Is India’s Narendra Modi administration guilty of reducing the country’s strategic foreign policy discourse to a pedestrian level so much so that New Delhi has turned into an object of ridicule in the international diplomatic circle? 

The Citizens Archive of Pakistan (CAP), in collaboration with Routes2Roots (R2R), an Indian non-profit organisation working for peace and dialogue between Pakistan and India, has successfully completed the 18-month project Exchange for Change: Pakistan India 2013 - 2015.

India is at a historic crossroads and this might well be a transformational phase in our foreign policy.  However, Prime Minister Modi needs to recognize that the magic of soft power works only when it carries traditional diplomacy along.

The myriad emotions that Bollywood  evokes and the chord it strikes across the border undeniably makes cinema the glue that binds people, transcending barriers of culture, geography, even a chequered past. 

In a statement on Twitter, Mr. Modi said he conveyed “best wishes” to the Pakistani prime minister for the 2015 Cricket World Cup, as well as to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, Sri Lanka President Maithripala Sirisena and Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. “Cricket connects people in our region & promotes goodwill,” Mr. Modi said in another tweet. 

From yoga to soft power, from digital diplomacy to the role of states in foreign policy, India’s envoys got a taste of what the PM would like them to internalize when they represent India’s interests.

Bollywood films have long had a place in the hearts of Indonesian audiences, but lately it’s said to have reached feverish proportions, popular not just in urban, but also rural areas. (...) As soft powers go, India’s is actually pretty impressive, covering a wide range of fields. As one writer put it, “from Buddha to Bollywood to BPOs”. 

The government is trying to get yoga recognized throughout the world as India's cultural property. Since his election last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a Hindu nationalist and devout yoga practitioner, has persuaded the U.N. to announce an International Day of Yoga and has even appointed a minister of yoga in his cabinet.