Shashi Tharoor on Indian culture and soft power
Author: Jonathan Mundey
“India’s is the nationalism of an idea. It’s the idea of a never-neverland. Emerging from an ancient civilisation, united by a shared history, but sustained above all by pluralist democracy. That is a 21st Century story, as well as an ancient one. It’s the nationalism of an idea that essentially says…
you can endure differences of caste, creed, colour, culture, cuisine, custom and costume, consonant for that matter, and still rally around a consensus…
…and the consensus is on the simple principle: that in a diverse plural democracy like India, you don’t really have to agree on everything all the time, so long as you agree on the ground rules of how you will disagree.”
In this TED talk, Shashi Tharoor, author, activist, and Indian minister of state for external affairs, talks about soft power from India’s perspective. From measures of soft power as esoteric as increased burglary rates in certain Afghan cities at 8.30 pm every day - the time when a madly popular Indian soap opera is broadcast on Afghan television and property is left unguarded so everyone can watch, to the extraordinary meld of cultures at the heart of Indian democracy, this is a vibrant and practical discussion of Joseph Nye’s concept of soft power in a particular cultural reality.
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