Since assuming oce in May 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has paid special attention to developing and promoting India's soft power. After considerable focus on emigrants, intellectuals, and yogis, Modi has set his eyes on Buddhism. In involving religion with foreign policy, the Indian prime minister's intrepid zeal is easily discernable, especially as independent India has not been known to give overt emphasis on religion in the conduct of its foreign policy.

Though Modi's administration would like to stress that India's indulgence in Buddhism is not a religious exercise but a cultural one, the prime minister has in fact taken an audacious approach in linking Buddhism and Hinduism. While attempting to build on India's soft power and providing an impetus to his government's Look East, Act East policy through the promotion of Buddhism, Modi is not ignoring the larger Hindu focused Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) agenda but aligning it with his pursuit. While Modi's engagement with Buddhism cannot be called merely a cultural enterprise, it is not excessively immersed in religion, either. Modi's Buddhist initiative can best be described as an amalgamation of cultural and faith-based diplomacy.

Modi has enunciated India's Buddhist heritage and Hindu disposition in the same breath. In September 2015, for instance, at a conference called 'Samvad: Hindu-Buddhist Initiative on Conict Avoidance and Environment Consciousness', Modi emphasised that his government was doing everything possible to give an impetus to this Buddhist heritage across India, 3 and India is taking the lead in boosting the Buddhist heritage across Asia. At the same time, he sought to call attention to the similarities between the traditional philosophies of Hinduism and Buddhism. A thought he echoed at Bodh Gaya a day after the conference, though this time arguing that Hindu philosophy was a beneciary of the advent and the teachings of Lord Buddha, and enlightenment which Buddha attained in Bodh Gaya lit the 4 light of enlightenment in Hinduism.

The prime minister has also taken his Buddhist agenda beyond India's borders. During his May 2015 visit to China, Mongolia and South Korea, Modi's agenda was about more than enhancing political and economic ties. Rather, with that visit, Modi sought to draw on India's rich Buddhist heritage and connect with the three Asian countries along the thread of such common bond. Besides the three Asian countries, Modi has also used Buddhism to connect with Japan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bhutan.

As India is where the Buddha achieved enlightenment, delivered his rst sermon, and died, the country has an undeniable command of importance among the followers of the religion. China, too, in the last few decades has harped on its Buddhist heritage to connect with surrounding Buddhist countries. Being home to the largest Buddhist population in the world and having huge investments in the neighbourhood, China's prominence is certainly rising in countries with Buddhist populations. Nonetheless, given China's domestic constraints it is certain to face challenges in employing Buddhism as soft power; India, on the other hand, can reap quick rewards by ending its prolonged neglect of its Buddhist heritage and recognising its advantages even as it hurdles various limitations.

This paper seeks to explain cultural diplomacy and the relatively recent growth of faith-based diplomacy. It examines India's Buddhist diplomacy, describing as well China's attempts to enhance its own brand. The essay concludes with an assessment of the challenges being faced by the Indian prime minister in boosting the country's soft power and Asia policy through Buddhism.