{"id":217062,"date":"2022-12-03T20:54:25","date_gmt":"2022-12-03T15:24:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=217062"},"modified":"2022-12-03T20:54:25","modified_gmt":"2022-12-03T15:24:25","slug":"winning-the-world-softly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/winning-the-world-softly\/","title":{"rendered":"Winning the world, softly"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source<\/strong>– The post is based on the article \u201cWinning the world, softly\u201d <\/strong>published in The Times of India <\/strong>on 3rd December 2022<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Syllabus: <\/strong>GS2- International relations<\/p>\n

Relevance<\/strong>– Soft power of India<\/p>\n

News<\/strong>– The article explains the soft power enjoyed by India in ancient times. It also explains the steps needed to enhance India’s soft power.<\/p>\n

What shows the Indian arc of influence in ancient times?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mahabharat\u2019s Gandhari<\/strong> was from Gandhar now called Kandahar.<\/p>\n

Iran derives its name from the term Airyanemvaeja<\/strong> or the land of the Aryans.<\/p>\n

Angkor Wat<\/strong>, the world\u2019s largest Vishnu temple, is not situated in India but in Cambodia.<\/p>\n

Varuna was even adopted by the Greeks as Uranus.<\/p>\n

Two Indian monks, Kashyapa Matanga and Dharmaraksha<\/strong>, carried the first Buddhist texts into China while Bodhidharma took martial arts to Shaolin.<\/p>\n

Indonesia\u2019s 20,000 Rupiah note <\/strong>prominently displays Ganeshji on it.<\/p>\n

In Thailand, the Chakri dynasty kings<\/strong> still assume the title of King Ram and their royal emblem is Garud.<\/p>\n

In Malaysia, the Hikayat Seri Rama<\/strong> is performed with shadow puppets even today. It is the Malay adaptation of Ramayan.<\/p>\n

What is the way forward to increase the soft power of our country?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Iyengar Awards<\/strong>: International Day of Yoga has been recognised by the UN. The most famous practitioner of yoga was BKS Iyengar. The government can create an Iyengar Awards as the Oscars of yoga.<\/p>\n

Buddhist tourism<\/strong>: Most of the significant Buddhist sites are in India and Nepal. There is a lack of nodal agency<\/strong> that ensures a coordinated approach from heritage site management to international connectivity. Religious tourism can be an instant brand enhancer.<\/p>\n

Film industry<\/strong>: India produces 1,600 films annually. Government can provide budgetary assistance<\/strong> for Indian films to be marketed abroad once they have tasted success in India.<\/p>\n

Health sector<\/strong>: India has some of the finest alternative therapies<\/strong> \u2013 ayurveda, pranayama, panchkarma, naturopathy. The practice of meditation <\/strong>is also becoming mainstream in stress management. Government needs to work on a PPP basis<\/strong> to create world-class alternative therapy centres abroad.<\/p>\n

Sanskrit Inc:<\/strong> India should also be concerned that Sanskrit will soon be appropriated by countries like Germany where tens of chairs in Sanskrit are being established. It is time to develop an Indian centre that can preserve Indic knowledge and India\u2019s pre-eminence.<\/p>\n

Indian cuisine<\/strong>: The world is enthusiastically embracing turmeric lattes, masala tea, pure ghee, vegetarianism and veganism. India needs to invest in a travelling Indian food festival<\/strong> that takes India\u2019s cuisine around the planet. Strategic partners<\/strong> like hotel chains and airlines can be involved.<\/p>\n

Strengthening of ICCR<\/strong>: The country needs to rejuvenate, rebrand and re-engineer<\/strong> ICCR\u2019s 38 Indian Cultural Centres to play to our strengths. Both the quality and quantity of centres must improve.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source– The post is based on the article \u201cWinning the world, softly\u201d published in The Times of India on 3rd December 2022. Syllabus: GS2- International relations Relevance– Soft power of India News– The article explains the soft power enjoyed by India in ancient times. It also explains the steps needed to enhance India’s soft power.… Continue reading Winning the world, softly<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[212,10496],"class_list":["post-217062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-times-of-india","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704913468},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217062\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}