Author(s): Buket ÖNAL
Having gained its independence in 1947, India took its place in the political history of the world through its independence process and post-independence developments, and Gandhi's “passive resistance” policies. With its strategic location, enormous population, philosophy that impresses the whole World and multicolored culture, India is still in an important position today. While the country has naturally increased its hard power (military, nuclear, etc.),due to its security concerns it aims to become a center of attraction with its diaspora and soft power vehicles all over the world. The country, which has evolved from a colony to a developed democratic state, has a lot of tools to use as a soft power. India was able to achieve this by its old and different culture;mystical structure, cuisine, religion, music, clothing and traditions, festivals, legends, a cinema competing with Hollywood, TV series and itindustry. Today, 6.3 million people visit India per year and this number is increasing. However, India also has the image of a “strong but poor” country due to ethnic and religious disparities, economic and social inequalities, environmental problems, violence against women, etc.Policies must be produced to eliminate this image. Being aware of this negative image, the Indian government has recently increased its effort and has started to give more space to soft power tools in developing relations with other countries. This study is aiming to answer questions such as what the soft power tools of India are, how effective they are in foreign policy, whether they have a role in the development of India’s relations with Turkey and if so, how effective they
The Journal of International Social Research received 8982 citations as per Google Scholar report
