A global outreach beyond biz: Showcasing India's cultural, modern strengths

An ancient civilisation with a modern outlook, India has a lot of fine strengths - in cinema, sports, art, culture, food, yoga - that it is building on

As Dommaraju Gukesh got up from his chair, both arms raised and a beaming smile, the moment felt timeless. The raucous cheers from the crowd only amplified the significance of his epochal triumph.

 

Gukesh, 18, was crowned the youngest world champion in the history of chess, quelling Ding Liren in the 2024 FIDE World Championship in Singapore – an occasion that took India’s soft power to new heights.

 

Since the turn of the century, the country has expanded its global influence in more ways than one, with yoga, art, sport, cinema and food (with several Michelin star Indian chefs) all contributing to it. 

 

Yoga, in fact, is often described as the biggest export from India, with hundreds of thousands of people today practising it around the world. Popularised globally by yoga gurus such as BKS Iyengar, it got a day to its name on December 11, 2014, when the United Nations General Assembly declared June 21 as the International Day of Yoga following a suggestion by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his UN address and a subsequent draft resolution introduced by India’s permanent representative to the UN.

 

Like yoga, Indian cinema, too, has been making a mark since before the 2000s – think Satyajit Ray, whose Oscar award was announced by another legend, Audrey Hepburn; or Raj Kapoor, who had Russians singing “Mera joota hai Japani”; or superstars such as Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan; or more recently, “Naatu Naatu”, a song from the 2022 Telugu movie, RRR, which became a worldwide hit, winning the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 2023.

 

“Indians have in this period (2000 to 2024) created waves in the field of art, culture, cinema, mathematics, music, pharmaceuticals, science, sports and technology, to name a few areas,” Kalikesh Narayan Singh Deo, president, National Rifle Association of India, tells Business Standard. 

 

“This quarter century got us two individual gold medals in the Olympics, something which was not achieved in the previous half a century or so of our existence as a modern democracy,” Deo adds. “Such achievements raise the stature of a nation considerably.” 

 

Gukesh’s stellar rise in chess apart, from cricket to indigenous sports like kabaddi, kho kho, wrestling and badminton, India’s sports ecosystem is blossoming.

 

This multi-pronged approach, combined with hosting international events, investing in grassroots initiatives, and promoting women in sports, is allowing the country to enhance its global stature, strengthen diplomatic ties, and cultivate a positive image.

 

Olympic ambitions

 

During his Independence Day speech in 2024, Modi said India dreams of hosting the Olympics in 2036 – an ambition that was recently backed by International Olympic Committee head Thomas Bach.

 

Indeed, India’s Olympic-sized ambition is more than just a cheeky overreach. For an aspirational country to get a seat at the high table at the global stage, it is important to be a winner in the sporting arena.

 

In modern history, a nation’s rise has been intrinsically linked to its phoenix-like trajectory as a sporting behemoth. It is something ace shooter Manu Bhaker, who bagged two bronze medals at the 2024 Paris Olympics, attests to.  

 

“Hosting the Olympics will definitely encourage a sporting culture in India and boost the country’s profile,” she said to Business Standard during an earlier interview. If that happens, New Delhi, Mumbai and Ahmedabad will cease to be mere specks on the Olympics map. 

 

Getting there, though, will require significant investment in both sportspersons and sporting infrastructure. In fact, it would require deeper interventions, given that the country doesn’t really have a sporting culture. Schools, for example, either don’t have sports periods or don’t take them seriously.

 

For now, if there is one sporting event that has truly turned the spotlight on India, it is the Indian Premier League (IPL).

 

Since its inception in 2008, the IPL has morphed into something more than just a glitzy annual cricket tournament. It is now a powerful vehicle showcasing the country’s vibrant culture and fostering international diplomacy, with its viewership spanning countries across the globe.

 

According to a 2024 report by American investment bank Houlihan Lokey, IPL’s business valuation currently stands at $16.4 billion. “The IPL has its impact in the world of sports and also on the world economy simply because it’s one of the richest leagues in the world,” Deo says.

 

A bigger canvas

 

From the sportsfield to the creative world, the country has been making conscious efforts to showcase its soft power to the world – both at government level and through private initiatives.

 

In September 2023, during India’s G20 presidency, for instance, an elaborate exhibition of 500-odd sculptures, paintings, coins, inscriptions and archaeological finds dating back some 4,500 years was organised at the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi to illustrate India’s civilisational past and its interconnectedness with the world. The exhibition had been curated by a former culture secretary for the spouses of world leaders who were in the national capital for the G20 summit. 

 

Minal Vazirani, president and co-founder of auction house Saffronart, which was born in 2000, says if one looks at India’s art market graph over these 25 years, it appears like a hockey stick – flat for a bit, and then up, up and up. “The market barely existed at the time Saffronart was launched,” she says. “Today, India has a professional art ecosystem, the collector market is strong, there is transparency and access to the finest artworks, the number of galleries and curators is on the rise.”

 

Indian art is now increasingly visible in global spaces, whether at the Tate Modern or the Barbican (in London), or the Met Breuer and MOMA (New York), she says. “Similarly, international artists and galleries are coming to India more and more, as we witnessed in the second edition of Art Mumbai (held in November, 2024).”

 

Ashish Anand, CEO and managing director of DAG, which was a seven-year-old gallery at the turn of the century, recalls: “It was the nascent Indian art world’s most tumultuous decade during which we witnessed the first auctions of Indian modern and contemporary art, the first art fair in India, the launch of art funds, the collapse of the art market following the Lehman Brothers crash, and the struggle and validation of the moderns who have since been acknowledged for their outstanding contribution and commitment to their art practices.” From then to now, the art scenario is completely different – vibrant and healthy, he says. 

 

He adds it would be “significantly useful if the government would pitch in with national pavilions at important platforms such as the Venice Biennale and extend support at multiple levels like import duties, taxes and even government-to-government collaborations”. Vazirani is of the opinion that like in the West, where tax structures were crafted to benefit philanthropy, which led to the development of art institutions and museums, government intervention in this respect could really change the game.

 

Whether in sports, art or culture, soft power requires some hard thinking to make it impactful, lasting.