The joint statement issued at the conclusion of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent visit to China had one significant omission: there was no mention of China's "one belt, one road" (OBOR) proposition - an initiative launched and thereafter personally fronted by President Xi Jinping. OBOR is China's catch-all phrase for the still evolving network of roads, railways, sea-lanes, pipelines and cyber-highways that it visualises stretching across Asia in the coming decades. It has two components: the 'Silk Road economic belt' covering the various land corridors across Asia, and the 'Maritime Silk Road', which starts on China's Pacific seaboard and traverses the Indian Ocean, terminating in Venice. For a global audience, though, it is in the words Silk Road where the magic resides.
It was Baron Ferdinand von Richthofen, a German geographer, who in 1877 coined the term Seidenstrassen (silk roads) to describe the mosaic of trade routes within and across Asia to Europe, developed over 2,000 years ago. Ever since, the Silk Road - which carried many items apart from silk - has enthralled historians, geographers and novelists, and been the subject of legend, myth and exploration.
Marco Polo comes to mind when we think of the Silk Road, and so do Aurel Stein, Ibn Batuta, our own Kumarajiva and Bodhidharma, and the bankers from Sind whose hundis were honoured across the length and breadth of Asia. They convey images of pioneering and exploration, and evoke wonder and imagination. It is this unique emotional signature associated with the Silk Road that makes it a 'brand' in management terms.
A brand succeeds if the feelings it evokes are strong enough to influence consequent collective behaviour. China has astutely sought to appropriate the Silk Road brand for its connectivity projects. The calculation is that China's infrastructural hardware and financial backing for the Silk Roads, buttressed by the brand value of the name, will together rub off on to China itself, and thereafter on to goods and services of Chinese provenance. After all, Sunzi's 'The Art of War' - today a text book of management science - teaches that bloodless victory lies in capturing the mindspace of the opponent, or in this case, the consumer.
India has not yet responded to China's invitation to come on board the OBOR. For India and all the countries that co-created the historic silk roads along with China, there are two options in this new 'Great Game'. The first: create an opposing brand of equal or greater strength. That is not easy since no obvious candidate is at hand. Mausam is quite inadequate in vision and lacks financial clout; to take on a Coke, you need a Pepsi, and only Apple can confront Microsoft. The second option draws from the martial arts: use the opponent's strength to one's own advantage. So, how can the Silk Roads best serve India?
Roads are connectors and enablers. More important than any physical road is what travels upon it. Historically, India has acted as a fount of knowledge and ideas, using the existing networks to transmit these thoughts, and being responsive to local needs. Not only did Buddhism spread across Asia from India, but it morphed in form and substance. The Vajrayana version adopted elements necessary to respond to life on the harsh high plateau of Tibet. Students from all over Asia journeyed to study at the Universities of Nalanda, Takshashila and Vikramashila, while Srivijaya in Indonesia had a thriving business in teaching Sanskrit en route to prospective students.
India's strengths today, too, follow this tradition. Over the last 150 years, India's outreach to the neighbourhood and around the Indian Ocean periphery - whether delivered from home or manifested through its diaspora - has primarily been through services: trade and enterprise, management skills, governing capabilities including good electoral practice, banking, finance and insurance, medical and educational services, information technology, entertainment and media. India's cultural diversity has conferred upon us a certain linguistic ability and cultural flexibility, which has served us well in international settings: witness the growing share of top positions occupied by Indians in global companies and international organisations. In management jargon, this is a competitive advantage for India, which we should use to the hilt. India should not try and compete head to head with China in building roads and railways across Asia - their resources will always dwarf ours. We can be selective in infrastructure commitments, remembering that while people use roads and bridges, they never forget the teacher or doctor who might well have transformed their lives.
India should not shy away from the Silk Roads. We should embrace the OBOR connectivity where we need it, and proceed on our own initiative where we do not. But in either case, our contribution will be different and special. At the end of the day, it is the consumers, as always, whose judgement will be final.
The author is an independent director on corporate boards and Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Chinese Studies, Delhi
Disclaimer: These are personal views of the writer. They do not necessarily reflect the opinion of www.business-standard.com or the Business Standard newspaper
