The Indian Political Right, Soft Power and the Reimagining of Africa

The politics of gifts and reciprocity in South–South Cooperation: The case of India's Covid‐19 diplomacy

“…India's conception of its role in the global order has gradually changed. While ideas about southern solidarity remain influential and rhetorically important today, they have been partially eclipsed by a growing feeling of Indian exceptionalism, based on a sense of pride in the country's exponential economic growth in the last 30 years (Venkatachalam, 2021). Indian political and diplomatic actors envision their experiments with neoliberalism since the 1990s as a resounding developmental success (poor human development indices notwithstanding) and often claim that India's development cooperation programme aims to share lessons of the country's success with other partner nations in the Global South.…”

“…Indian political and diplomatic actors envision their experiments with neoliberalism since the 1990s as a resounding developmental success (poor human development indices notwithstanding) and often claim that India's development cooperation programme aims to share lessons of the country's success with other partner nations in the Global South. Implicit in this assumption is that India is not only a politically and economically stronger nation but also at a more advanced stage of development than other nations of the Global South (Duclos, 2012; Venkatachalam, 2021). Indeed, while India continues to talk about the important of partnership and mutuality, it now envisions itself in a hierarchical relationship with its southern partners (Davis, 2018) and believes it is imparting valuable lessons of its own (successful) developmental trajectory to other countries who have so far been less successful in their journeys.…”

“…Indeed, think‐tank analysts often suggest that insights into how India understands and performs statecraft can be gained from studying epics such as the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, the Vedas and the Upanishads and a number of other classical texts on statecraft. This renewed interest in ‘culturally’ specific, ‘indigenous’ or ‘civilisational’ knowledge forms in the domain of statecraft coincides with the rise of the political right and the so‐called ‘saffronisation’ of Indian historical and political imaginaries in the last few decades preceding the ascent of Narendra Modi to power (Venkatachalam, 2021). 4…”

Emerging Donors' Engagements in Africa: China, India, and the Localizing Peacebuilding and Development Interventions

“…2016; Sanny and Selormey 2021). Other studies have found that most Africans view the Indian presence on the continent positively as well (Harris and Vittorini 2018; Venkatachalam and Banik 2022). Similar sentiments were expressed by African youth, with 76 percent of respondents viewing the influence of China in their countries positively, 68 percent viewing the influence of India positively, and 72 percent viewing the influence of the United States positively (Africa Youth Survey 2022).…”

“…As a consequence, India placed health care delivery—including education, the development of pharmaceutical research, and capacity building—at the center of its inclusive and transparent development model for Africa (Kalingi and Naliaka 2022). One of the factors that has made India an attractive partner for African states has been its emphasis on public–private partnerships that allow for the “fusion of public and private stakeholders with the aim of developing local capacity in an inclusive manner” (Venkatachalam and Banik 2022). India and Africa also began holding India–Africa Entrepreneurship Forums (IAEF) that bring together political and economic leaders, as well as investors and entrepreneurs, to deepen their trading and investment relationships.…”