Make India Great !

This can be India’s moment globally. Build on the idea of Maha Akhand Bharat, decisively promoting India’s rich civilizational heritage and therefore its soft power. At the recently concluded Times Now Summit, Samir Jain, vice-chairman and managing director of the Times Group, said, “This is not the time of Mahabharat. Akhand Bharat is history. This is the time for a Maha Akhand Bharat.”

His statement got me thinking. The term Akhand Bharat was propounded by Veer Savarkar at the 1937 session of the Hindu Mahasabha and he was merely referring to the geographical expanse of an undivided India. But I have always imagined it as something much older, a far wider area representing an ancient Vedic arc of influence.

Mahabharat’s Gandhari was from Gandhar – now called Kandahar.

Iran derives its name from the term Airyanemvaeja or the land of the Aryans.

Angkor Wat, the world’s largest Vishnu temple, is not situated in India but in Cambodia.

The two ancient kingdoms of the Hittites and the Mittani (approximating today’s Turkey and Syria) struck a peace treaty way back in 1380 BCE by invoking Vedic deities such as Mitra, Varuna and Indra.

Varuna was even adopted by the Greeks as Uranus.

Two Indian monks, Kashyapa Matanga and Dharmaraksha, carried the first Buddhist texts into China while Bodhidharma took martial arts to Shaolin.

Indonesia’s 20,000 Rupiyah note prominently displays Ganeshji on it.

In Thailand, the Chakri dynasty kings still assume the title of King Ram and their royal emblem is Garud.

In Malaysia, the Hikayat Seri Rama (the Malay adaptation of Ramayan) is performed with shadow puppets even today.

It is amply evident that ancient Bharat’s soft power was significant. So, is it unreasonable to work towards that today? In effect, wouldn’t that arc of influence be a Maha Akhand Bharat?

But while India has the world’s fifth largest economy, it still ranks 127 in per capita GDP. So, can India enhance its soft power to punch above its weight internationally? This would require a determined and well-coordinated effort.

Contrast India with South Korea which uses K-pop, Parasite and Squid Game to promote brand Korea. Or compare us with the UK that leverages the British Council, BBC World Service, the monarchy and English university education. What can India do to enhance its sphere of influence? Lots, actually.

Iyengar Awards: The effort of PM Modi to have an International Day of Yoga recognised by the UN was a step in that direction. But we can take this further. The most famous practitioner of yoga was BKS Iyengar. What if the government could create an Iyengar Awards as the Oscars of yoga? How about funding an Iyengar certification programme that yoga practitioners display as a badge of authenticity globally?

Buddhist tourism: Around 535 million of the world’s population is Buddhist but many are unaware that the faith sprouted in India. Most of the significant Buddhist sites are in India and Nepal. These include Bodh Gaya, Rajgir, Nalanda, Kushinagar, Lumbini, Shravasti and Sarnath. What is lacking is a nodal agency that ensures a coordinated approach from heritage site management to international connectivity. Be it the power of Hajj in Mecca or Kumbh in Prayag, religious tourism can be an instant brand enhancer.

Movie magic: India produces 1,600 films annually. Do they get adequate recognition beyond the Indian diaspora? We spend resources on DFF, IFFI and NFDC and incessantly debate India’s entry to the Oscars, whereas we could simply provide budgetary assistance for Indian films to be marketed abroad once they have tasted success in India.

Healing touch: India has some of the finest alternative therapies – ayurveda, pranayama, panchkarma, naturopathy. We also have a rich heritage of 579 herbal remedies from haldi to ashwagandha and mulaithi listed in the Atharvaveda. The practice of meditation is also becoming mainstream in stress management. Why can’t the government work on a PPP basis to create world-class alternative therapy centres abroad?

Sanskrit Inc: We should be worried that India ranks 35 in the Global Innovation Index and we should also be concerned that Sanskrit, which is the key to our ancient wisdom, 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’s pre-eminence.

Beyond chicken tikka masala: The world is enthusiastically embracing turmeric lattes, masala tea, pure ghee, vegetarianism and veganism. Why don’t we have a travelling Indian food festival – curated by the best Indian chefs from around the world – that takes India’s cuisine around the planet? One could involve strategic partners like hotel chains and airlines. JRD Tata’s Air India and Bobby Kooka’s maharaja promoted brand India well before the notion of soft power caught on. Think of how Singapore and Dubai’s airlines worked wonders for their national image.

We have so much to celebrate and be proud of but we never seem to hit the right notes.

A 1969 performance by Pt Ravi Shankar at Woodstock did more for brand India than any PR exercise. Can’t we rejuvenate, rebrand and re-engineer ICCR’s 38 Indian Cultural Centers to play to our strengths? Both the quality and quantity of centers must improve.

Around 2,300 years ago, Chanakya talked of saama (gentle persuasion) being preferable to daana (economic reward), bheda (covert action) or danda (military force). It was probably this Kautilyan approach that permitted Bharat to eventually command a little over a quarter of the world’s GDP by 1000 CE.

Can India replicate that successful model today? The answer is a resounding maybe.