Date & Time:july 10, 2021 5:00PM IST
Topic of the book
The cultural interaction between India and the Indosphere however stood suspended effectively from the 14th century C.E. onwards, when India became preoccupied in protecting own culture, in the face of many foreign polities emerging within. The Indian cultural supply chain reaching out to the said region was disrupted as a consequence. This situation continued in the subsequent period of British colonisation. The possibility of renewed contact emerged only after winning back independence in the middle of the 20th century. The said the opportunity however was not taken by India due to a changed world-view under the Nehruvian policy framework. The loss of contact with the Indosphere as aforesaid had seemingly affected India’s civilisational memory, showing in its spurning the offer of joining the formation of ASEAN as a founding member. China has traditionally viewed India as a potential rival in the regional power race and tried subjugating it through various hostile actions, consistently. The biggest problem with China is of its historical baggage of Han expansion southwards, causing large scale migration of indigenous ethnic minorities into today’s mainland South-East Asia region. The said communities had embraced the Indic civilisation that had reached them from distant India, instead of adopting the Sinic influence from the close proximity. The said communities were referred to as ‘southern barbarians’ in the records of the Chinese court, from time to time. This, along with the modern-day hegemonic behaviour of China in the region, especially in the South China Sea, thereby disturbing the sea-based economic activities of today’s ASEAN countries, has pushed them closer to India. In this newly emerging geostrategic scenario, India needs to cement its civilisational ties, leveraging its soft power capital, in addition to the modern-day tools of diplomacy. While the availability of India’s soft power deposits in the region is a fact, wielding the said power suitably and leveraging it effectively to serve Indian interests, may be a challenge in itself. The solution can be found by revitalising certain older initiatives as well as introducing newer ways of people to people contact, through the tool of public diplomacy. The soft power programme framework of India will have to be highly nuanced, taking into account country-specific socio-cultural, socio-political assessments.
About Author
Pulind Samant had been a Human Resource Management professional for 27 years, till year 2017. Since then he has been into research and related pursuits in the subject of International Relations, specialising in the India-centric geopolitical and geostrategic dimensions of the South East Asia region. He is a student for PhD studies in ‘VPM Centre for International Studies’ (Mumbai), an affiliated centre of the University of Mumbai.
Speakers
Shri Ravi Kumar
Smt Mallika Gangakhedkar
