Beyond Politics, A Poetic Diplomacy to Promote US-India Friendship

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Mumtaz Alam, IndiaTomorrow.net,
New Delhi, Sep 20: What will be your first reaction when you see US diplomats in Delhi reciting Hindi and Urdu couplets in a poet’s style? Broad smile on your face and warmth in the heart. This is exactly what they want – strong people-to-people contact through cultural engagements, far away from political engagements at government levels. And the initiative of the US Embassy in India’s capital with the hash tag of #USIndiaDosti is winning hearts – of tens of thousands.

The embassy is celebrating Indian culture and life this month of September. To showcase how the diplomats themselves enjoy the Indian culture, they have come out with a poetic idea.


A US diplomat in Delhi reciting Urdu poetry

In the last two weeks, the embassy has released some short videos wherein diplomats are reciting Hindi poem as well as Urdu couplets of great poets Ghalib and Dagh. In one video, another diplomat is reciting Punjabi poetry.

Most of the US diplomats here are able to speak at least one or other Indian language. Most of them can speak Hindi but there are some who can also speak Urdu and Punjabi.

The embassy has posted on its official social media handles three short videos of poetry in as many languages. Together, they have got around one lakh views.

The Hindi clip has got 33k Views, 2.7k likes, 328 shares but the Urdu video has got more views — 39k views – but less likes and shares — 1.5k likes, 182 shares. The Punjabi poetry video has got 21k views, 1.4 k likes and 158 shares.

The embassy is happy with the success of the initiative. The huge number of likes and shares shows it is connecting with the Indian audience at some level.

“With our #USIndiaDosti initiative, we want to showcase the appreciation, fascination, and respect our U.S. diplomatic community has for Indian culture, traditions, and languages. It is our people-to-people ties which serve as the bedrock of the U.S.-India relationship and that is expressed through our mutual respect and appreciation for each other’s culture and traditions,” said Ms. Gouri Seetharam, Assistant Information Officer, US Embassy in New Delhi.

Besides poetry videos shot indoor, the diplomats are also venturing out in the city to converse with common people.

Recently, a team of US diplomats made a tour around the Walled City or Old Delhi and visited various religious places there including Gurudwara and Jama Masjid. Another team, riding Royal Enfield bullets, visited Ludhiana in Punjab, stopping at tea stalls, eating gol-gappas and chatting with commoners.

This all is called public diplomacy, which has nothing to do with politics.

Bilateral relations between two countries work at different levels. There is one, which is the highest level, where the governments and politicians interact. But the public diplomacy works at people-to-people level.

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