Wakhare Hrishikesh Chandrashekhar
In today’s interconnected world, perception often rivals policy in shaping global outcomes. Military strength and economic prowess matter, but they are no longer sufficient. Nations must also communicate, persuade, and build trust across borders. This is the realm of public diplomacy—a space where storytelling, culture, and credibility become instruments of statecraft.
For India, an aspiring global power with a civilizational depth and democratic ethos, public diplomacy carries unique significance. It is not just about projecting influence, but about doing so in a way that inspires trust. My research on ‘Recalibrating Influence: India’s Global Narrative and the Challenges of Public Diplomacy in the 21st Century’explored this dual imperative: how India is trying to tell its story to the world, and why the process remains uneven.
Why Public Diplomacy Matters
At its heart, public diplomacy is not about glossy brochures or cultural festivals alone. It is about engaging foreign publics, shaping perceptions, and ensuring that India’s rise is seen as legitimate, peaceful, and beneficial. For India, this matters for three reasons:
- Strategic Outcomes Without Coercion – Public diplomacy helps secure investment, build coalitions on issues like climate change, and counter misperceptions about India’s policies.
- Credibility in Global Governance – At a time when multilateral institutions face crises of trust, public diplomacy strengthens India’s claim as a reliable partner in shaping international norms.
- Soft Power as a Complement to Hard Power – India’s cultural appeal, democratic vibrancy, and technological innovation can amplify its strategic weight if communicated effectively.
India’s story is compelling: a civilization that has absorbed and accommodated diverse cultures; the world’s largest democracy with a youthful, tech-savvy population; a fast-growing economy with global ambitions. Yet telling this story coherently to the world is easier said than done.
Learning from Global Examples
Comparative case studies reveal what India could do better.
- South Korea’s Hallyu Wave – The rise of K-pop, cinema, and television dramas was no accident but a state-supported cultural movement. It transformed Korea’s global standing from a manufacturing hub to a cultural powerhouse.
- Japan’s Cool Japan Initiative – Through the Japan Foundation, Tokyo has invested in cultural exchanges, language education, and creative industries to deepen mutual understanding.
Both countries show that effective public diplomacy requires more than campaigns—it needs sustained investment, coordination between state and non-state actors, and the ability to capture the imagination of foreign publics.
India has tried similar efforts: Incredible India in tourism, India Everywhere at Davos, and digital-first initiatives like Digital India and AI4Bharat. While impactful in moments, these efforts have lacked the sustained coherence of Hallyu or Cool Japan.
Institutions and Gaps
India’s public diplomacy is institutionally anchored in the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), the External Publicity and Public Diplomacy Division (XPD), and the Development Partnership Administration (DPA). Together, they handle cultural exchanges, media outreach, and aid diplomacy.
But the gaps are stark. Chronic underfunding, fragmented messaging, and bureaucratic inertia undermine long-term efforts. India’s Ministry of External Affairs receives one of the smallest budget allocations in government, limiting both scale and ambition. Unlike China’s Confucius Institutes or the UK’s BBC World Service, India has no global cultural institute network or international broadcaster with comparable reach.
As a result, India’s story is often told by others, not always favorably.
The Role of Technology and the Diaspora
One of India’s greatest assets is its digital strength. Digital India has redefined governance, while initiatives like AI4Bharat showcase innovation in agriculture, education, and healthcare. With Indian content generating over 45 billion hours of global watch time on YouTube in 2023, the digital space holds immense potential for narrative-building.
Equally powerful is India’s diaspora, the largest in the world. From Silicon Valley to Singapore, Indian-origin entrepreneurs, professionals, and influencers serve as cultural bridges. Yet their advocacy often lacks coordination. Without institutional support, diaspora-led diplomacy is more defensive firefighting than proactive storytelling. Harnessed systematically, the diaspora could be India’s strongest narrative ally.
Challenges and Contradictions
Here lies the heart of the challenge: India’s story is compelling but inconsistent. While admired for its democracy, diversity, and culture, India faces scrutiny over poverty, gender violence, religious intolerance, and governance lapses. These domestic realities can undercut its external image.
As Shashi Tharoor reminds us, soft power must be defended against intolerance at home. A country cannot project pluralism abroad if it struggles to sustain it within. Public diplomacy, therefore, is not just an outward-facing exercise; it is tied deeply to domestic credibility.
Strategic Communication in Crisis
My research also found that India’s success in public diplomacy often hinges on its ability to shape narratives during crises. For instance, measured and morally clear communication in moments like the Pahalgam attacks allowed India to project legitimacy and resolve.
But the system remains uneven. During cross-border tensions, rival powers have often outpaced India in narrative response, especially on social media. Misinformation spreads quickly, while India’s official communication tends to lag behind. Without faster, multilingual, and digitally savvy crisis communication, India risks ceding the narrative battlefield.
From Storytelling to Strategy: A Whole-of-Nation Approach
My research suggests that India’s public diplomacy must move beyond episodic campaigns and evolve into a comprehensive, whole-of-nation strategy. This requires investing in narrative infrastructure by building global broadcasting platforms, producing multilingual digital content, and equipping diplomats with advanced training in strategic communication. It also means engaging non-state actors such as universities, think tanks, private companies, and cultural industries to diversify and enrich India’s narratives.
A systematic approach to diaspora engagement is equally vital, providing platforms and institutional support for overseas communities to act as storytellers, innovators, and cultural bridges. Public diplomacy must also be integrated with national security priorities, leveraging communication to counter disinformation, prevent conflicts, and foster international goodwill. Above all, India’s global narrative must be grounded in authenticity, ensuring that the values it projects abroad remain consistent with its lived realities at home.
Personal Reflections: Trust as Currency
As I immersed myself in this field, what struck me most was that in the information age, trust is the real currency of power. Public diplomacy is not about propaganda but about authenticity. It is about listening as much as speaking, and about building relationships as much as broadcasting messages.
From Hanuman’s mythological lessons in listening to the diaspora’s modern digital advocacy, India’s path forward must be rooted in humility, adaptability, and authenticity.
Conclusion: Writing a New Narrative
India’s ascent on the global stage is undeniable. But power today is not measured only in GDP or military strength it is equally measured in perceptions and trust.
Public diplomacy, therefore, is not a luxury but a necessity. To succeed, India must tell its story in a way the world not only hears but believes. By aligning its cultural soul with digital prowess, by investing in coherent strategies, and by embracing authenticity, India can transform perceptions of power into narratives of trust. This is not just about influence, it is about communicating India’s soul in the 21st century.
About the contributor: Wakhare Hrishikesh Chandrashekhar is Chief Minister’s Skill Development Fellow (CMSDF) under Odisha Government, Dhenkanal, Odisha, India. He is a fellow of DFPGYF Diplomacy, Foreign Policy & Geopolitics Youth Fellowship- Cohort 2.0.
Disclaimer: All views expressed in the article belong solely to the author and not necessarily to the organisation.
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Acknowledgement: This article was posted by Shivashish Narayan, a visiting researcher at IMPRI.
