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Contents: Foreword/Arvind Gupta. Introduction/Arpita Mitra. 1. Indian Philosophical Heritage for Humanity/Shashi Prabha Kumar. 2. Buddhist Remains in Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzistan and Kazakhstan/Dilip K. Chakrabarti. 3. Nature and Purpose of Scientific Knowledge: The Indian and Greco-European Perspectives/M.D. Srinivas. 4. Indian Grammatical Theories from a Computational Perspective/Amba Kulkarni. 5. India’s Heritage of Religious Pluralism/Jeffery D. Long. 6. Swami Vivekananda’s Universal Religion: A Futuristic Faith-System Free of Time and Place/Swami Narasimhananda. 7. The Kural and Ethics/Pradeep K. Gautam. 8. Can Dharma and Business be Coterminous?/Gunjan Pradhan Sinha. 9. Special Session on Hindu Studies Abroad: Problems and Prospects/Inputs from Arvind Sharma, Jeffery Long, Basant Gupta and Swami Narasimhananda. Index.

The Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF) has nurtured deliberations on the concept of 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam' and its strategic relevance for the world today since 2019. The present volume is the outcome of the second international conference on the subject organized by the VIF in 2020. The concept of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam was the culmination point in a culture—a culture that discovered the truth of the oneness of Existence, nurtured it and took it to its logical conclusion in the concept and practice of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam. In this volume, Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam and similar ideational resources are being highlighted as India's soft power assets. Soft power is the ability of a country to influence other countries and obtain preferred outcomes by attraction and persuasion rather than by coercion or payment. The objective of the volume is to identify such resources and to discuss how to leverage them for a successful soft power exercise on the part of India. It contains chapters by eminent experts on a variety of matters ranging from India's philosophical heritage, Indian influence on art and architecture of Asia, Indian perspective on the nature and purpose of scientific knowledge, and Indian grammatical system to India’s heritage of religious pluralism, Swami Vivekananda's concept of universal religion, ethics as found in the Kural, and Dharma and business. A special feature of the volume is the summary of the deliberations of a special session on the problems and prospects of Hindu studies abroad. When we talk of soft power, we essentially talk about the perception of other countries about India; thus, the perception of the dominant religion of India, Hinduism, which also has a significant diasporic presence, becomes all the more crucial. The book will be of interest to diplomats, policymakers, scholars and students of history, international politics, Indian knowledge systems, foreign policy and diplomacy.