The roots of India's soft power run deep. India's is a civilization that, over millennia, has offered refuge and, more importantly, religious and cultural freedom, to Jews, Parsis, several varieties of Christians, and Muslims.
Shashi Tharoor
Related It will be necessary for us Indians Muslims, Christians Jews, Parsis, and 7 all others to whom India... UNKNOWN I like to open for a band as it brings on sort of a challenge and it makes things more interesting. ... KELLY JONES There are people doing yoga in New York, dancing around; that's the power of India. You go to a ... RAHUL GANDHI Civilized people - Muslims, Christians and Jews - all understand that the source of freedom and huma... JOHN ASHCROFT The unique thing about our country is that we have Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Parsis, and p... LAL BAHADUR SHASTRI There is light at the end of the tunnel for India, but it's that of an oncoming train which will... NAVJOT SINGH SIDHU Aditi is a comedy superstar over in India. She's only one of three female English-speaking comed... HASAN MINHAJ India was secular even when Muslims hadn't come here and Christians hadn't set foot on this ... ATAL BIHARI VAJPAYEE India's trade deficit is because of excess of import over exports. A. P. J. ABDUL KALAM I have always been bullish about India's potential. I still am, and I feel India is a country th... RATAN TATA India has long been an exporter of talent to tech companies... But it is India that's now underg... SUNDAR PICHAI Syria is the proud heir of an ancient civilization that has a unique spectrum of minorities that enc... AHMED ZEWAIL I believe in an India of pluralism and diversity, not of religious bigotry and caste politics. I bel... SHASHI THAROOR India is a vibrant nation whose strength lies in its commitment to equal rights and to speech, relig... HENRY PAULSON Apart from being celebrities, there's a huge amount of respect associated with being cricketers ... RAHUL DRAVID Factually, the Temple Mount is the precise location of the Temple. It's the holiest place in the... NAFTALI BENNETT India absorbs things; India's not a divisive place. RAHUL GANDHI The curriculum of the school did not neglect India's cultural, analytical and scientific heritag... AMARTYA SEN God has brought together Jews, Christians and Muslims to this holy land. No human power can change i... MICHEL SABBAH A lot of people say that India has been held back by its democracy. But let's remember that, des... ALEX TABARROK India's great economic boom, the arrival of the Internet and outsourcing, have broken the wall b... ARAVIND ADIGA It is clear that there needs to be a closer working relationship between the United States and India... TULSI GABBARD We look at the number of engineers coming out of India; we look at the growth of the economy, and it... DOUGLAS LEONE More and more do I see that only a successful revolution in India can break England's back forev... AGNES SMEDLEY The destruction of India's village system was the greatest of England's blunders. ANNIE BESANT And also a lot of Muslims are no more religious then the average Swede. For them it's natural th... BJORN ULVAEUS Muslims and Jews have gotten along for centuries, longer that either has gotten along with Christian... MICHAEL BERDINE Are you taking us to the beach?" - Dan Cahill JUDE WATSON Thomas Friedman's 'The World is Flat' sold more copies in India than in the U.K. The mar... PANKAJ MISHRA Patients are becoming aware that they're being taken for a ride by big pharma companies. They ch... YUSUF HAMIED 'Muslim' is not a political party. 'Muslim' is not a single culture. Muslims go to w... MAAJID NAWAZ India has a long tradition of reinterpreting religious myths. AMISH TRIPATHI Saudi Arabia is one of India's most valued strategic partners. SALMAN KHURSHID One of India's biggest advantages is our young demographic and that we have a youthful populatio... VIJAY MALLYA As we consider the shared values of the U.S. and India, due attention to the fundamental human right... TRENT FRANKS Nations need to understand their own strengths and weaknesses, and India's tradition of dissent ... ROSABETH MOSS KANTER It looks ancient," - Amy Cahill JUDE WATSON There are over 200 million illiterate women in India. This low literacy negatively impacts not just ... SACHIN TENDULKAR We got government off the backs of the people of India, particularly off the backs of India's en... MANMOHAN SINGH Indian higher education is completely regulated. It's very difficult to start a private universi... NANDAN NILEKANI 'Charlie Hebdo' had been nondenominational in its satire, sticking its finger into the sensi... GEORGE PACKER India is a land of plenty inhibited by poverty; India has an enthralling, uplifting civilization tha... PRANAB MUKHERJEE We're living in a time when the world has suddenly discovered India because it's run out of ... DEEPAK CHOPRA I will only say that many freedom fighters of India found their calling in the institutions of Brita... NARENDRA MODI God's love doesn't leave out Jews or Muslims or anyone. DYAN CANNON Over the years, the British had strategically pitted the Muslims against the Hindus, supporting the ... PREM KISHORE Six months ago, I traveled to India to see firsthand what the prime minister of that country calls a... ELIZABETH VARGAS Yes, I think India's economy always has been a mixed economy, and by Western standards we are mu... MANMOHAN SINGH Much of the conventional analysis of India's stature in the world relies on the all-too-familiar... SHASHI THAROOR It used to be that almost all innovation came from the U.S. and a small number of other developed co... ALEX TABARROK What's the point of being an Australian guy traveling through India if you are going to go to In... ALFONSO CUARON In today's world, America's soft power is commonly thought to reside in the global popularit... AHMED ZEWAIL In 1991, the government unleashed the power of India and created a partnership between itself and in... KUMAR MANGALAM BIRLA Democratic systems based on the concept of a homogeneous nation such as England are very definitely ... MUHAMMAD ALI JINNAH India can live without nuclear weapons. That's our dream, and it should be the dream of the U.S.... A. P. J. ABDUL KALAM Let no one challenge India's secularism. ATAL BIHARI VAJPAYEE India's rigid social structure limits intergenerational economic mobility and fosters acceptance... STEVEN RATTNER Negative freedom is freedom from - freedom from oppression, whether it's a colonial power or add... OS GUINNESS We've been playing games since humanity had civilization - there is something primal about our d... JANE MCGONIGAL To fix India's healthcare scenario, what is most needed is 'systems thinking.' For far t... KAPIL SIBAL It SMELLS ancient," - Dan Cahill JUDE WATSON Palm trees were fanned by a warm, light breeze, and they rolled down their windows to smell the sea. JUDE WATSON It's estimated that one million girls in India 'disappear' every year. ELIZABETH VARGAS Step by step, brick by brick, the edifice of India's legislature is being destroyed. ARUN JAITLEY Everybody can't have the life of a normal, average American person in India - they can't. So... ARUNDHATI ROY The roots of racism lie deep in man's nature, wounded and bruised by original sin. SARGENT SHRIVER When watching 'The Passion,' Jews and Christians are watching two entirely different films. ... DENNIS PRAGER India introduced Britain to vegetarianism - see Tristram Stuart's excellent first book on this -... NEEL MUKHERJEE In India, I'm always 'Aruna Roy's husband.' BUNKER ROY Adding to your list of enemies is never a sound strategy, yet ISIS' ferocious campaign against t... PETER L. BERGEN I have a high degree of confidence about India's growth potential in IT. SANJAY KUMAR America's answer to the intolerant man is diversity - the very diversity which our heritage of r... ROBERT KENNEDY I think India's policy that the openness of trade should be carried through a multilateral proce... URJIT PATEL Civilization is the order and freedom promoting cultural activity. WILL DURANT Civilization is the order and freedom promoting cultural activity WILL DURANT The evidence of a Jewish civilization going back more than two millennia is overwhelmingly borne out... JACK SCHWARTZ What I find is that we're all human beings and that it's all very similar, what we believe. ... DENNIS QUAID Digital India is about empowering the citizen - it's mobile, it's cloud, it's storage - ... SAFRA A. CATZ In Britain, we have diverse cultural elements that converge in Shakespeare and in India, we find ele... TIM SUPPLE Another way of judging the value of a prophet's religious experience, therefore, would be to exa... MUHAMMAD IQBAL My belief is India's banking industry will continue to grow at two and a half times the GDP grow... CHANDA KOCHHAR Everyone - whether it's the Jews, the Greeks, the Catholics - everybody is entitled to religious... JOHN CATSIMATIDIS Both France and Britain are supportive of India's bid for a broad-based agreement on trade and i... SALMAN KHURSHID Our policy is not to discourage the private sector, but to see that Air India plays the role of flag... VAYALAR RAVI Buttermilk's palate-cleansing tartness is one reason it's used a lot in southern India, wher... YOTAM OTTOLENGHI Ultimately, America's answer to the intolerant man is diversity, the very diversity which our he... ROBERT KENNEDY America's commitment to religious freedom and tolerance should not be conditional. MARK MCKINNON Human civilization has been changing the Earth's environment for millennia, often to our detrime... JAMAIS CASCIO Man is the religious animal. He is the only one that's got true religion, several of them. HAL HOLBROOK People understand what is good for them in the long run. In the long run, what is good for people is... P. CHIDAMBARAM The Jews of India are unique in that they're Indians before they're Jews because their society is so... DAN ZUCKERMAN Muslims and Christians can work together to depose dictators and assert the power of the people. We&... MIROSLAV VOLF For the several thousands of years before they became firefighters and physicians, women were sirens... STACY SCHIFF We have never crossed the Line of Control. It is India that has tried several times to capture our p... SARTAJ AZIZ I'm still a big 'Grey's Anatomy' fan. BROOKE ELLIOTT I used to watch 'Grey's Anatomy' pretty religiously. ERINN HAYES Most modern Indians don't stick to their caste jobs any more. There is more inter-caste marriage... ROSE GEORGE Nature is interested in only two things—to survive and to reproduce one like itself. Anything you ... U.G. KRISHNAMURTI 'Mrs Funnybones' is based and structured around my columns, and it's about how a modern ... TWINKLE KHANNA Do we recognize the platform that Indian cinema has been given? Of course. And typically India of us... AISHWARYA RAI BACHCHAN
More Shashi Tharoor
The closest Indian analogy to the position of black Americans is that of the Dalits - formerly calle... SHASHI THAROOR India shaped my mind, anchored my identity, influenced my beliefs, and made me who I am. ... India m... SHASHI THAROOR India is not, as people keep calling it, an underdeveloped country, but rather, in the context of it... SHASHI THAROOR If China wants to build a new six-lane expressway, it can bulldoze its way past any number of villag... SHASHI THAROOR The United Nations is the preeminent institution of multilateralism. It provides a forum where sover... SHASHI THAROOR The episode of the 'shoe bomber,' Richard Reid, has suddenly meant more feet being bared at ... SHASHI THAROOR How do I pray? Not in any organized form, really; I go to temples sometimes with my family, but they... SHASHI THAROOR The British are the only people in history crass enough to have made revolutionaries out of American... SHASHI THAROOR India's national elections are really an aggregate of thirty different state elections, each inf... SHASHI THAROOR When I grew up in India, telephones were a rarity. In fact, they were so rare that elected members o... SHASHI THAROOR I have been a frequent air traveler since I was a few months shy of my sixth birthday, when my paren... SHASHI THAROOR Among the many international consequences of Barack Obama's stunning victory in the United State... SHASHI THAROOR Education in India has made monumental progress since Independence but continues to face daunting ch... SHASHI THAROOR I believe in an India of pluralism and diversity, not of religious bigotry and caste politics. I bel... SHASHI THAROOR I don't go by my caste, creed or religion. My works speak for me. SHASHI THAROOR The Beijing Olympics were an exercise in Chinese soft power. Americans have the 'Voice of Americ... SHASHI THAROOR The Chinese, as befits a Communist autocracy, approached the task of dominating the Olympics with to... SHASHI THAROOR Malaysians talk with Mauritians, Arabs with Australians, South Africans with Sri Lankans, and Irania... SHASHI THAROOR The notion of 'world leadership' is a curiously archaic one. The very phrase is redolent of ... SHASHI THAROOR We've gone from the image of India as land of fakirs lying on beds of nails, and snake charmers ... SHASHI THAROOR Many of the people who are most considered anti-American would love to partake of the American dream... SHASHI THAROOR Foreigners have a complex set of associations in their minds when they think of America - from Iraq ... SHASHI THAROOR Above all, Danny Boyle's 'Slumdog Millionaire' is the work of an artist at the peak of h... SHASHI THAROOR The steep decline in America's image and standing after 9/11 is a direct reflection of global di... SHASHI THAROOR The Internet is emblematic of an era in which what happens in Southeast Asia or southern Africa - fr... SHASHI THAROOR The U.N. guards the vital principles entrenched in its charter, notably the sovereign equality of st... SHASHI THAROOR Indian democracy has often been likened to the stately progress of the elephant - ponderous in its g... SHASHI THAROOR Going abroad to study as a teenager, and joining the United Nations at 22, confirmed my ease with th... SHASHI THAROOR A U.N. that sees itself as a check on the sole superpower is doomed to fail. We would rather be a ve... SHASHI THAROOR Though the euphoria surrounding Barack Obama's election last week as President-elect has not yet... SHASHI THAROOR I'm not a techno-determinist. I believe we need to improve our existing human resources, and tec... SHASHI THAROOR As an Indian, and now as a politician and a government minister, I've become rather concerned ab... SHASHI THAROOR The casting of 'Slumdog Millionaire' is a dream. Anil Kapoor, as the sleazy TV host, diamond... SHASHI THAROOR Five decades ago, as India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, began visibly ailing, the n... SHASHI THAROOR A witticism in an airport security line is like a Swiss tap - turn it on, and you instantly find you... SHASHI THAROOR Much of the conventional analysis of India's stature in the world relies on the all-too-familiar... SHASHI THAROOR And then, of course, there was the sari itself. What a garment, Randy! There isn’t another outfit ... SHASHI THAROOR Whereas China has set about systematically striving for Olympic success since it re-entered global c... SHASHI THAROOR One of the more difficult questions I used to find myself being asked as a United Nations official, ... SHASHI THAROOR On Gandhi: Don’t ever forget, that we were not lead by a saint with his head in clouds, but by a m... SHASHI THAROOR That means international cooperation to resolve problems without passports, that no one country or o... SHASHI THAROOR The kind of stillness of being nothing, and doing things from that emptiness, make one strong. SHASHI Don’t grieve for desires that are not fulfilled. Sometimes the things that don’t happen keep dis... SHASHI When the living gets unburdened with needs and desires, the life becomes simple and easy to carry. SHASHI The right path is the one where you feel happy within yourself, at ease within yourself. When there ... SHASHI Self-revelation is a cruel process. The real picture, the real you never emerges. Looking for it is ... SHASHI DESHPANDE Self-revelation is a cruel process. The real picture, the real "you" never emerges. Looking for it i... SHASHI DESHPANDE Blossoming flowers are your smiles they are with me though i'm away from you miles SHASHI KIRAN JILLEPALLY A guy with no goal in teenage is like a boat with no compass in the mid ocean SHASHI KIRAN JILLEPALLY There is nothing like we will loose today because we lost yesterday and don't loose today to win tom... SHASHI KIRAN JILLEPALLY