India-South Korea Relationship: A new era of people-to-people interaction

TThe Miracle on the Han river, south Korea’s tremendous rise from being one of the poorest countries in the world during the 1950s now to one of the richest and self- claimed developed country. Making them the leader in manufacturing and technological Innovations. Moreover, the Hallyu wave reached its epitome with movies and series like parasite and squid game. Global sensation K-pop bands like BTS, Blackpink, Exo, etc. bore fruits with international recognization. Korea’s global cultural dominance and influence have also spread to India, a country with 1.42 billion population.

Though India and Korea share a strategic partnership for the past 5 decades, it is worth mentioning our historical ties are beyond this history. The first mention of our relationship comes from Samguk Yusa (Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms). which talks about the marriage of the Princess of Ayodhya, Suriratna, or Heo Hwang- ok with King Kim Suro. Later on, The spread of Buddhism from India to Korea reaffirms the interaction and foundation of friendship and acceptance of each other.

However, in recent years both countries’ synergies started to get more in sync. With more interaction between heads of the states, Strengthening of CEPA among the countries, and Korean companies opening their branches in India (one recent example is Samsung).

Moving beyond the economic gains, its people-to-people interaction (one of the main pillars of act east policy-India, new southern policy-Korea ) that intact and paved the way for a long stable relationship between the countries.

There is a growing demand for Korean culture in India as the Korean Hallyu wave found its way through K-pop, K-dramas, and K-cosmetics. Songs of bands like BTS and Blackpink are on the tip of the tongues of children. Actors like lee min ho, song Joong ki, and song hey kyo have become household names. This also led to a huge demand for Korean fashion. Lastly, the list will go on if I start to mention the names of popular Korean dramas in India. Korean stores like BECCOS, and INNISFREE have become common on the streets of India.

Korean cuisine especially ramen, kimchi, and Korean martial arts taekwondo similarly become popular. Lastly with the assistance of the Korean culture center in India, Korean has become the fastest-growing and most preferred language to learn. Many Indians now started to see Korea as a new destination to go for higher education. ( I am an example of this phenomenon).

It’s not one-sided only. Indian cultural center in Korea provides an important base for Koreans to experience and interact with Indian culture. Such as Gandhi Jayanti, yoga, Hindi, Bollywood dance, and movies. Most recently was the Sarang festival where artists from India were invited to perform classical music and dance. This festival also witnessed a fusion between Indian and Korean artists. Many Indian restaurants have popped up all over Korea, a step closer to experience Indian culture authentically.

We can see a lot of times the mention of India in popular Korean dramas like Ali a well-received character in squid game portrayed by actor Anupam Tripathi, an Indian. Ongoing show Gaus Electronics shows an important character as an Indian. We often see Indian food especially butter chicken and naan in Korean dramas. Further who can forget often uses the songs tunak tunak tun (by Dilhar Mehandi) and Zubi Dubi Du (music from the Indian film 3 idiots) as BGM in several variety shows, for example running man. In the education sector too often many Koreans prefer to study in India to learn and develop English skills at a cheap cost as compared USA or Europe. For example in my school too there were many Korean students.

Between Indian and Koreans, economic and cultural exchanges are increasing. Such interactions are helping Indians and Koreans to form a common ground and to develop a strong bond. Finally, as South Korea-India will celebrate the year 2023 as the 50th anniversary of Korea-India Diplomatic Relations and India will host the G-20 next year (Korea being a member of it) this will all lead to the definite conclusion, that people-to-people tie will drive further closeness among both of the countries.