Reflecting on his homeland, Tharoor observes: “So India is no longer the nationalism of ethnicity or language or religion, because we have every ethnicity known to mankind… We don’t even have geography uniting us, because the natural geography of the subcontinent framed by the mountains and the sea was hacked by the partition with Pakistan in 1947… The great success story of India, a country that so many learned scholars and journalists assumed would disintegrate…is that it managed to maintain consensus on how to survive without consensus.” What unites the citizens of your country? Is it ethnicity, language, religion, or something else? Explore nationalism by polling or interviewing community members to see what they identify as the ties that bind your country together. Do you think people would have given the same answers 50 or 100 years ago? Do you think the answers will be the same 50 years from now?India’s abundance of soft power has often been compared with China’s lack of it. Why has soft power proven so problematic for China, and what is the Chinese government doing about it? Are there lessons that China could learn from India, or are the nations too different? Imagine a conversation between the China’s Premiere and India’s Prime Minister on this topic. Some good sources to explore include:Business Week: India’s edge over China: Soft power (06/17/2010) http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/jun2010/gb20100617_150774.htmThe Washington Post: China’s repression undoes its charm offensive (03/25/2011) http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/chinas-repression-undoes-its-charm-offensive/2011/03/24/AFdlxRYB_story.htmlThe New York Times: Why China is weak on soft power (01/17/2012) http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/18/opinion/why-china-is-weak-on-soft-power.html?_r=1The Hindu: Let India unleash its soft power (02/03/2012) http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/article2854513.eceYale Global Online: China: How to translate hard power at home to soft power abroad (02/08/2012) http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/china-soft-power-abroadCNN: China works hard to project soft power (03/30/2012) http://articles.cnn.com/2012-03-30/asia/world_asia_florcruz-china-soft-power_1_china-s-soft-power-china-brand-china-works?_s=PM:ASIATED: Joseph Nye on global power shifts http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/joseph_nye_on_global_power_shifts.htmlForeign Policy: The war on soft power (04/12/2011) http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/04/12/the_war_on_soft_power?page=0,0Research Institute for European and American Studies: Being Hard on Soft Power http://www.rieas.gr/research-areas/global-issues/transatlantic-studies/1519-being-hard-on-soft-power-.html