The Cruciality of Narrative Building

A narrative can be defined as a story that a country or organization narrates on the basis of how they want a situation to be perceived by the world. The topic has gained momentum in the 21st century due to the relative ease of spreading information around the world through means such as social media. The methodology applied by countries for building narratives ranges from influencing newspapers to the entertainment industry. The importance of narrative building cannot be downplayed because of its potential aid in geopolitics. The power of narrative building has helped countries in the past carry out their desired objectives with ease and can help India do the same.

Countries have used narrative building in the past to carry out their objectives. Justification of the invasion of other countries was influenced by narrative building. For example, The USA and its allies started an information campaign against Iraq, stating they possessed WMDs (Weapons of Mass Destruction). They successfully convinced the UNSC regarding the same and launched an invasion into the country. However, WMDs were not found in Iraq after the coalition troops took over the country. This means that the narrative of a false event was successfully built and used to justify an invasion of Iraq. Narratives assist in defaming the opponent of a country. Entertainment industries, which are widely consumed by many people, are also used for the same. To illustrate, various action video games portray the “enemy” that has to be fought with, from certain nationalities. As a result, the minds of people using their products are negatively affected by the nationality that is described as the enemy. The home country of the company producing such entertainment products is generally the country towards which the narrative is positively favored and indirectly helps in creating a narrative about other countries. The bias against another country that is pre-built through the narrative from entertainment sources helps in gaining the approval of local citizens for geopolitical decision that is made by the government.

India can achieve its geopolitical objectives with ease if narrative building is given more importance. Currently, India’s narrative building is not as powerful when compared with its adversaries. An example could be how various countries and organizations successfully spread wrong information on how India conducts and supports genocide against particular communities on a large scale. The reality is that no genocide against particular communities are taking place in the country. However, many international media platforms are implying the opposite. If India works on this and promotes the true narrative worldwide, then India would not have to spend a lot of time and resources on convincing the counter-narrative to the world when India makes a geopolitical decision.