ABSTRACT
This chapter sets the foundation for an in-depth analysis of soft power in modern India by providing a historical context and summarising ways the interpretation and role of power has changed in Indian foreign policy since 1947. It argues that India initially embraced a soft power approach in its foreign policy, believing that it could transform the nature of international relations and help construct a more peaceful and just international order. In contemporary India, there are three or four major streams of thinking about strategy security and foreign policy issues. Soft power is definitively not a new phenomenon in India, although its understanding and application in the Indian political context have had different phases over the decades. If the term had already been used during the Cold War era, India would have been considered among the greatest soft powers in the world. The humiliating defeat in war with China was a bitter lesson for India.
