Introduction
Groping through TV channels on a Sunday afternoon, I suddenly stopped at a Bollywood Hindi movie scene set in the old Rabat market, with dialogue in the local Arabic dialect, pushing me into memories of one evening at the market. Commemorating Moroccan gowns, silk dresses, cotton fabrics, traditional cutlery shops, jewellery shops, and kebabs and paneer grilling on coal, bargaining with roadside vendors selling local arts and crafts connects Morocco and India culturally.
Christ the Redeemer, a statue of Jesus in Rio de Janeiro and at the El Salvador seaside mountain visualizes in Indian cinema connect the same statue at Nellore in Andhra Pradesh, Vizhinjam in Kerala, Ecopark in Kolkata mark its presence among the global powers. Similarly, the personification of international bridges such as the London Bridge has spanned the river Thames and Manhattan Bridge traversed the East River in New York City and conversed with the Howrah Bridge crossed the Hooghly River in India beautifying Bollywood prominence globally as a cultural connection. Bollywood has mixed the East Asian panorama of Buddhist culture, the world’s tallest Twin Towers of Kuala Lumpur and globally attracted market of Malaysia and the nature heavens vicinity of Bali, boat culture (Kularts) of the Philippines and the tea gardens of Sri Lanka in their movies explains the lively stories of the world and connect their philanthropies with Indian culture. Appreciating Baha’i worship, Bollywood movies visualise Sydney in Australia, Papua New Guinea, Panama, Wilmette in the USA, Santiago in Brazil, Battambang in Cambodia, Kampala in Uganda, Matunda Soy in Kenya, Apia in Samoa, Frankfurt in Germany and Samoa in Oceania by attaching the Lotus temple and Akshardham of Delhi in India marking its global influence. The most favourite Indian movie entitled Mother India of the 1960s is very popular in all the African countries even today. Bollywood exhibits the role of the mother as head of the house in this movie is common to both Indian and African rural households that exhibit the familiar cultural aspect as well as sufferings in the society. All the Best: Fun Begins, a Bollywood movie uses Swahili language dialogue often and successfully striking its presence among African hearts. Bollywood movies using Netflix have made a world record during the pandemic period and manifested globally. Bollywood’s love story, family drama, fiction and melodious songs act as a soft power in strengthening its influence among the world community.
Yoga as a Soft Power
India proposed the resolution on Yoga in 2014 and the United Nations declared 21st June as ‘International Day of Yoga’ and more than 100,000 Yoga Centers are benefitting the world community regularly. Yoga as a soft power has worked wonderfully during and after the pandemic period in the world. Patanjali said, “The posture of yoga is steady and easy. The ancient yogis used asana to prepare the body for meditation. To sit for a lengthy time in contemplation required a supple and cooperative body. If you are free of physical distractions, and control the body then you can also control the mind. Posture is mastered by freeing the body and mind from tension and restlessness and meditating on the infinite” (Patanjali, 2015). The asanas strengthen the physical and mental strength that helps the human body to live peacefully and happily, living with minimum material needs in this world. The COVID-19 post-pandemic time today drives forward with a shared understanding of what is meant by sustainable and responsible consumption from the yoga perspective. Yoga may become an important medium for the development of global society. Yoga attracts the worldly governments toward more sustainable choices and sharing this information with their citizens. This information will trigger innovation and ultimately set the trend toward a sustainable environment through Yoga among the global community today.
Ayurveda as a Soft Power
Nature heals the environment, and India is the leader across the world and ready to supply the indigenous natural methods of Ayurveda, Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, and Homoeopathy in healing human beings, society, and the global environment. Ayurveda science is the end product of the history of ancient Indian spirituality. It explains how Ayurveda science is helpful for human development by strengthening their body immunity and in healing the environment in the post-pandemic world. Today, all the Ayurveda medicines provided under the ISM drugs and are supported under ‘The Drugs & Cosmetics Act and Rules, 1940’ (23 of 1940, as amended up to December 31, 2016), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India (GoI). The GoI has supported the systematic research in this field known as AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha, and Homeopathy). It further encouraged the Indian Systems of Medicine and Homeopathy (ISM&H) and the Central Council for Research in Indian Medicine and Homeopathy (CCRIMH) to work extensively in fighting against modern-day diseases. The Ministry of Ayush provides bottles and pouches (a mixture of natural herbal ingredients for the soup) in fighting against diseases as it stimulates the immunity in the human body. The GoI also prefers advertising to go Natural Way for All Treatments and heal the body, mind, and nature. This is further true that avoiding all chemicals in the food and in daily use, will minimize the pollutants in our daily lives and save the environment. T. C. James and Apurva Bhatnagar further explain that ‘although there is no deniability that there is a vast pool of traditional medicinal knowledge and traditional medicinal practices of immeasurable value in India, one cannot overlook the advancement in technology and modern medical sciences and how it has changed our lives for the better. It is imperative that traditional systems of medicine should not be looked at as an alternative but rather as a complementary science to modern medicine. With increasing levels of education and knowledge expansion in other fields, it is necessary that the ISMs keep abreast of them. The practitioners of these systems should be able to converse and dialogue with them in the jargon of science with ease and felicity. This will be possible only if the systems infuse into them science and technology in a big way. Wide-spread application of science and technology will naturally lead to a great number of innovations’ (James and Bhatnagar 2020: 24).
Conclusion
Bollywood, Yoga and Ayurveda (BYA) around the world address global challenges related to body immunity, shortage of resources, water scarcity, climate change, and loss of biodiversity and planning, promotion, coordination, and overseeing the implementation of environment and forestry program. Sustainable production and consumption policy learning from BYA concerns around the world should address global challenges related to body immunity, shortage of resources, water scarcity, climate change, and loss of biodiversity and planning, promotion, coordination, and overseeing the implementation of environment and forestry program by connecting it with yogic sutras and Ayurvedic sciences. These are the three pillars of India’s soft power and have convinced the global community by practising them. This soft power influences globally and connects people to people convincingly.
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