External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Wednesday called soft power central to rebalancing the world order, which he argued is a "huge historical corrective process" working naturally to India's advantage.
He was speaking at the launch of "Connecting through Culture", an anthology of essays on various aspects of India's soft power strengths.
"Where does soft power fit in the larger scheme of things? I regard it today as absolutely central to the rebalancing which is going on in the world. A rebalance, which will create, and is already creating, multi-polarity," the minister told a packed audience at Sushma Swaraj Bhawan here.
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"... the comfort that is growing about India, I see that as absolutely very central to the rebalancing and something which works very naturally to India's advantage. It is necessary today because after two centuries of western imperialism, the legacy of the world in a way is that 'globalisation is westernisation', and this rebalancing today is a huge corrective historical process," he elaborated.
Jaishankar, 67, was quick to add that rebalancing should not only be seen in terms of "economic, political or military strength".
"Typically, when we think of rebalancing, we look at the economic facet, we say these are the '20 countries with the largest GDP', or we look at the military facet... Rebalancing is much more, it is beyond economic, politics, orthodox conventional parameters of strength and influence. That is really where soft power really comes into play," he explained.
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"We have seen examples of powerful countries that are weak on the soft power front meeting political reverses in the past," he said.
The Union minister said India is "engaged in a battle of soft power", which besides rebalancing is also countering a lot of inherited legacy that continues to raise question marks.
He cited the colonial legacy and the narrative which says that "the British came to help Indians" or the Western narrative talking about the "good" that the British did by occupying India.
"Creating a level playing field and putting into place these narratives is not only a big challenge for diplomacy, but a challenge at home as well," he noted.
"Because a lot of the solution lies in getting the right narrative at home. You cannot have a distorted legacy narrative in India and then say give me the fair deal in the international arena," he added.
However, according to Jaishankar, "a lot of progress" is underway in this regard, and the country now has a much more "balanced, rounded and fairer" historical narrative of its recent past.
The event was also attended by Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan, who has contributed in the anthology, which has been co-edited by ICCR president Vinay Sahasrabuddhe and IGNCA member secretary Sachchidanand Joshi.
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It has contributions from noted researchers, academics and artistes, including Amish Tripathi, Pushpesh Pant, Christopher Benninger, Kapil Kapoor and Jaya Jaitley.
(with inputa from PTI)
