Introduction

This chapter will discuss how, where and to what extent cultural narratives set the course of cross-national interactions in the late 19th century and how they confront, overcome and reorient asymmetries of power. It will also discuss whether cultural dialogues have relevance for contemporary engagements between India and Japan in challenging hierarchies and power differences. Does the current focus on Buddhist connections by Asian states, for example, create a new cultural ecology in Asia; does the renewed focus on heritage revive a “culturist” view of Asia; do the new symbols of ancient Buddhist connections become the basis of shared knowledge and values and what, if anything at all, does Japan’s post-war “peace psyche” contribute to an Asian dialogue? The chapter, thus, extends an implicit theme that runs through the book: the intermeshing of culture and power in the making of international partnerships and policy. In looking at both of these themes this chapter brings history back into the discussion of international relations. While culture has always been at the forefront of winning the hearts and minds of the people in a prelude to material conquest, as the history of colonialism indicates, the more contemporary contest over values as a public good in international relations speaks to a new understanding of the power of culture in meeting material objectives in foreign policy. Not incidentally then, the strategies of claiming cultural authority and shifting the locus of cultural power remain eerily similar.