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About IiT

India in Transition (IiT), allows scholars from all over the world, the opportunity to exchange various analyses and innovative ideas about India's current status and growth.

IiT presents brief, analytical perspectives on the ongoing transformations in contemporary India based on cutting-edge research in the areas of economy, environment, foreign policy and security, human capital, science and technology, and society and culture. A Hindi, Bangla, and Tamil translation accompanies each published article.

In addition to appearing on CASI's website, IiT articles are published in India-based outlets Scroll.in, The Hindu: Business Line, and Amar Ujala. Past issues have appeared in the op-ed pages of the Indian newspapers Hindustan and Livemint. All viewpoints, positions, and conclusions expressed in IiT are solely those of the author(s) and not specifically those of CASI.

From Raj Kapoor to Aamir Khan: Understanding Bollywood Stars as Cultural Diplomats

Swapnil Rai

January 20, 2025

As the COVID-19 pandemic raged on in 2021, at a time when India was suffering its highest number of daily deaths, and ties between India and China had frayed due to clashes over the disputed border, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) posted a picture on its Weibo account mocking funeral pyres in India, juxtaposing them against an image of a recent Chinese rocket launch. The caption read: “Lighting a fire in China vs. lighting a fire in India” (see Figure 1).