Narendra Modi plays Buddhist card in South East Asia and East Asia diplomacy, checkmates China

Soft Power of a country in most crude terms is how good it is in telling its stories. Modi, like a true statesman knows how to play the cards in his hands. Faced with great challenges of mammoth proportions in our neighborhood, he has now asserted India’s Buddhist linkages to enhance India’s soft power in the world particularly in South and South East Asia. To a curious watcher of India’s foreign relations it will be very perplexing as to why India has not played its Buddhist linkages with the world so far. Read the passages below to find why this is a well-timed and inevitable step now.

Chinese Context

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China, back in 2006 hosted something called “First Buddhist Forum”, an initiative of the then party secretary and now the president Xi Xingping. China’s active promotion of Buddhism in recent years has generated some alarm in New Delhi. China held the first World Buddhist Forum in 2006 at Hangzhou.

I find it very amusing as China is a country where communists call all the shots and religion is not very encouraged if not abhorred. Marx once called religions opium of mankind. As a country that doesn’t have a very good relationship with opium (read Opium Wars) it becomes even more puzzling. It was an effort of Chinese to strengthen their soft power, an area where they cannot complete with India.

As part of its Buddhist diplomacy, China has created a World Fellowship of Buddhists (WFB) which meets every year and provides liberal grants to Buddhist groups across the world.

Modi asserts India’s Buddhist links

Despite being the birthplace of Buddhism (religion not Buddha himself, he was born in present day Nepal), India receives barely .005 percent of Buddhist tourists in the world. This should be enough to shift focus to address this now.

 Modi plans to play the Buddha card, our country’s first ambassador to the world and undeniably the most admired one. A Chinese scholar once said that India had colonized China year ago with Buddhism without sending even one soldier. This is in line with India’s action east policy. With this there is definite shift in India’s East Asia Diplomacy.

Narendra Modi has already hosted hosting a dialogue on Vinaya (code of conduct) between high-ranking Theravada monks from Sri Lanka and counterparts of the Nalanda tradition — the first dialogue at this level between the two Buddhist traditions. Modi had met the Maha Nayakas during his visit to Sri Lanka where he had also offered prayers at the sacred Mahabodhi tree.

Modi’s personal interest in Buddhism was reflected in his step to restore the rich Buddhist heritage of Gujarat.  

 Historical context

Our magnificent country with heritage going more than 5000 years in the past has left a deep imprint on cultures all over the world. Cities with names sounding similar to Ajodhya are found in Thailand (Ayutthaya) and Indonesia (Yogyakarta). Angkor Watt in Cambodia and Borobudur in Indonesia also speak of India’s influence in the ancient times.

The Buddha has always figured prominently in India’s international engagement. It was prominent in the opening ceremony of Commonwealth Games too. As the land from where Buddhism (the religion, not Buddha himself, he was born in present day Nepal) was born and spread in the world, India did not have to work too hard to make it part of its cultural engagements with the rest of the world.

 One out of six tourists to India visits Bodh Gaya. India’s support for Dalai Lama since 1959 has been an enduring source of tension with China.

Action East Policy and its Buddhist initiatives

The work on phase-I Buddhist Tourist Circuit has gathered pace. As a native of Uttar Pradesh which has many Buddhist sites, I see an increase in foreign tourist traffic. Now 1 in 6 tourists visits Bodhgaya (Bihar). This also includes Lumbini in Nepal where the Buddha was born, Bodhgaya where he attained enlightenment under the Bodhi tree

Sarnath in Uttar Pradesh where he delivered his first sermon, Rajgir in Bihar where he lived and taught, Nalanda which became the centre of Buddhist learning and teaching. All these are already part of the proposed Buddhist circuit.

Kushinagar in UP where he departed from the world, Kapilavastu, Vaishali in Bihar where he delivered his last sermon, Sravasti in UP where he spent 24 rainy seasons at Jetavan monastery and Kausambi where he preached; are all part of India’s Buddhist Diplomacy.

India as the birth place of Buddhism has not used its soft power to its utmost potential. Sikkim in India is the home to all sects of Buddhism and connects the three sects of Buddhism namely; The Mahayana, The Hinyana, Thervada and The Vajrayana.

Believers from several Buddhist countries like Bhutan, Bangladesh, China, Japan, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and Thailand have set up monasteries around the Mahabodhi temple in Bodhgaya for their pilgrims

India can use these to attract Mahayana Buddhists from China, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore and Vietnam, Theravada Buddhists from Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Vajrayana Buddhists from Tibet, Mongolia, Bhutan, western China, Russia and Nepal.

Countering Chinese Rivalry in Buddhist countries

Narendra Modi indicated this change by choosing Bhutan as his first official visit abroad and then to Nepal, where Buddha was born. His first official visit outside South Asia was to another Buddhist country, Japan. In his outreach to leaders in the subcontinent and Asia, from Nepal to Japan and China to Myanmar, Modi has projected Buddhism as one of India’s bridges to these nations. Incidentally, these are also the nations where China and India are engaged in contest for influence.

To the self-proclaimed secularists his overt expression of his Hindu and Buddhist religiosity may be controversial but I do not see a problem with that. After all Italy also tried to use Christianity links to seek release of its marines. Kerala has a significant Christian population. In fact, even China used Hinduism card by giving access to Man Sarovar via an easier route.

Summarizing

Buddha has always been very prominent in India’s foreign policy, however this aggressive shift has come in light of China’s assertion of projecting itself as a bridge between the Buddhist countries. It is something India would not let happen as the origin place of Buddhism. Some may object to using religion as a tool of foreign policy but as explained in the preceding passages, it is more about our heritage and our identity as the Birthplace of Buddhism that no country can snatch from us.  Buddha diplomacy can be an effective tool and soft power for India’s engagement with South Asia, South-East Asia, East Asia and even China which share an interest in Indian mysticism.

 Note: This article written by me was originally published on a portal on Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi

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Narendra Modi upsets Chinese maritime ambitions in Indian Ocean

              अनादि अनँत केवलँ. नमामि राष्ट्र भारतँ.

The pretext to this piece of writing is Narendra Modi’s statement and vision about Indian Ocean “To me the blue chakra or wheel in India’s national flag represents the potential of Blue Revolution or the Ocean Economy. That is how central the Ocean Economy is to us”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s three-nation Indian Ocean tour stands in testimony to this region’s critical importance for Indian security. He has once again upset China’s silk route plans and its maritime ambitions. If China gains the upper hand in the Indian Ocean region, it will mark the end of India’s great-power ambitions. India would merely a regional power which would be detrimental to our ambitions. In a major fillip for India in the Indian Ocean, we bagged two important ''infrastructure development rights'' for two islands in the region - Agalega from Mauritius and Assumption from Seychelles. New Delhi marked its Indian Ocean presence with Modi offering to set up joint working groups with the two blue economies in the region to harness potential for economic cooperation.

Underlining that the Indian Ocean Region sits atop policy priorities, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said the time had come for a “strong grouping around the Indian Ocean” and that India will “pursue with this new vigor in the years ahead”.Modi said his government’s vision for the Indian Ocean was rooted in “advancing cooperation in our region” and to use “our capabilities for the benefit of all in our common maritime home”.

Furthermore, In Seychelles Narendra Modi unveiled the Plaque and Operationalized the Radar for CSRS (Coastal Surveillance Radar System) - India-Seychelles Cooperation Project. It has already caused much tension in our western and Eastern neighbor.

Why Indian Ocean is central to our Security

The readers of Indian history would well realize that Indian Ocean has been pivotal in India’s growth. Indian Ocean is the only ocean in the world name after a country. In words Nehru “History has shown that whatever power controls the Indian Ocean has, in the first instance, India’s sea-borne trade at her mercy and, in the second, India’s very independence itself.”

In past centuries whichever power had control over its sea lanes more or less controlled India's trade. First it was the Portuguese (15th century) then English. Back in 1686 when British tried to assert their power in India for the first time they were beaten by Mughals but still their rights to trade in India were not taken away (which were issued by Jahangir in 1686), largely because Mughals were aware that British could hurt India's trade in the Ocean as they were controlling it at that time. Indian Ocean is the only ocean in this world named after a country and it happened for a reason.

Furthermore, in a letter to London a high ranking official in India said, back in 19th century that we will be able to keep India under our control until we are the most supreme naval force. It happened just the way he said. 1946 there was a mutiny in Indian's Navy and that has been underplayed by our historians. British had realized helped by many other concurrent events that now their time was over.

Indian Ocean: Changing Dynamics

As Indians we associate a lot of pride with it. It was through its sea routes that India’s trade happened. A trade that was once called the trade of the world and helped us emerge as the largest economy pre industrial revolution times. Keeping in mind the increased focus of China and its ambitious but surreptitious designs like Maritimes silk route, it has become imperative for India to shift its focus to Indian Ocean as well, if not more than certainly as much as its land frontiers.

Narendra Modi visited Indian Ocean region and its small but strategically located islands. He covered Seychelles, Mauritius and Sri Lanka. A day before the Prime Minister began his tour to the Indian Ocean Region, both the battle group along with warships from Western fleet, armed with fighter jets, helicopters, reconnaissance planes, missiles and other weaponry reached Kochi. It marks an ambitious and well-timed departure from its earlier stand “Indian Ocean as a Zone of peace”. Narendra Modi and his team of advisors led by NSA Ajit Dhoval realize it well that theory cannot always be put to practice.

All these three nations are considered vital for maritime security, particularly with the ever present pirates in the region. The Indian Ocean is going to be the most important ocean with concentration of most important energy routes between Strait of Malacca to the Gulf of Aden, an area which is full of maritime activities as 70 per cent of the oil container traffic passes through.

Off late, China has been deepening its relations with littoral (bordering)  states to the Indian Ocean Region, particularly Sri Lanka, Mauritius and Seychelles as part of its String of Pearls diplomacy to counter India’s Look East Policy, which is often described as Encircle China policy by Beijing.

The Indian Ocean promises to shape the wider geopolitics and balance of power in Asia and beyond. India, in context of Chinese plans like Maritime Silk Route and its ‘development push’ in Indian Ocean region needs to act fast.

We must capitalize on our geographic advantage

Blessed by a very suitable Geography and its advantages India has an inherent maritime advantages. Due to our troubled relation with Pakistan and China our maritime advantages have not been properly utilized, we have not created deep assets in the region. To make matters worse India diplomatically neglected the Indian Ocean region in the 25-year period from 1989 till now. India’s long neglect has become China’s strategic gain. Narendra Modi is the first prime minister to visit Seychelles in 34 years and Sri Lanka in 28 years.

China helped by its deep pockets has sought to ‘help’ the littoral states in the region, it has even tried to seek possibilities of a naval frontier to neutralize India’s natural geographic advantage.

Alongside developing strategic assets in the region India needs to significantly modernize its naval power. India should have the power to holdback container traffic to China choking its Energy lines should a war be imposed on us.

Takeaways for India

Ø  India signed an MoU with Mauritius for setting up and upgrading infrastructure for improving sea and air connectivity at the outer island of Mauritius

Ø 
India signed another MoU with Mauritius which will provide an extensive framework for cooperation in the field of ocean economy. It will seek opportunities in the field of marine resources, fisheries, green tourism, research and development of ocean technology, exchange of experts and other related activities.

Ø  Modi also commissioned the India-built coast ship Barracuda in Mauritius on the second leg of his three-nation visit.

Ø  In Seychelles Narendra Modi unveiled the Plaque and Operationalized the Radar for CSRS (Coastal Surveillance Radar System) - India-Seychelles Cooperation Project. It will add a lot to India’s surveillance capabilities in the region.

Summarizing

Acting to correct the loss of the past and the time wasted on account of previous government’s failure, Modi government has sought to address the issue by capitalizing on cultural links helped by his famous Charm offensive.   Taking a note India’s primacy of Indian Ocean for India's security and for maintaining peace and stability in the region Narendra Modi has stressed  that the ''Indian Ocean was and is  going to be India's Ocean''. The competition for influence in the Indian Ocean is pivotal to our global power ambitions. This is a contest India cannot afford to lose.

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