India – SCO: Leveraging Soft Power for Enhancing Regional Ties with Central Asia
India’s Connect Central Asia (CAA) policy of 2012 is a broad-based framework involving political, economic, security and cultural connections. Reviving the cultural and civilizational linkages within the region will be a driving force to destabilise the existing peace and security threats in the region while also reshaping the SCO framework.
By Shilpa S. , Associate – Research, Centre for Public Policy Research
On India’s maiden SCO virtual summit on July 4, 2023, the member states adopted new pillars of cooperation on digital transformation and inclusion, shared Buddhist heritage, traditional medicine, innovation, startups and youth empowerment, reiterating the relevance of soft power in strengthening the bloc.
Tracing the cultural connection, bonds can be dated back to at least two millennia and revolve around themes like Buddhism, the ancient silk route, the spread of religions like Islam and Sufism, the legacy of Kushanas, and the descent of the Great Mughals. Culture also lies at the core of soft power diplomacy, which can refurbish these age-old linkages.
In present times, cooperation in the tourism sector can give a fillip to tourist circuits like Buddhist, Heritage and Himalayan circuits under the Swadesh Darshan Scheme and fulfil the tenets of ‘Shared Buddhist Heritage’. The SCO leaders have declared 2023 the Year of Tourism and the Indian city of Varanasi as the SCO’s tourist and cultural capital for the year 2023. Likewise, Central Asian countries are also becoming preferred destinations for Indians. Recently, Kazakhstan received the award as the most trending excursion destination for Indian travellers at the Versatile Excellence Travel Awards (VETA) ceremony in New Delhi.
Traditional medicine along the lines of AYUSH is being accepted with the rising popularity of Yoga in countries like Tajikistan and Kazakhstan. It is also recognised as a System of Medicine in Russia, and MoUs have been signed to introduce AYUSH medical education in Uzbekistan. Since the adoption of International Yoga Day by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), several Yoga study centres have been set up in the region. The potential of medical and wellness tourism in India cannot be undermined in this scenario.
In the entertainment industry, Indian movies and TV series translated into Russian have a huge viewer base, and countries like Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Russia have become the preferred shoot locations for new-age Indian films. The India Study Centre in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan imparts training in English and Hindi languages, Yoga and Kathak. In Dushanbe, there is a Swami Vivekananda Cultural Centre that offers courses in Kathak and Tabla through teachers deployed by the Indian Council of Cultural Relations.
Gastronomy is a major component of soft power with its power to propagate cultural symbolism, influence natives of a different ideology, and also facilitate people-to-people connections in the long run. Kashmiri cuisine is greatly influenced by the Central Asian and Persian cuisines, and the much popular Kebabs and Biryanis behold the legacy of the Great Mughals, Turks and Timurids. In recent years, a number of Indian restaurant chains have opened in the Central Asian Region.
In the sphere of education and skill building, India has been undertaking a number of capacity-building initiatives under the ‘Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation’ (ITEC) programme and the Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR) offers scholarships for Central Asian nationals. At the first India-Central Asia summit in 2022, the Central Asian leaders acknowledged the interest of Indian educational institutions in setting up campuses in their countries, and both sides agreed to scale up cooperation in this sector.
However, these arenas of cooperation will be fruitful only if we scale up regional connectivity measures for people-to-people linkages. The Indian aviation market has only very recently initiated direct flights to the Central Asian Republics, which were earlier driven by airlines in these republics. Digital connectivity and internet access are also crucial to ensuring the tenets of ‘Digital transformation and Inclusion’ as outlined in the summit. In May 2023, the SCO members unanimously agreed to adopt India’s proposal to adopt the country’s Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), including platforms such as Aadhar, the Unified Payments Interface and Digilocker. This can be seen as an extension of India’s commitment to bridging the digital divide in the region.
India’s Connect Central Asia (CAA) policy of 2012 is a broad-based framework involving political, economic, security and cultural connections. Reviving the cultural and civilizational linkages within the region will be a driving force to destabilise the existing peace and security threats in the region while also reshaping the SCO framework.
The author is Associate – Research, Centre for Public Policy Research
