By Ramachandran Rajeev Kumar — 2025-12-28

The Soft Power Paradox: Why India's Influence Doesn't Match Its Ambition

Bharath Manthan - Episode 8

By Ramachandran Rajeev Kumar

The Fable: The Sage Who Was Heard But Not Heeded

In the foothills of a great mountain, there lived a sage named Vishwamitra. He was renowned across the land for his wisdom. Travelers from distant kingdoms would journey for weeks to sit at his feet and absorb his teachings.

Vishwamitra spoke of peace. Of harmony. Of the interconnectedness of all things. His words were beautiful, and those who heard them wept with recognition.

But there was a problem.

The travelers would listen, nod wisely, take careful notes, and return to their kingdoms. Once home, they would continue exactly as before: waging wars, exploiting the poor, poisoning rivers, and fighting over boundaries.

One day, a young disciple asked: "Master, your teachings are heard across the world. Why does nothing change?"

Vishwamitra smiled sadly. "They hear the music but don't learn to play. They taste the fruit but don't plant the seed. They admire the light but don't tend the lamp."

"What must change?" asked the disciple.

"Everything," said Vishwamitra. "And nothing. The music is not the same as the musician. The message is not the same as the messenger. Until they trust the singer as much as they love the song, the song alone will not move them."

The disciple pondered this. "So we must become trustworthy messengers, not just beautiful songs?"

Vishwamitra nodded. "The world has many songs. What it lacks are singers it believes in."

The Soft Power Report Card

In February 2025, Brand Finance released its Global Soft Power Index.

The results were instructive.

India ranked 30th globally, with a score of 49.8 out of 100. This was actually a slight decline from 29th place the previous year.

For context, here's the neighborhood:

The fifth-largest economy. The fourth-largest by some measures. Among the most ancient civilizations. Home to 1.4 billion people. And yet, in the global influence sweepstakes, India sits below countries a fraction of its size.

Where India Shines

Before we dissect the problem, let's acknowledge where India does well.

Future Growth Potential: India ranks 3rd globally. The world sees India as a rising power. This is valuable optionality, even if it doesn't translate to current influence.

Arts and Entertainment: India ranks 6th. Bollywood, music, dance, and the broader cultural industry have genuine global reach. Nobody disputes that Indian entertainment travels.

Space Program: India ranks 8th in space exploration perception. Chandrayaan-3's successful lunar landing in 2023 resonated globally. ISRO has built a reputation for doing more with less.

Diplomatic Influence: India leaped 20 spots in global assistance rankings, reflecting its growing role in development partnerships across the Global South.

These are real strengths. The question is why they don't compound into overall soft power leadership.

The Yoga Paradox

Consider yoga, India's most successful cultural export.

In 2015, India persuaded the United Nations to declare June 21 as International Yoga Day. 177 nations supported the resolution. Today, over 100,000 yoga centers operate worldwide. The global yoga industry is worth approximately $130 billion.

India should dominate this space. We invented it. We have millennia of accumulated wisdom. Every town in India has practitioners who learned from unbroken lineages.

But here's the paradox: the most successful yoga teachers, apps, and brands are increasingly non-Indian.

Headspace, the meditation app, was founded by a British former monk. Calm, its competitor, is American. Yoga studios across the Western world are often owned and operated by Western practitioners who learned in India, then built businesses at home.

India exported the content but not the commercial infrastructure. We gave the world yoga but not Yoga Inc.

This pattern repeats across soft power domains:

• Indian cuisine is beloved worldwide, but the most profitable Indian restaurant chains are often Western-owned
• Ayurveda has global interest, but the wellness industry that monetizes it is largely Western
• Indian spirituality attracts millions, but the retreat centers, book publishers, and speaking circuits are dominated by non-Indians

The song is Indian. The singers increasingly aren't.

Bollywood's Reach and Limits

Bollywood reaches extraordinary audiences. Indian films draw huge followings across South Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Southeast Asia. The industry produces more films annually than Hollywood.

But influence requires more than viewership.

Hollywood doesn't just entertain. It shapes how the world thinks about heroes and villains, freedom and tyranny, success and failure. American cultural products carry embedded values: individualism, entrepreneurship, democratic ideals (however imperfectly America practices them).

What values does Bollywood project?

At its best: family bonds, perseverance against odds, justice eventually prevailing.

At its worst: patriarchal norms, revenge fantasies, and increasingly, muscular nationalism that makes international audiences uncomfortable.

The Indian diaspora in the West has largely moved beyond Bollywood consumption. They watch Hollywood, British TV, Korean dramas. The connection to Indian cinema is nostalgic rather than current.

And crucially, Bollywood rarely tells universal stories. It tells Indian stories, which the world can enjoy but doesn't identify with. Korean cinema managed the leap: "Parasite" won Best Picture at the Oscars by telling a Korean story with universal resonance. Bollywood hasn't found that formula at scale.

The Domestic-International Disconnect

Here's a problem India's soft power advocates don't like discussing: domestic political choices undermine international credibility.

Soft power rests on perceived values. Countries gain influence when others want to be like them. The United States' soft power (before its recent troubles) came not just from Hollywood but from the idea of America: freedom, opportunity, the rule of law.

India's soft power pitch rests on similar claims: democracy, pluralism, the ancient tradition of "Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam" (the world is one family).

But the pitch is complicated when:

• International observers raise concerns about press freedom
• Religious minorities express anxiety (fairly or not, the perception exists)
• Bulldozer politics makes global headlines
• Democratic backsliding indices downgrade India

Whether these perceptions are accurate or exaggerated is a separate debate. For soft power purposes, perception is the only reality that matters. And the perception in key Western markets has soured.

This creates a paradox: India's cultural offerings remain attractive (yoga, cuisine, spirituality) while India as a political model becomes less attractive to the very audiences that consume its culture.

China's Shadow

Any discussion of India's soft power must acknowledge the elephant in the room: China.

For the first time in 2025, China surpassed the United Kingdom to rank 2nd in the Global Soft Power Index. Its score of 72.8 showed statistically significant growth across six of eight pillars.

China achieved this despite (or because of?) very different strategies:

• Infrastructure investments through the Belt and Road Initiative buy influence directly
• Confucius Institutes embedded in universities worldwide (though now facing backlash)
• Media presence through CGTN and other outlets
• Technology exports that create dependencies

China's soft power is often criticized as "sharp power," influence through coercion rather than attraction. But the results are undeniable: China shapes global narratives in ways India cannot.

The BRI alone has made China a critical partner for over 100 countries. Those infrastructure investments create diplomatic leverage that yoga classes simply don't provide.

India is trying to compete with the Quad, the International Solar Alliance, and development partnerships across Africa. But the scale is incomparable. China spends; India speaks.

What India Needs

If India is to convert cultural reach into actual influence, several things must change:

1. Fund Culture Seriously

The Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) does good work on a shoestring budget. But cultural diplomacy requires resources. China's cultural budget dwarfs India's. The US spends billions on soft power through USAID, exchange programs, and media.

India needs a cultural budget that matches its ambitions. This isn't wasteful spending; it's strategic investment.

2. Create Indian Brands, Not Just Indian Products

Yoga is Indian, but Lululemon isn't. Indian cuisine is beloved, but no Indian restaurant chain has global scale. Ayurveda is ancient, but wellness brands like Goop dominate.

India exports raw cultural material that others monetize. We need Indian brands that capture the value of Indian cultural products.

3. Tell Universal Stories

The Korean Wave succeeded because Korean content creators learned to tell stories that resonated globally. "Squid Game" is Korean but speaks to universal themes of economic precarity and moral compromise.

Bollywood needs more stories that aren't just for Indians abroad feeling nostalgic. Stories that anyone, anywhere, can identify with.

4. Align Domestic and International Messaging

You cannot pitch pluralism abroad while practicing politics of polarization at home. The gap between the messaging and the reality creates credibility deficits that no amount of yoga diplomacy can overcome.

Soft power is not a marketing problem. It's a consistency problem.

5. Build Institutions, Not Just Events

International Yoga Day is nice. A permanently funded network of Indian cultural centers with quality programming would be better. Events generate headlines; institutions generate influence.

The Hard Truth

Soft power is ultimately an expression of domestic success.

Countries become influential when others want to be like them. Japan became influential when it demonstrated that Asian nations could modernize while retaining cultural identity. Korea became influential when it proved that development, democracy, and creativity could coexist.

India's soft power will rise when India becomes a model that others genuinely want to follow.

Not for our ancient wisdom, though that helps.

Not for our cultural products, though those reach far.

But for demonstrating, at scale, that a poor country with immense diversity can become prosperous, free, harmonious, and innovative simultaneously.

Until then, we will continue to export songs that the world hears but doesn't heed. Beautiful music from a band that hasn't quite earned trust.

The Bottom Line

India's soft power paradox is this: maximum cultural reach, minimum strategic influence.

We rank 3rd in future potential but 30th in present perception. The gap is the work to be done.

Yoga conquered the world, but India didn't capture the industry. Bollywood reaches billions, but doesn't shape their worldview. The diaspora achieves extraordinary success, but India doesn't harvest the benefit.

The song is beautiful. But the singer hasn't earned the world's trust.

That trust isn't won through better marketing. It's won through becoming the country we claim to be. Pluralist. Innovative. Democratic. Just.

Vishwa Guru aspirations require Vishwa Guru reality. And the reality, as the Soft Power Index suggests, still has a 20-rank gap to close.

Read the previous episode: Episode 7: The Education Emergency

Read the next episode: Coming Soon

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