Article by Debalina Ghoshal
Padharo Mhare Des! The tourism tagline of Rajasthan! Atithi Devo Bhava! India’s core belief!
This BRICS Summit, 2026 perfectly blended Rajasthan’s tourism tagline and India’s core belief. Leaders and delegates were warmly greeted in India. The Russian President Vladmir Putin’s fan base in India seemed unbelievable, and he was greeted with warmth and affection by the Indians.
India’s foreign policy approaches are clear on its non alignment and its own constitutional provision that promotes secularism. There was no better way to strengthen this multi lateral diplomacy than to strengthen culinary diplomacy. BRICS is no longer confined to Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. The membership extends to many Islamic countries like Egypt, Iran, Indonesia, and Saudi Arabia.
This means BRICS became an amalgamation of countries with myriad religious beliefs: Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam (Sunni as well as Shia) and Christianity. Each country has its own belief systems, culture and traditions governed by religious dogmas. These cultures and traditions will need to be respected by each country that hosts the BRICS Summit. Culinary diplomacy is one of the most important aspects of global diplomacy in which through a country’s gestures of catering to the needs of the leaders of the countries participating in an event, they create a rapport. For India, this culinary diplomacy doesn’t limit itself to building only rapport but treating each guest as a God.
Thus, a guest must not be made to feel uneasy. Provision of a particular category of culinary delicacies that do not adhere to the principles practised by the state’s religious dogmas could hurt the sentiment of the state participating in the event. Each religion has its own rules to consume specific categories of food necessary for their daily lifestyle or maintain their staple diet. These rules do not necessarily coincide with each other even though the category of food may remain common. Thus, there must be alternatives for strengthening culinary diplomacy to promote multilateral diplomacy that suits the taste of leaders of each country.
India wishes to become a global leader and a voice for the Global South. There are two ways to become a global leader. One is by the means of usurping power from another country, and the other is to empathetically move towards progress, taking into consideration the needs and belief systems of each country. Only when India takes into consideration the belief system of each country and respects their culture and traditions could she rightly manage to become the voice for them.
This BRICS Summit taught the valuable lesson that catering to individual culinary beliefs may not become a viable option in an international forum where myriad belief systems exist. However, respecting their culture and religious practices could be made possible through the implementation of alternative culinary systems that not only enable India to strengthen diplomacy but also promote its own culinary culture.
India, as a nation itself, does not follow the same practices to consume certain food products, and hence, catering to the needs of both India and global participants could become challenging in such circumstances. Thus, alternatives that promote India’s rich culinary culture are adopted.
‘Atithi Devo Bhava’ means Guest is our God, and therefore, we must also treat them like one. Offering food that may negatively intervene with their religious practises contradicts our own belief of ‘Guest is our God’. Thus, BRICS Summit played its culinary diplomacy cards very safely and prudently without intervening with religious practices of any country.
India’s focus should be on building economic partnerships but with a humane approach. Culinary diplomacy forms a vital component of that humane approach where a country is able to cater to the culinary needs of a leader and its delegates.
For instance, India’s relation with Indonesia is burgeoning, and its relation with Russia is ‘all time weather friend’. Both countries are important at the moment for India’s geostrategic goals. In 2026, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi signed a major defence agreement with Indonesia to acquire BrahMos super-sonic cruise missiles and Astra beyond visual range air-to-air missile. India already possesses Russian S-400 Triumf air defence systems, while major defence deals for the future are also on the cards. Saudi Arabia, India is not only engaged in oil partnerships but also in military exercise, which includes the Sada Tanseeq. India has also transformed its ties with the United Arab Emirates, who has proved as a trustworthy friend for New Delhi into the Strategic Defence Partnership Framework, which was officially signed in 2026. Therefore, each of the country’s culinary practices must be respected.
We get to view glimpses of culinary diplomacy in French-China bilateral relations, which helped to foster goodwill between the countries. The French President Emmanuel Macron’s food diplomacy managed to severe existing differences between the two countries, and both have, since then, worked towards improving bilateral ties. In 2018, the then US President Donald Trump during the Singapore Summit to discuss denuclearisation and possible ways to ease military escalations, engaged in culinary diplomacy by blending dishes from Western as well as Asian region including Korean dishes.
Each country has leadership with different food habits, even though the main food component may be the same. India must respect that and provide alternatives. This BRICS Summit bridged that gap by providing alternative delicacies of India that equally needed praise and appreciation. In fact, India’s choice of culinary dishes in the BRICS Summit must lead the country for a permanent membership to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) for valuing the core belief system of each country and not imposing food habits that hurt their religious sentiments. In the movie Bahubali: The Beginning, Rajamata Sivagami Devi chose his stepson as king of Mahashmati Kingdom over his own son because the former executed leadership qualities by keeping emotions and righteousness in mind.
Yet again, India is vying for a permanent seat in the UNSC, and so it must value the core beliefs of the United Nations. The year 2023 was declared by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) as ‘International Year of Millets’. It was thus befitting that India promoted its millet diet habits in the global stage. This is because traditional and non-traditional security, including food security, complements each other, and the recent crisis in West Asia stands as a testimony to that.
Conclusion
India’s decision to adhere to its core belief of ‘secularism’ ingrained in its Constitution and reflected in the BRICS Summit through its culinary diplomacy decisions reflected India’s readiness to take on the global stage as a global leader, but with empathy and goodwill.
