobedience,” and expanded its influence in the developing world by advocating in favor of the non-aligned movement. In the process,India learned and applied the British model of public diplomacy, which has three key components: strengthening cultural and academic ties, conducting scientific research exchanges and establishing state-run media facing foreign public.1Ian Hall, “India’s New Public Diplomacy: Soft Power and the Limits of Government Action,” Asian Survey, Vol. 52, No. 6, pp.1098-1099.The contents of these three parts are closely connected to the guidance,means and media of cultural propagation. Like South Korea, India is generally considered a great cultural diplomatic power because it has long focused on culture in diplomacy and propagation. On the basis of its experience in propagating traditional culture, India cultivates cultural soft power and applies it to contemporary public diplomacy. With the deepening of globalization and the advance of media technology, cultural propagation, as a significant means to maximize a country’s soft power resources, is playing a more outstanding role in India’s foreign exchanges than any time in history.

Like South Korea, India is generally considered a great cultural diplomatic power because it has long focused on culture in diplomacy and propagation.

Public diplomacy in India was born in an age when the cause of global public diplomacy was burgeoning in an all-round manner. At the time, public diplomacy in European countries and in the United States was rather mature, and more and more Asian countries showed great interest in influencing foreign public opinion through public diplomacy.2Ian Hall & Frank Smith, “The Struggle for Soft Power in Asia: Public Diplomacy and Regional Competition,” Asian Security, September 2013.When it entered the 21st century, in the context of burgeoning development in global propagation means and rising economic and military power, India came to realize the defects of traditional public diplomacy and put forward a new public diplomacy policy. The direct motivation for India’s new public diplomacy was to improve its national image. In 2006, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs conducted a poll on whether India’s rise is popular for global development among the public in the United States, South Korean, Australian and other countries. The results showed that except for Australia, where 64 percent of respondents believed that India is reliable and will be a positive force in global affairs, most respondents from other countries have a negative attitude towards India’s rise (69 percent in the United States, 71 percent in South Korea). What is more, respondents from the United States and South Korea are concerned about India’s growing military strength.3Global Views 2006 Team, “The United States and the Rise of China and India: Results of a 2006 Multination Survey of Public Opinion,” http://www.amicc.org/docs/GlobalViews06Final.pdf.In December 2010, then Indian Foreign Minister Krishna said at the Inaugural Session of the Conference on Public Diplomacy in the Information Age, “We have traditionally tended to adopt a fairly conservative approach towards publicizing our own work and this, almost by default, leaves the field open for negative stories of which there is never a dearth. From a public diplomacy standpoint,I think it is vital that we start building credible and engaging narratives about the positive work that we do.”4Somanahalli Mallaiah Krishna, “Address by Foreign Secretary on Inaugural Session of Conference on Public Diplomacy in the Information Age,” December 10, 2010, http:// www.mea.gov.in.With the gradual unfolding of India’s new diplomatic policies, cultural propagation, as the form, content and channel of new public diplomacy, is being adopted by the Indian government more frequently.

Driven by global trends and its own needs, the Indian government attaches increasing importance to public diplomacy. The strategic planning of public diplomacy was gradually put on the work agendas of relevant departments. In May 2006, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs officially set up the Public Diplomacy Division that largely follows the public diplomacy model of the United States State Department, “try[ing] to sensitize and influence think tanks, universities, media and experts to create a more nuanced understanding of the government’s stance on tricky issues… to project a better image of the country commensurate with its rising international standing.” The Indian government also identified policy cognition on public diplomacy. Public diplomacy appeared in the Report to the People 2012-2013 for the first time,saying: “The Ministry (of External Affairs) supported seminars and conferences on foreign policy issues in India and overseas, and conducted dialogue with prominent think-tanks in India and abroad. The government also organised programmes for promotion and propagation of Hindi... promoted overseas influences with social networks.”5Indian Prime Minister’s Office, “Report to the People 2012-2013,” http://pmindia.gov.in/report_to_people/2012-2013/report_PMO_English.pdf.Apart from the Ministry of External Affairs, India’s government branches like the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, the Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Tourism conduct public diplomacy independently or by means of inter-agency teamwork to coordinate and cooperate with India’s Ministry of External Affairs and achieve goals in public diplomacy. For example, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting lends support to the public diplomacy initiative with the ministry’s strategic use of media, which is responsible for international cooperation in the field of mass media, films and broadcasting, and interacts with its foreign counterparts on behalf of the Indian government.6Ritam Bhara, “On Indian Public Diplomacy,” April 30, 2013, http://www.e-ir.info/2013/04/30/on-indianpublic-diplomacy/.Through different ways of cultural propagation such as academic exchanges, think-tank dialogues,the spread of language and information, screen culture products, radio and television programs and social media propagation and coordination on multisector initiatives that include cultural and information departments, India is constantly promoting its new public diplomacy policies.

Arguably, India’s new public diplomacy contains both a traditional way of cultural propagation and a remarkably different way of propagation. In terms of audience, the cultural propagation of India’s new public diplomacy has distinct objectives, especially focusing on Western countries with a huge number of Indian migrants, peripheral developing countries and the South with rich resources. In terms of media, India’s new public diplomacy prefers new media tools, particularly social networking tools like Twitter and Facebook, over traditional broadcasting or television. In terms of the policy-making process,the Indian government seeks ties with domestic and foreign scholars, specialists,think tanks and educational institutions more openly, and engages in dialogue with communities outside the New Delhi political and diplomatic elite, all in order to make public diplomacy policies more scientific and effective.7Ian Hall, “India’s New Public Diplomacy: Soft Power and the Limits of Government Action,” p.1090.As such, India’s cultural propagation is extensive and productive. Despite starting late, India’s public diplomacy has obtained some fruitful results, as manifested by the spread of Indian Cultural Centers all over the world, growing number of overseas students in India and the global popularity of Bollywood movies.

Specific Presentation of Cultural Propagation in India’s Public Diplomacy

In recent years, the Indian government has not only formulated new public diplomacy policies, but also put rich cultural resources into diplomatic practices through multiple ways. Cultural factors are presented mainly in the institutional setup of India’s public diplomacy, public diplomatic practice and cultural propagation via traditional and new media.

First, the institutional setup of India’s public diplomacy has distinct cultural characteristics. The Ministry of External Affairs of India has an official entity responsible for developing and implementing India’s foreign cultural relations - the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) - that was established in 1950. The main function of the ICCR includes organizing academic exchange programs, inviting famous Indian artists to have dance or musical performances with Indian traditions to foreign public and other similar initiatives. The Indian Cultural Center, another important public diplomacy institution supported by the Indian government, aims to enhance the foreign public’s understanding of India and accelerate the improvement of India’s image by inviting foreigners to visit Indian culture exhibitions, watch Indian movies and teach yoga. By the end of 2011, there were 37 Indian Cultural Centers and 7 more being built around the world.8“ICCR Annual Report 2010-2011,” http://www.iccrindia.net/iccr-annualreport-2010-11/Annexure%20 2%20(Indian%20Cultural%20Centres%20Abroad).pdf.At the same time, while Indian public diplomacy is required to elaborate on government policies and Indian culture, and cultivate “citizen diplomats,” the demand for “citizen diplomacy”and “domestic public diplomacy” is increasing.9APDS Bloggers, “Back to Basics: Public Diplomacy And Indian Heritage,” CPD Blog, November 29,2011, http://uscpublicdiplomacy.org/blog/india-blog-series-back-basics-public-diplomacy-and-indianheritage.Many cultural agencies targeting the domestic public have become involved in public diplomacy, and the cultural features of Indian public diplomacy are getting more prominent.For example, Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha(BAPS) has built over 3,850 centers worldwide. This organization promotes the Hindu spirit and practice, demonstrates Indian culture and cultivates the abiding interest and attention of the foreign public by running social services,building pagodas, attracting the foreign public to visit BAPS centers and so on.

Second, the practice of India’s public diplomacy is permeated with cultural propagation. In recent years, India has focused on the application of diverse cultural elements like Indian language, India literature, social life and educational exchanges in its public diplomacy. India’s multilingual environment promotes the richness of its culture. The eighth edition of India’s constitution identified 18 major Indian languages. In 1991, the Indian government identified around 1,576 dialects in India,10Madhurjya Kotoky, “Indian’s Regional Literature In Popular Culture,” CPD Blog, October 26, 2011,http://uscpublicdiplomacy.org.and this number was reduced to 234 in 2001. Language propagation is an important approach in public diplomacy, and dialect is a unique carrier of cultural propagation. The Indian government influences countries that speak its languages, countries with numerous Indian public and overseas Indian-speaking public through language propagation such as “dialect spreading.” The Indian government values the promotion of Indian languages represented by Hindi, and explicitly requires the government to include promotion projects of overseas Indian language in its Report to the People 2012-2013.11Indian Prime Minister’s Office, “Report to the People 2012-2013,” http://pmindia.gov.in/report_to_people/2012-2013/report_PMO_English.pdf.Hindi is India’s main language. The first World Hindi Conference was held in Nagpur, India in January 1975, and it has since been held as many as nine times. The Indian government supports this conference directly by organizing Hindi scholars,writers and literary figures to attend the meeting, which not only exerts direct a impact on Hindi-speaking countries like Mauritius, Suriname and South Africa, but also enhances Hindi’s influence in the world.

India strives to create a relaxing and close atmosphere in public diplomacy, and sometimes this strategy can be used to ease tensions with nearby countries.

The main forms of Indian literature are novels, poems, short stories,myths and legends. In recent years, the Indian government has attached more and more importance to cooperation with non-governmental organizations and enterprises to jointly promote research at home and abroad on Indian literature and expand the global influence of Indian literary arts. With support from the Indian government, Infosys Technologies donated 5.2 million USD to Harvard University in 2010 for the distribution of a series of publications named Murty Classic Library of India. By translating Indian literary works in Sanskrit, Persian, Urdu, Tamil, Bengali, Kannada, Punjabi and other Indian dialects into English, the Indian government intends to win global readers for its literary works, and facilitate a better understanding of India among the foreign public. There are great myths and legends in ancient Indian literature, and these have turned into potential fodder for public diplomacy to be published via children’s literature. For example, the legend The Burhi Aair Xadhu has a very far-reaching influence.

India strives to create a relaxing and close atmosphere in public diplomacy, and sometimes this strategy can be used to ease tensions with nearby countries. Because social culture has a high perception and long-term accumulation among the general public, this cultural element is applied to neighboring countries that share cultural similarities with India or countries that have cultural connections with India. For example, a “Glimpse of India,”supported by Indian government, was part of a series of activities in the “2014 Year of China-India Friendly Exchanges.” It was held in 12 cities of China,aiming to deepen the Chinese general public’s understanding of India and promote people-to-people exchanges by holding performances, art exhibitions,food festivals and movie festivals. Implementing an open immigration and employment policy in social life will not only cultivate potential “citizen diplomats” who support the Indian government, but also enrich India’s social culture and enhance India’s cultural security.

India shows a great interest in cooperating with the United States in higher education exchanges, and has held two sessions of the “United States-India Conference on Higher Education.” Through educational cooperation,the Indian government tries to encourage American students to study in India,and encourage American and Indian scientists to undertake collaborative research. The Indian government promises large-scale investments in domestic higher education institutions, striving to form an educational alliance like the American Ivy League to improve the reputation of India’s universities worldwide and attract more overseas students. Moreover, the Indian government also invites famous American universities to set up branches in India.12Aparajitha Vadlamannati, “Public Diplomacy: An Education,” CPD Blog, October 28, 2011, http://uscpuBlicdiplomacy.org/.By exchanging overseas students with other countries and putting them in contact with Indian culture, the cultural memories and perceptions of these foreign elites will make them “pro-Indian” in values and politics.

Third, the Indian government highlights the traditional media’s function of propagating culture in public diplomacy. By controlling all state-run media such as All India Radio and Doordarshan, promoting the import and export of the Indian film industry, hosting film festivals and issuing national publicity films on behalf of the Indian government, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting promotes Indian culture to the foreign public. Take All India Radio as an example - it now broadcasts news in 16 non-Hindi languages to other countries via high-power short wave transmission and transmits programs by short wave, Internet, mobile terminals and social media such as Twitter. A specialized external service department was established to introduce the Indian government’s policies and shape a positive image of India by broadcasting cultural programs. The programs are intended to influence Indian immigrants overseas.

A notable trait in media application in India’s public diplomacy is India’s skillfulness in delivering cultural elements through the combination of sounds,images and characters. As an integral part of India’s public diplomacy, India broadcasts multiple TV programs including, dramas, cartoons and films that fully exhibit Indian culture. For instance, China is importing more and more TV serials from India in recent years.Karishma, Sinndoor Tere Naam KaandMehendi tera Naam Kiare three TV shows about India’s social life that were aired on CCTV, gaining high audience ratings. India exports cartoons to new generations of young people overseas, and has obtained far-reaching influence.Indian cartoons are based on materials from rich ancient legends and stories,accompanied by Indian traditional music, promoting the inclusiveness of Indian culture. In December 2008, the Indian government released the national publicity film Incredible India and played it worldwide, garnering considerable attention. The film, which is aimed at promoting Indian culture and shaping India’s image, contains diverse cultural elements such as religion,values, tourism, fashion, music and architecture. It has been cumulatively been viewed 16,339 times on Youku and 113,016 times on YouTube.

India has an established film industry and it fully utilizes the film industry to spread cultural elements. It explicitly put forward “Bollywood Diplomacy”named after India’s film industrial base. On June 12, 2008, former Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh indicated that Bollywood should be given a new role in foreign policy: “Cultural relations, India’s film industry, Bollywood... I find wherever I go in the Middle East, in Africa, people talk about Indian films.”

“Cultural relations, India’s film industry, Bollywood ... I find wherever I go in the Middle East, in Africa, people talk about Indian films.”

Fourth, in an effort to improve its national image through cultural propagation, the Indian government attaches great significance to the role of new media in public diplomacy, and India regards this as an important task for the Public Diplomacy Division of India’s Ministry of External Affairs. With the advance of Web 2.0, India started to conduct public diplomacy via new media like SNS. The Ministry of External Affairs sent its first “tweet” on July 8, 2010, and then released videos on YouTube,uploaded pictures on Flicker and created an official Facebook page. These efforts of public diplomacy are part of India’s “Gov 2.0” program. Because of the Public Diplomacy Division’s successful application of social media, the division was given the “Gov2. In Award-2011” and the “Web Ratna Award 2012.” Navdeep Suri, Joint Secretary of the Gov2. In Award committee,said, “Public Diplomacy division is using social media to communicate more effectively with diverse constituencies, to receive feedback in a way that makes the Ministry of External Affairs more responsive to citizen concerns and to build global communities of friends of India. Effective use of Twitter during the evacuation of India’s nationals from Libya by the foreign minister and by the Public Diplomacy Division has received an extremely positive response.” Newly elected Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi puts even higher value on new media, using Twitter almost every day. The Ministry of External Affairs cooperates with NGOs to jointly push forward the effective propagation of new media. In conjunction with the Center for Media Studies in New Delhi, the Ministry of External Affairs held its first conference on the theory and practice of public diplomacy, to have dialogue with Londonbased International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). By June 5, 2014,the Twitter accounts set up by India’s public diplomacy institutes and Indian officials reached nearly 130 - the most active and popular of which was Prime Minister Modi’s account (@Narendra Modi) with 4.71 million followers. In the meantime, India’s domestic social networks are developing rapidly and already rival foreign competitors. Woldfloat, a large website, had more than 20 million users in August 2013. According to search results on the AFP’s E-Diplomacy Hub, India ranked third based on indicators of activeness, fans and forwarding number on social media of senior government officials and diplomats in 151 countries, showing big progress and great potential for India’s new media diplomacy.

The Bottleneck of Cultural Propagation in India’s Public Diplomacy

Despite its late start, India’s strategy for culture propagation has produced positive results. However, efforts to engage in public diplomacy by using cultural elements have not entirely translated into real earnings. The BBC conducted random interviews with 26,000 respondents from 25 countries in May 2013, asking them to rank images of 16 countries. Results show that India ranked 12th, with negative views (35 percent) slightly outnumbering positive ones (34 percent) for the first time. GFK, a German market research group, surveyed 20,445 respondents in 20 countries. India ranked 31st for Overall Brand Ranking in Anholt-GfK Nation Brand Index, dropping four places. The main reasons for this fall are as follows:

First, the cultural driving force of India’s public diplomacy comes from outside. The lack of an inner driving force has made Indian public diplomacy discretionary, lacking its own initiative and creativity. Although India had a tradition of public diplomacy dating back to the Gandhi era, this did not mean that public diplomacy was regarded as an overall strategy or system design. In India’s public diplomacy, some conceptions, such as cultural diplomacy, cultural propagation and national brand originated from abroad, for example China.The rise of China is one of the major reasons for the rush to build India’s public diplomacy. The Chinese “charm offensive” has generated considerable anxiety in India and prompted calls for a similar effort by New Delhi. A number of Indian and foreign observers have argued that despite India’s having a better“brand” than China - thanks largely to the former’s Bollywood movies and information technology (IT) industry - Indian diplomats have done too little in the past to bring home that advantage, leaving the field to the better funded, better organized Chinese.13Ian Hall, “India’s New Public Diplomacy: Soft Power and the Limits of Government Action,” pp.1093-1094.In a sense, India’s new public diplomacy is part of a wider policy of strategic “hedging” in response to China’s rise,involving emulation, balancing and engagement. Besides, the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), a public diplomacy agency in India, did not succeed prominently in improving India’s image in recent years. One reason is that the Indian government lacks the motivation to allocate funds for the ICCR to organize cultural activities. The budget for the ICCR in 2006 was 13.3 million USD, remarkably lower than Western countries whose public diplomacy is mature or other Indian government agencies. Furthermore,the management and work of the ICCR has remained a very low priority for the Ministry of External Affairs. Consequently the unimaginative cultural diplomacy of the ICCR has made one of the most fascinating and dynamic countries in the world appear staid and dull. The successive criticisms of the ICCR are fully justified.14Simon Mark, “A Comparative Study of the Cultural Diplomacy of Canada, New Zealand and India,”https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/2292/2943/02whole.pdf?sequence=9.

Second, the culture propagation of India’s public diplomacy presents a divisive characteristic. On the one hand, there is a division between India’s national culture and regional culture. India has long been a multi-ethnic,multilingual and multi-religious nation, and it has strong cultural diversity between regions. India intends to disseminate its “national culture” in an undivided way; in fact, regional culture has spread without any unity. In the end, this has resulted in inconsistencies and a loss of authority and cultural resources. For instance, Indian literature had its glory days in ancient times, but Indian ancient literature, with novels, poetry, short stories, myths and legends as the main carriers, are full of regional traits.RamayanaandMahabharata,India’s two great epics, have different adaptations in different regions, making it difficult to present them to a single foreign public in a unitary form. On the other hand, there is a division between elite culture and public culture. Some academics indicated that the top-level design of India’s public diplomacy was more aimed at elites in Western countries than to the public, which is not real public diplomacy. “There is some evidence that India is better regarded among global elites, especially in the West, than it is among the general population.”15Ian Hall, “India’s New Public Diplomacy: Soft Power and the Limits of Government Action,” p.1109.India’s policy on new public diplomacy is mainly formulated by the elite class,which is highly educated, well informed and even has overseas study and living experiences. Hence, the content of public diplomacy is selected and engineered by government elites and is marked with class ideology. Though it is reflected in public diplomacy, India’s folk culture and mass culture cannot become the mainstream or even become wasted recourses. For example, there are 18 major languages in India, but the only common one used in areas of education, science and technology, press and publication and administration is English. English is the de facto national language. English has divided India into two worlds: one is the world of the intellectual elites and the leadership,who speak English, and the other is the local world of the masses that do not speak English. Because of historical inertia and a growing gap between the rich and the poor, a wide cultural chasm has been formed between the Indian elites and the masses. The Indian elites package the content of propagation with mainstream elements, such as English and film, with the goal of being accepted more easily. As a result, India’s public diplomacy is evolving into the propagation between elites at home and abroad, and this precisely goes against the original intent of public diplomacy.