When External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar unveiled India’s BRICS 2026 logo in New Delhi, a lotus drawn in the colours of all eleven member nations, framed by the Namaste gesture, it carried a meaning that went beyond branding. It symbolised how India sees its own role in the world: not as a power that leads through force or money, but as a civilisation that draws others in through shared culture and common values. As India holds the BRICS chairship for 2026 under the theme Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability, the central question is – “Can a country’s cultural identity become the foundation for genuine multilateral solidarity across one of the most diverse groupings in the world today?”
India’s approach to soft power is different from that of its BRICS partners. Russia uses cultural identity mainly to justify its foreign policy positions. China promotes its culture as part of a broader push for global influence. The Gulf states draw their weight from oil wealth and financial clout. India’s case rests on something older and less tangible — a long history of absorbing different traditions and sending ideas outward without building walls around them. During India’s G20 presidency in 2023, the old idea of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, which says that the world is one family, went from being a philosophical idea to being a part of foreign policy.
India’s foreign policy is built around five values: Samman (dignity), Samvaad (dialogue), Samriddhi (shared prosperity), Suraksha (security) and Sanskriti evam Sabhyata (cultural and civilizational connection). That last value tends to get the least attention, but it may be the most durable, because cultural exchange does not deplete; it multiplies with each interaction. The Indian Council for Cultural Relations has put this into practice through Ramayana Festivals in Southeast Asia, Buddhist heritage programmes across Central and East Asia, and the International Day of Yoga, which is now observed in more than 190 countries.
BRICS+ now brings together eleven countries across four continents – Christian, Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist nations, each with its own history, political system and idea of what the group should stand for. Ethiopia, South Africa, Egypt, Iran, UAE, Indonesia and the original five founding members share no common religion, no common colonial experience and no single vision of multilateralism. What unites them is a shared feeling that the current global order was built without them and continues to work against their interests. That frustration is real, but it is not enough to hold an alliance together over time.
This is where India has an opportunity that Russia and China do not. Both countries approach BRICS primarily as a tool to push back against Western-led institutions. However, India positions that BRICS is not anti-Western but simply non-Western. The newer members of the bloc, particularly Egypt, the UAE, and Indonesia, all have important economic ties with the United States and Europe. They are not looking to pick a fight with the West. India, which has also maintained its own partnerships with Western countries, understands this instinctively. Its soft power works in this space precisely because it does not ask anyone to choose sides.
Buddhism is one of India’s clearest connections across the BRICS+ membership. And at the very start of its chairship year, India offered a striking example of what Buddhist cultural diplomacy can look like in practice. In January 2026, the Ministry of Culture opened The Light and the Lotus: Relics of the Awakened One at the Rai Pithora Cultural Complex in New Delhi. It brought together, for the first time in 127 years, the sacred Piprahwa relics, gem relics and bone fragments connected directly to the Buddha, that had been taken out of India during British colonial rule.
Getting them back was not straightforward. When the portion held by the descendants of the original British excavator, William Claxton Peppé, was put up for auction at Sotheby’s Hong Kong in May 2025, India acted quickly. The Ministry of Culture issued a legal notice, diplomatic pressure was applied, and through a public-private partnership with Godrej Industries, the relics were brought home by July 2025. Smt. Lily Pandeya, Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Culture, who has been a key figure in India’s Buddhist heritage work, described the eventual reunion of the collection as the result of ‘very fortunate events.’ The exhibition is more than a cultural achievement; it is a model for how India can use heritage diplomacy as a living foreign policy tool.
Buddhism is only one such thread. The Indian diaspora has an established presence in South Africa and the UAE for generations. Yoga and Ayurveda speak the same language. Indian cinema has been able to attract many viewers from West Africa to the Arab world. Combined, they give India an array of cultural entry-points that no other member of the bloc can match.
Cultural goodwill needs a place to live in order to become a long-term policy. India’s chairmanship in 2026 is a chance to build that structure. One early sign of intent is the choice to hold BRICS meetings in almost 60 cities, including Ahmedabad, Chennai, Lucknow, Hyderabad and others, instead of just New Delhi. Delegations from all over the bloc will not see India as a single capital, but as a country with a lot of diverse regions. BRICS+ can learn from India’s model of unity across differences, not just admire it.
The Orange Economy provides an alternative, more tangible route. Colombian economists Iván Duque and Felipe Buitrago came up with the term to describe industries that make money from creativity, culture, and intellectual property instead of physical goods. This includes making digital content, as well as animation, video games, movies, music, design and live entertainment. The Orange Economy got a lot of attention in India’s Union Budget for 2026–27. The numbers behind that attention are huge: India’s media and entertainment industry is worth about $30 billion, creative services exports hit $11 billion in 2023, and the animation, visual effects, gaming and comics industry alone will need two million skilled workers by 2030. To meet that demand, Budget 2026 committed to setting up AVGC Content Creator Labs in 15,000 secondary schools and 500 colleges.
Live entertainment is rapidly becoming an important part of India’s cultural scene. According to the EY-FICCI Media and Entertainment Report 2026, the organised live events sector in India saw remarkable growth of 44% in 2025, with revenues reaching about INR 145 billion. This surge can be attributed to major events like the Kumbh Mela and a significant increase in ticketed concerts. In fact, India hosted over 130 concert days in 2025, with daily attendance often exceeding 10,000, indicating a shift toward premium experiences rather than just advertising-funded shows. What’s interesting is that this growth isn’t limited to big cities. Non-metro areas like Vizag (up by 409%), Vadodara (230%), Indore (214%), and Guwahati (188%) have also embraced live events, showing that the creative economy is expanding throughout the country. Looking forward, this sector is expected to grow to INR 196 billion by 2028. This is more than just numbers; it represents a blending of India’s rich culture with modern technology, paving the way for both cultural and economic development.
India’s Orange Economy is a story that extends far beyond just finding growth in India; it also offers an opportunity to develop a framework for people-to-people cooperation within the BRICS+ association, thereby building connections among member countries outside of the existing frameworks. For instance, the BRICS+ Creative Industries Exchange could serve as a venue for co-producing content, sharing and implementing copyright laws and developing content via joint digital and non-digital platforms.
To that end, India’s UPI digital payments system could provide an infrastructure and financial support system for cross-border transactions within this corridor. The New Development Bank could create a creative economy fund to offer financing to less-developed nations on the basis of their creative output rather than only on the basis of physical assets, as is the case in most economies today.
So when you view culture this way, it becomes one of the most useful ways to work together economically.
India’s strategy is not devoid of risks. Cultural diplomacy that claims to be universal but mostly comes from one tradition can feel like a soft assertion instead of a real exchange to the people who see it. India’s BRICS+ partners have their own long histories and don’t need
someone else to show them how to do things. For India’s outreach to be credible, it must accurately represent the entirety of its cultural diversity, including Sufi music and Dalit literature alongside classical dance; its 22 constitutionally recognised languages alongside Sanskrit; and its tribal art forms alongside mainstream cinema. A civilizational diplomacy that is authentically pluralistic at home will possess significantly greater influence at a global level.
Our ties with China make things even more complicated. India and China both claim to be ancient civilisations that can lead the Global South. They are also two of the largest economies in the bloc. There is a real competition between them for power in BRICS+, even if they don’t talk about it directly. The most obvious advantage for India in this case is how people see it. Indian cultural outreach is generally perceived with no strings attached by the newer African and Arab members of the group. On the other hand, people are becoming more wary of China’s growing presence in culture and infrastructure around the world. People often take India’s soft power at face value, while China’s is seen as an extension of strategic interest.
Alliances don’t last long if they only have economic agreements. A coalition lasts when its members respect each other and see each other’s history and identity as something to be valued. This is the best thing India brings to BRICS+. Not a blueprint for others to follow, but a way of engaging that takes the other side seriously on its own terms.
Economic agreements alone do not hold alliances together for long. What gives a coalition durability is a sense that its members genuinely respect one another — that each country’s history and identity is seen as worthy of regard, not just useful as a transaction.
This is what India, at its best, brings to BRICS+. Not a blueprint for others to follow, but a way of engaging that takes the other side seriously on its own terms. The exposition at Piprahwa demonstrated what that looks like in practice – a piece of shared Buddhist heritage, recovered and made available again, with genuine effort and institutional commitment behind it. The Orange Economy suggests what that might look like commercially – creative industries as a space where BRICS+ countries make something together, on their own terms.
The blooming lotus at the centre of India’s BRICS 2026 logo blooms in eleven colours. The task for India this year is to make sure the blooming lotus at the centre of India’s BRICS 2026 logo is not just a symbol of Indian leadership, but of a coalition of all the members.
References
BRICS & India’s 2026 Chairship
Government of India, Ministry of External Affairs. (2026, January 13). Launch of BRICS India 2026 logo, theme and website by the External Affairs Minister [Press release].
https://www.mea.gov.in/press-releases.htm?dtl/40585/Launch_of_BRICS_India_2026
_Logo_Theme_and_Website_by_the_External_Affairs_Minister
Government of India. (2026). BRICS India 2026: Building for resilience, innovation, cooperation and sustainability [Official BRICS Chairship website]. https://www.brics2026.gov.in/
Government of India. (2026). About BRICS. BRICS India 2026. https://www.brics2026.gov.in/about-us/
DD News. (2026, January 13). India launches logo, website for BRICS Presidency 2026: Jaishankar. DD News. https://ddnews.gov.in/en/india-launches-logo-website-for-brics-presidency-2026-jaish ankar/
The Quint. (2026, January). Jaishankar’s ‘Humanity-First’ strategy for India’s BRICS 2026 Presidency. The Quint. https://www.thequint.com/news/breaking-news/jaishankar-india-brics-2026-humanity- first-strategy
Government of India, Prime Minister’s Office. (2026, January 2). Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi to inaugurate exposition of sacred Piprahwa Relics on 3rd January 2026 [Press release]. https://www.pmindia.gov.in/en/news_updates/pm-to-inaugurate-grand-international-e xposition-of-sacred-piprahwa-relics-related-to-bhagwan-buddha-on-3rd-january/
Government of India, Prime Minister’s Office. (2026, January 3). PM inaugurates Grand International Exposition of Sacred Piprahwa Relics related to Bhagwan Buddha in New Delhi [Press release]. https://www.pmindia.gov.in/en/news_updates/pm-inaugurates-grand-international-exp osition-of-sacred-piprahwa-relics-related-to-bhagwan-buddha-in-new-delhi/
Government of India, Press Information Bureau. (2026, January 2). Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi to inaugurate exposition of sacred Piprahwa Relics on 3rd January 2026 [Press release]. https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2210787
International Buddhist Confederation. (2025, July 30). Repatriation ceremony of the Piprahwa relic jewels. https://www.ibcworld.org/events/view/134
Arab News. (2026, January 3). India displays ancient Buddhist jewels taken during British colonial rule. Arab News. https://www.arabnews.com/node/2628160/amp
Buddhistdoor Global. (2026, January 8). Famed Piprahwa gems on display in India after more than 120 years abroad. Buddhistdoor Global. https://www.buddhistdoor.net/news/famed-piprahwa-gems-on-display-in-india-after-m ore-than-120-years-abroad/
Vivekananda International Foundation. (2025, June 6). A colonial legacy: The unethical sale of sacred relics. VIF Articles, Vol. IX. https://www.vifindia.org/article/2025/june/06/A-Colonial-Legacy-The-Unethical-Sale-of
Srivastava, A. (2025, March). A decadal snapshot of India’s soft power strategies (2014–2024) (ORF Special Report No. 251). Observer Research Foundation. https://www.orfonline.org/research/a-decadal-snapshot-of-india-s-soft-power-strategi es-2014-2024
Red Lantern Analytica. (n.d.). India’s soft power and cultural diplomacy.
https://redlanternanalytica.com/indias-soft-power-and-cultural-diplomacy/
Government of India, Ministry of External Affairs. (n.d.). The five pillars of India’s foreign policy [Distinguished lecture]. https://www.mea.gov.in/distinguished-lectures-detail.htm?855
Sanskriti IAS. (2026, January 5). Cultural repatriation as statecraft: Piprahwa relics and India’s Buddhist soft power. Sanskriti IAS Current Affairs. https://www.sanskritiias.com/current-affairs/cultural-repatriation-as-statecraft-piprahw a-relics-and-indias-buddhist-soft-power
Duque, I., & Buitrago, F. (2013). The orange economy: An infinite opportunity. Inter-American Development Bank. https://publications.iadb.org/publications/english/document/The-Orange-Economy-An
Government of India, Ministry of Finance. (2026). Economic Survey 2025–26.
Department of Economic Affairs. https://www.indiabudget.gov.in/economicsurvey/
EY & FICCI. (2026, March). Stories, scale and impact: Unlocking India’s media and entertainment economy. Ernst & Young LLP / Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry.
India Briefing.
https://www.india-briefing.com/news/india-orange-economy-creative-industries-servic es-42359.html/
Observer Research Foundation. (2026, February 4). Assessing Budget 2026–27’s push to build Orange Economy talent. ORF Expert Speak. https://www.orfonline.org/expert-speak/assessing-budget-2026-27-s-push-to-build-or ange-economy-talent
PWOnlyIAS. (2026, February 3). Orange Economy in Union Budget 2026: Creative industries as India’s growth engine. PWOnlyIAS Current Affairs. https://pwonlyias.com/current-affairs/orange-economy-in-union-budget-2026/
Insights on India. (2026, February 16). Creative industries as growth engines. Insights on India Current Affairs. https://www.insightsonindia.com/2026/02/16/creative-industries-as-growth-engines/
United Nations. (2025, June 21). International Day of Yoga.
https://www.un.org/en/observances/yoga-day
Leave a Reply