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NOTES AND RELECTIONS

INDIA’S SOFT POWER SIGNIFIERS AND GLOBAL SOUTH’S POLYPHONIC

NARRATIVE

NALINI SRIVASTAVA

nalinisriva12@gmail.com

She is currently pursuing doctorate from Gujarat National Law University, Gandhinagar (India) in

the field of political science. Her research work and publications revolves around studying Indian

Secularism through a model called ‘transcritique’. She has done her Masters in Political Science

from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Prior to this, she has completed Bachelors in

Political Science from Miranda House, University of Delhi. She has furthered these learnings by

teaching at Ahmedabad University and Amity University and has opened up possible spaces for

an amalgamation of teaching and research in Indic philosophies.

The epistemic unity in global south narratives nourished in its original habitat and attuned

to the lived reality of global south stands as an indictment to the Euro-Atlantic narrative.

However, a conspicuous absence of coherence in the language and modes of resistance

highlighted by the hallowed quarters of international community often becomes the

rationale for the dismissal of this shared sense of decoloniality. This sense has taken

upon itself the combative role to resuscitate a praxis rooted in culture which does not

only inhere from theology but also, politics. Akin to this narrative is the political

substratum of South Asian regional blocs that has nourished and sustained different

depictions of cultures coming from across the member states of this bloc. This goes

beyond the political and economic solidarity of the member nations and witnesses a

steady and concomitant decline of confrontational method of establishing supremacy or

cementing status hierarchy on the global platform. Decolonized nations have eagerly

surpassed their respective language silos and also have converged their cultural fiefdom

to find a common ground and be ruled by an independent political ethic. In this context,

this paper sets out to map the trajectory of evolution of India’s role in developing its

cultural signifiers like Yoga, Ayurveda and the festival of Mahakumbh. It will explore the

possibilities of cultural rejuvenation and the potency of India’s cultural capital while in

conversation with other nations of South Asia. It also sets out to evaluate the potential

of cultural signifiers in the making of a polyphonic narrative of the global south. This

layered cultural edifice of the global south not only validates the economic potential of

the countries independent of the west but also their essential worth in protecting the

indigenous value system that generates political stability. A sustained effort by the west

diminishing the cultural worth of countries in South East Asia had made it incumbent

upon these countries to not just rise in defiance but to cultivate strong cultural roots

which can bind varied voices signifying the diversity that is endemic to these countries.

The position that is argued in this paper is not just a reactionary viewpoint but a

proportionate response to rebalance power structures through New Diplomacy.

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Introduction

In a post-Westphalian (Newman, 2009) landscape where there is a fight for perceptibility

and acceptability of exercise of power within and outside the boundaries of nation-state,

the need for legitimacy and cultivation of global image goes beyond the traditional

exhibits of power. The conventional methods of power-display(Ilgen, 2016) at the

expense of opposition and condemnation coming from the native population and

sometimes, from the global community has renegotiated the boundary between

multilateral blocs and nation state. The emerging powers and in this case, Brazil, India,

China and Russia are trenchant critiques of the post-Westphalian setup(Rajagopalan &

Sahni, 2008) that undermines the role of nation-state as independent actors in the larger

scheme of things. The post-cold war era has seen international problems ranging from

energy crisis to health crisis and to environmental crisis, which can be resolved only with

global actors co-opting(Nye, 2023) with each other and not when they are juxtaposed

against each other. Be it territorial disputes such as seen in Africa, South-Asia, and Russia

or Climate-change issue, a unilateral formula does not carry the recipe to alleviate these

problems. The preeminence of US led peace negotiations has witnessed a steady

decline(Vanaik, 2006) with countries like Brazil, India and China asserting their

sovereignty and independence in deciding how to deal with territorial disputes with their

neighbor or any other conflict faced by them. The global dictates on liberalism and

democracy has been overturned by regional assertion with a preponderance on

independent decision-making. The culture of less developed and decolonized societies

has been largely and systematically either devalued or erased from the shared

memory(Said, 2016) of the populace residing in those regions. And, therefore the aim of

decolonization was not just the overthrow of colonial bondage but a calibrated effort to

bring back the lost culture and in effect, the respect and pride that these newly

independent countries had. The processes of colonial subjugation had a diabolical intent

to distance the individual from their shared past(Bhargava, 2010) which provided social

stability and resilience in the face of downright exploitation. This systematic obliteration

of any and every means of constituting stable political regime suffocated their chance

and opportunity to harness growth and development from the reservoir of resources

amply available to them. Such political asphyxiation was not only characteristic of colonial

times but has travelled through time cultivating the same fears and insecurity in the

psyche of the less developed nations. This has paved way for enforcing a skewed version

of democracy(Chomsky & Prashad, 2022) as if it is the universal panacea to all the ills of

the society. This narrative has to be flipped and a counter-hegemonic(Gramsci et al.,

2011) narrative ought to step in that delivers the countries to its full potential. However,

the ruling dictum globally cannot be an overriding decision. On the contrary, it has to

constantly and persistently bargain with multiple and intangible sources of power and the

said overture can in collaboration with multiple power structure reconfigure the power

structure put in place by the erstwhile regime making space for a renewed synergy

between development, defense and diplomacy. Development, defense and diplomacy

accompanied by a careful amalgamation of soft and hard power are the focal points of

global strategies to be deployed by countries in order to manufacture an image that can

sustain in the global pressure. Soft power(Nye, 2009), a powerful conceptual category

devised in the writings of Joseph Nye has brought on the international forum means and

methods to absolve and at the same time, incriminate the nations who have exhibited

military strength (hard power) to safeguard their vested interest. Imposing sanctions and

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trade tariffs on nations gone rogue was an important means deployed by the US to

streamline the ideological warfare it led against the former Soviet Union but its

continuation well after the disintegration of USSR and on a country like India is not only

reprehensible but a manifestation of a US’ standing in the status quo. This unexplained

hostility against India in the backdrop of Russia’s occupation in Ukraine using the latter’s

military occupation as a reason for this trade sanction against India is reflective of

America’s fear of India as an emerging economy with the potential to rebalance power

shifts happening globally. India’s attempt at carving a niche for itself in the global

panorama of nation-states while having a voice and a rooted Indic philosophy that has

evolved indigenously is reflective in its refusal to retract its many trade negotiation with

Russia accompanied by a conscious effort to display soft power through regional blocs

like BRICS+, ASEAN , SAARC, BIMSTEC etc. Soft power coined and popularized by Joseph

Nye had a very particular stance on Soft power which clearly demarcated Soft Power and

Power exhibited through money and military. This categorically put any attempt at

influencing another country through force, compulsion or economic sanction as falling

outside the ambit of Soft Power. Therefore, NDB and CRA and other developmental

association(Roberts et al., 2018) are not expression of soft power but in this paper and

in India’s intent, Soft power is not only limited to the deepening of cultural values coming

from independent countries to safeguard their status hierarchy but also economic

association which has the potential to not just supplement western financial institutions

but also, replace them. The need for soft power projection in the language construed by

South Asian countries is anything that is not hard power. The three most important

means of influencing other nations are money, imposition and attraction. Hence, the use

of attraction is often used in soft power to negotiate differences on political lines. In the

case of south-south dialogue, economy and attraction are the two main sources of soft

power. While cinema and sports have often acted as catalyst in cementing relation

between countries of the global south, the use of religion and alternative knowledge

system have still not been deployed as dominant cultural themes around which countries

rally. A.F.K. Organski has espoused a Power transition theory that in a way, finds

solutions to structural limitation of comparatively less developed economies in

rebalancing power structures. Any attempt in entrenching the power position of nations

who are already situated at the higher level of hierarchy are expected to maintain the

status quo while the countries who are emerging as powerful nations are expected to act

as revisionist countries. This in turn modifies the international balance of power and

revise the structural position of the countries determining balance of power. This is a

step further away from the traditional structural realism by reconfiguring the ideational

context within which the countries are exercising soft power. The value of culture is

directly associated with position of the countries in the larger context of power. Structural

Realism propounded by Michael Walzer talked about structural limitation as procedural

qualification in the bid to further the self-interest of countries individually as well as

collectively. Hence, while campaigning for a self-sustained global south narrative, we are

not only assessing the soft power influence of all the countries in the global south

collectively but also evaluate India’s influence individually yet codependently on other

states(Walzer, 2015). The big brother syndrome that seeks to assert the supremacy of

one nation superseding the collective political and cultural space of countries while

reinstating hierarchies is steadily replaced by an acknowledgement that all countries

however small, have fed into and is directly in conversation with the larger global bloc.

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The ‘regional’ bloc as is referred to in modern day Eurocentric understanding, has to be

levelled up with the global union such as United Nations, G20, G7 and other

organizations. In the interest of India and other ‘rising’ powers(O’Brien, 2000), the

urgency to constitute a globally recognized organization reflective of the changing

partnerships across the world is further underscored. This in turn sheds light on the need

to pry open cultural crevices that can act as resources for shared cultural capital and

establish the foundation of successful economies collaborating with each other defining

a distinct dimension of global politics. In this continuously shifting narrative of

outmaneuvering and outsmarting the countries of the west, the new ‘paradigm’ of

international politics streamlines the peripheral thinking into the core. The satellite

countries(Frank, 1978) are no longer limited to their role as buffer but are now

capitalizing on their unique cultural and colonial experience to remodel the global

landscape not in accordance with the blueprint offered by the west but a morally vibrant

and culturally diverse political landscape. This paper will map the cultural potential India

has in establishing an alternate knowledge system around which global south will grow

and evolve under four significant signifier of Indian Cultural autonomy which is Yoga,

Ayurveda, Indian Diaspora and Mahakumbh. The paper takes up the task of relinquishing

the responsibility of rising economies like India, Brazil and South Africa of acting as a

conduit between the developed and underdeveloped economies. The paper reimagines

the emergence of global south and redraws the boundary between global north and south

on its own terms and at the same time, asses the potency of this reimagination to

rebalance the power structures. It particularly studies the impact of Indian cultural capital

in renegotiating the way global south emerges and rewrites its power trade-offs with the

presumably developed economies through international regional blocs. However, this

paper does not dismiss or discredit in any way, the contribution made by other countries

through their cinema, sports, food and tourism but due to the limited scope of research

carried out in this paper, it focuses specifically and primarily on Indian cultural capital.

Yoga and Ayurveda, Indian Diaspora and Mahakumbh: A ‘polyphonic’

narrative among many narratives

In an age of global pandemic where the resilience of health infrastructure is directly

related to a united front of all countries in eradication of the said pandemic, alternative

knowledge system around wellness and health helps to build a healthier community of

individuals. It also highlights the presence of ancient tradition of Yoga for wellness which

is not only an alternative medicinal system but a holistic answer to the mental and

physical wellbeing(Mazumdar, 2018)(Marx, 2007). Mahatma Gandhi, devised and

popularized a system of well-being that believed in the integration of mind, body and

soul(Gandhi, 1997). This integration is reflected through individuals as self-reliant

political beings thereby channelizing an ideological viewpoint as an instrument of political

unity. Yoga as an ancient tradition is not only an answer to the health crisis that we face

today but also a political reply to the growing anomie and hyper individuation as a result

of capitalism crusaded by the West. The duality of mind and matter that rules the western

philosophy is challenged systematically by Ayurveda that believes in non-dualist nature

of human body. This is not just a systematic overthrow of the Western epistemology but

also a foregrounding of a self-reliant nation that sustains its political uniqueness by

consciously utilizing its cultural capital and sharing its wisdom to attract the admiration

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and respect of countries in the regional bloc. However, the larger picture is not just about

eliciting respect from the fellow countries but inspiring other South East Asian as well as

South Asian countries to build on their indigenous value-systems. These cultural

exchanges without any political interference forms the lynchpin of soft power

manifestation in the BRICS+, SCO, QUAD, OIS etc. and other powerfully regional yet

international organization. Yoga as an ancient wisdom and as a political resource uniquely

deployed to further elevate the global image is counteracted by building the perception

that it is a political handmaiden of the right-wing politician furthering the cause of

Hinduism. There is a concertedly shaped narrative that seeks to dismantle any and every

attempt made by the ruling disposition to cultivate a global image on, “Sanatan

Sanskriti”(Bhargava, 2023) . This closed, non-permeable and neat categorization of

religion has not only warped the political imagination of its citizenry but has underscored

a need for a redefined and renewed sense of religiosity. There is no clear solution to the

problem of accommodating different theological inclination within the fold of religiosity

but a wider and flexible model of religion that does not chastise or abhor theism

advocating cultural practices could be a way forward. This thought is neither ahistorical

nor outside the ambit of scientific rationalism and has surfaced in not only closed echo

chambers but also in the thoughts and deeds of nationalist leaders. The foundational

element of a nation which values religion stems not just from constitutional morality that

is necessarily irreligious but a morality that preaches religious solidarity and its

concomitant patron which is nation-state. Hence, the over-emphasis on the constitution

and its sanctimony lies not in juxtaposing it with religious morality. With Indian politics

progressing into Pilgrims progress , Upendra Baxi has succinctly described the para-legal

structures and the unwrittenness(Baxi, 2012) of the Indian constitutionalism coming up

with a new language of rights and duties which can never be enveloped by liberal

constitutionalism. It is on the contrary, the unfamiliar and uninvited guest amongst the

cohort of democratic requirements in a country as diverse and large as India.

From Sardar Patel to Rabindranath Tagore, there is one unifying ideal that brought

together mostly all the nationalist thinkers and that was the need to develop an authentic

theory of politics which can create alternative political constructs that were strictly

indigenous(Mahajan, 2013). As Rabindranath Tagore has wisely put, “We in India must

make up our minds that we cannot borrow other people’s history, and that if we

stifle our own, we are committing suicide. When you borrow things that do not

belong to your life, they only serve to crush your life”. The formidable task was

thus, to return to the past but what was to be called authentically ‘Indian’ still has to

bear an interminable series of challenges(Sahu, 2020). Are we to then comprehend, what

it means to be an authentic Indian. The magnitude of this question still bears heavily on

the way politics is designed today. Is the question of partaking into internationalising a

cultural praxis, today a closed circuit which only reaffirms patriotism of a single variant

of politics that is rooted in majoritarian religion. This assumption is at the heart of politics

today and marginalises the voices that may or may not be overtly religious. The transition

of ‘cultural’ to ‘political’ is not the fallout of a historical continuum. It reflects the

seemingly benign yet subversive elements of the state that detests attempt at uniting

tactical forces. However, it would not be right in completely dismissing the liberals,

seculars and self-appointed equalisers while striving to render a global image to the

nation. The politics of today is the politics of visibility where what is perceptibly seen and

is veritable becomes the source of power. This newly acquired power which while

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recognizing cultural essentialism, do not slip into political carnage of difference. While

preserving cultural particularity is the stronghold of liberal multiculturalism, the present

day politics is about finding unity and commonness in the shared culture. In a way,

cultural embeddedness has to be replaced by historically situated self(Mahajan, 2013).

Individuals cannot be contained in straightjacketed society but in sociality(Bauman,

2013) that has a symbiotic relationship with other communities. The individuals in these

communities are encumbered selves who have witnessed the constant interaction

between culture of their community and the outside world. The two hundred year rule of

the Britishers cannot be papered over for it has perpetual lingering presence on our

society as a whole. The reinterpretation of the prefix in post-colonial by Upendra B. serves

to establish this connection. Anything that transpired following the period of colonisation

seeks to respond to this violent and exploitative regime while using the grammar of

politics devised by the west to colonise the masses. Post-colony then accepts in its time

frame the oppression that was meted out to our country as an indispensable unit of

reference. This flawed assumption has made it necessary for the intelligentsia

constituting the civil society(Gramsci et al., 2011) to invent a unique frame of reference

that can act as potential conceptual source for a sense of belonging. This marks a patriotic

and paradigmatic shift in bringing to light a democratic discourse which seeks to rewind

the nature and content of nationalism. Anti-Hindu and Hindu apologetics have hitherto,

sustained politics of appeasement undermining women’s right in minority communities,

perceiving outright display of Hindu sentiments as communal, feeding into the disdain of

minority communities. This and other allegation have spurred the growth of intellectual

as well as political resources by carefully curating a solid frame of references that can

dissolve diversionary tactics. This nationalism can not only defy the claims of self-

aggrandising cultural apologetics but can help in evolving a strong and structured nation-

state that has the resilience to establish stable political union trumpeting any attempt at

disintegrating it. The political monopoly on secularism exercised by a certain few seems

to be alien if not outright unconnected with political reality. Finding semantical equivalent

has come up with ideas of “Dharmanirpekshta”, “Sarva Dharma Sambhava”,

“Vasudhaivakutambakam” (Bhargava, 2010)which have helped the intellectuals engage

with the Indian insight on Secularism. Unfortunately, such attempts have

decontextualized the Indian ancient tradition by studying these concept without the

political universe in which it emerged. In the post-truth era, when there is a spurt in the

growth of knowledge in and around religion, significance of tangible reserves to

propagate and profess religious values is further entrenched. The historical continuum

that unifies time and space brings to the world living breathing documents that have

manifested into rituals to signify the turn of century old practices. The search of an

independent political ethic that is rooted in the glorious past or what is famously referred

to as “Virasat”( Heritage) and then, conflating it with “Vikas”( Development) marks a

defining shift from the erstwhile method of political association that sought to distance

itself from any religious marker. The path towards ‘Swarnim Bharat’ is paved with great

political gusto while searching for a ‘common ground principle’ that can change the focal

point of the socio-political and economic engagement. The intellectual finding of this

paper has expanded the aperture of evaluation from individual engagement with spiritual

values to a political assessment of an organized form of religion. The rupture has taken

inspiration from premodern times where the written word of the mythological text was

interpreted with greater flexibility helping the local masses to easily associate with

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religious morality. In this backdrop, the crystallization of religious value in codifying

beliefs have spawned a rigid classification between what is verifiably and justifiably the

‘true’ meaning of ritualistic practices and what is not. In an age of digital and social media

where information and misinformation coexist together, false narrative impedes the

spread of actual meanings associated with religious practices and helps scholars rest in

their respective intellectual fiefdoms.

The most unassailable intellectual victory of John Rawls was not in arriving at a ‘concept’

of Justice as Fairness but in evolving an articulate methodology to arrive at it. In times

when the motto of individuals as well as scholars is aimed at usurping each other and

furthering their own agenda, the intellectual requirement to rise above and beyond

immediate affiliation and gratification to give a ‘conception’ of justice (Rawls, 2005)

seems to elude us. However, the crisis is not about having no encumbrances but to be

able to project ourselves despite not being an unencumbered self(Sandel, 1984). In yet

another theory, Subaltern (Guha, 1997) authors have articulated in not so vague terms,

the idea of cultural essentialism and its inevitable exclusion of those communities that

are the foundational building blocks of the newly independent country. This is a

fundamental challenge to how democratic discourses are made and its impact on how

people perceive politics. The subaltern challenge also challenges the historiography and

the making of political memory which has devised a framework that marginalizes a

section of the populace just by virtue of the fact that they are at the lower rung of our

society. However, it can be argued that the exploitation and historical injustices have not

frozen in time and exploitative tendencies have further augmented the demands of

representational politics that not only determines the ‘what’ of the narrative but ‘who’

will set it and ‘how’ it has to be brought to the international forum. From Nancy Fraser

to Iris Marian Young, the politics of misrecognition to the politics of misrepresentation,

tells us that the model of justice that is predicated on the triumvirate of recognition,

representation and redistribution has often helped in securing one to the detriment of

the other. We have enlarged the scope and impact of this model onto the global forum.

Global south is in common parlance, an inconsistent and incoherent entity that seeks to

represent varied voices internationally but it is an honest attempt to find a

representational platform that can at the least, project an image which is constantly

interacting with multiple power vortices. Countries in the global south has an equal and

proportionate reflex for defying the forces that seeks to create exclusive spaces for

representation and the growing elite within the circle of South Asian intelligentsia have

done just that. Therefore, the politics of dependency looms large even in today’s time.

The growth in elitism and development blockade was succinctly described by Gail Omvedt

in a national context and A.G. Frank in an international context. The political predicament

is not just limited to the territory of the nation-state but is slowly permeating through

the boundary interacting with global forces. Amidst globalization, aggressive nationalism

can take the form of Xenophobia but India’s entrenched nationalist model keeps itself

from ways that can progress into an outright neglect of those who are deemed as ‘other’.

It is important to establish a hierarchy of political ideals. It is significant to recognise our

own prejudices especially when it comes to dealing with the community belonging to

different religion. It is equally significant to see how far our country has come from

Panchsheel to Panchamrit. Our largely ignored yet powerful reservoir of teachings in the

name of Vedas, Upanishads and the fortuitous materialisation of the late Vedic teachings

in the form of Mahakumbh at the length and breadth it was celebrated, tells us the all-

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encompassing fervour and spirit of comradery fraternising not just with people

domestically but internationally.

Rebalancing Power structures: Rewiring Diplomacy through New

Diplomacy

Diplomacy of the yester years was about building trust, reliability, truth and peaceful

negotiation(Berridge, 2015). These markers have gone through an irreversible overhaul

that has not only revamped these markers but have drained its essence. New Diplomacy

strongly detests the older practise of following the formal procedural techniques of

moving towards truth, building trust through peaceful negotiation and also, construing

narratives that can make the countries reliable. This intense makeover of the Older

diplomatic pathways of sending ambassadorial delegation, setting up of embassies as a

sign of trust, peaceful negotiation have not just lost its moral traction but also its

international viability. In this context, where social media or what was commonly referred

to as ‘twiplomacy’ and now termed ‘X’ woefully depicts the formation of narrative without

nuance and without a careful reflection over facts and opinions. Hasty generalisation,

hyperbolic statements and polemical takes on present day international conflicts have

increased the volatility of countries involved and sees military occupation as an inevitable

consequence. Hard Power is thus, seen to be the only recourse left for countries acting

in real self interest with Hobbesian state of nature turning into ‘nature’ of state. In this

backdrop, if soft power is deployed to carve a niche for a country to legitimise its place

in the larger international scheme, it is by no means an unjust method of asserting power

or dominance. However, its larger impact on the global stage have to be assessed and

the just(ness) of international pre-eminence has to be evaluated before the countries

aspire to climb up in the hierarchy of countries writing or rewriting the politics of smaller

less militarily equipped nations.

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India’s Soft Power Signifiers and Global South’s Polyphonic Narrative

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How to cite this note

Srivastava, Nalini (2026). India’s Soft Power Signifiers and Global South’s Polyphonic Narrative.

Janus.net, e-journal of international relations. VOL. 17, Nº. 1, May 2026, pp. 695-704. DOI

https://doi.org/10.26619/1647-7251.17.1.06