India’s Challenges in Wielding Religious Soft Power

A Conversation with Sumit Ganguly

July 29, 2020
12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. EDT
Location: Online Zoom Webinar

Around the world today many states integrate religion and religious outreach activities into their foreign policy and diplomacy as a form of soft power. Manifestations of this trend vary widely, from informal efforts to cultivate solidarity with global co-religionists by states whose history and identity are entangled with religion to more direct deployment of religious institutions and actors in the service of specific foreign policy and national security objectives. The Geopolitics of Religious Soft Power (GRSP) project represents a multi-year, cross-disciplinary effort to systematically study the use of religion in foreign affairs.

This conversation focused on India’s use of religious soft power from the Cold War period to the present day. Sumit Ganguly, distinguished professor of political science at Indiana University, presented and discussed highlights from his new policy brief on the topic, “The Possibilities and Limits of India’s New Religious Soft Power.” Topics included the history of India’s use of soft power resources during the Cold War, how the election of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014 led to an explicitly religious bent privileging Hinduism, and whether growing sectarian tensions at home may limit the capacity of India’s new emphasis on religious soft power to pay dividends on the global stage. The session was moderated by Berkley Center Senior Research Fellow Peter Mandaville, the GRSP project director.

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Statue of Shiva, a principal deity of Hinduism.

Participants

Sumit Ganguly Toggle

About Sumit Ganguly

Sumit Ganguly is a distinguished professor of political science and holds the Rabindranath Tagore Chair in Indian Cultures and Civilizations at Indiana University. He is the author of Ascending India and Its State Capacity (2017, with William R. Thompson) and the Oxford Short Introduction to Indian Foreign Policy (2015).

Sumit Ganguly's Profile

Peter Mandaville Toggle

About Peter Mandaville

Peter Mandaville is a professor of international affairs at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University, where he also serves as the director of the AbuSulayman Center for Global Islamic Studies. He was a Berkley Center senior research fellow from April 2018 to April 2024 and from 2022 to 2024 served as a senior advisor on religion and inclusive societies at the United States Institute of Peace. Previous government experience includes serving as a member of the U.S. State Department’s Policy Planning Staff (2011-2012) and as a senior advisor in the department’s Office of Religion and Global Affairs (2015-2016). He has also been a visiting senior fellow at the Pew Research Center. His research focuses on the intersection of religion and international affairs, with a primary focus on Islam and the Muslim world. His publications include, among others, The Geopolitics of Religious Soft Power: How States Use Religion in Foreign Policy (2023), Wahhabism and the World (2022), Islam and Politics (2014, 2020), Global Political Islam (2007), and Transnational Muslim Politics: Reimagining the Umma (2001). He holds degrees from the University of St. Andrews and the University of Kent and has studied at the American University in Cairo.

Peter Mandaville's Profile

Related Publication

Policy Brief July 14, 2020

The Possibilities and Limits of India's New Religious Soft Power

In this policy brief, Sumit Ganguly argues that despite the Modi administration’s fervid attempts to draw on some of India’s religious traditions to boost the country's standing with prospective partners, it is unclear whether this strategy has yielded significant, tangible benefits.