Beyond Borders, Onto Podiums: How the Sports Passport Can Weaponise India’s Global Soft Power

• The Sports Passport is not just a pamphlet but a nuanced instrument of engagement with a diaspora, a direct provocation of a centuries-old framework of Westphalian sovereignty in sports, and an indispensable medium of sports diplomacy in India.
• As a result, there has been a wellspring of world-class athletic talent given a sound footing in the elite sporting systems of Western nations, but essentially locked out of the process of taking Indian Sports to new heights.
• This ‘Sports Passport’ empowers an OCI/PIO athlete to represent the country of origin, India, in international competitions without losing their passport of the country where they were born.
• This policy is changing the definition of ‘diaspora’ from a ‘financial remittance’ to an ‘active player’ in India’s ‘national branding’ and soft power projection.

Against the geopolitical backdrop of the 21st century, the traditional standards for measuring a country’s global standing, which rely solely on economic size and military projection power, have become obsolete. Soft power, the ability to attract and persuade others through culture, values, and sports strength, has emerged as a core component of contemporary statecraft. For India, which is striving to secure the status of a leading global power, its international sports performance remains an important yet underdeveloped frontier of soft power.

Despite a population of more than 1.4 billion and several highly successful global sports diasporas, India has until now had a smaller presence in major multi-sport events such as the Olympics and in globally resonant sports such as football than its geopolitical weight would suggest.

To address the structural imbalance, the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports has proposed a long-term policy for the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and the Ministry of Home Affairs: a “Sports Passport” scheme. As a targeted programmatic effort, this proposal aims to enable OCI and PIO athletes, who meet specified eligibility criteria, to participate in competitive events hosted by the Government of India without being granted Absolute Legal Citizenship. In the context of international relations and sports policy, the Sports Passport is not just a pamphlet but a nuanced instrument of engagement with a diaspora, a direct provocation of a centuries-old framework of Westphalian sovereignty in sports, and an indispensable medium of sports diplomacy in India.

The 2008 Regulation: A legacy of restrictive sovereignty.

The Sports Passport is a revolutionary product, and it’s easy to see why if you look at the obstacles to that revolution posed by the law. Its origins lie in the Citizenship Act, 1955, which laid out the rigid anti-dual citizenship policy. In the realm of sports, this statutory rigidity was heavily reinforced by a landmark 2008 Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports notification (No. F. 45-5/2008). This clearly states that people must possess an Indian passport and be of Indian citizenship to represent India in international sports.

Here is the conversion of that structural flowchart into a clean, professional, and easily readable comparative table suitable for a policy document:

Chronological Policy Evolution and Resulting Structural Barriers

Before this, India had a more liberal policy on both OCI and PIO, which meant that citizens of the Indian diaspora were allowed to compete in their nation’s uniforms. Notable examples include:

• Prakash Amritraj and Shikha Uberoi, international players in tennis and the Davis Cup and Fed Cup, respectively, added a competitive atmosphere to the domestic ecosystem.

• Karm Kumar: A good squash player who played regularly for the Indian Sports Association.

These paths came to a sudden stop in 2008 with the issuance of a new directive. It offered diaspora athletes a difficult choice of either surrendering their foreign passports, which enabled them to live, work and train in the West, or giving them up completely in exchange for an Indian passport.

The small number of athletes who made the sacrifice, as the Japanese-Indian footballer Izumi Arata did in 2012, were exceptions, as the financial and personal burden of renunciation would, for most professional diaspora athletes, have been insurmountable. As a result, there has been a wellspring of world-class athletic talent given a sound footing in the elite sporting systems of Western nations, but essentially locked out of the process of taking Indian Sports to new heights.

Tapping the Diaspora: The Catalyst for Reform

It has been a combination of both a sense of necessity and phenomenal global reach that has fuelled the Sports Passport. India’s endeavour to host the Olympic Games in 2036 and to mark itself as the ultimate multi-sports superpower has brought the focus heavily on the difference in performances between the home side and the international sporting giants.

This separation is nowhere more apparent than in football. The All India Football Federation (AIFF), led by President Kalyan Chaubey, has been under immense stress to turn around the fortunes of the national side. India has had to deal with the fact that its strict citizenship laws have made it difficult to recruit highly skilled players from other countries of Indian origin, whereas its neighbours have been swift to improve by relying on their diasporas worldwide.

Footballers like Yan Dhanda (midfielder for the Scottish Premiership team as well as Liverpool’s academy) are prohibited from taking to the pitch for India under prevailing internal regulations despite being a part of a foreign club, the AIFF’s task force said. The Sports Ministry’s thinking is changing from pure territorial to globalised definitions of talent, as it is now considering the diaspora in its policy.

Legislative Innovation: the case of the “Sports Passport” Framework

The proposed Sports Passport is a pragmatic hybrid legal system. It has bypassed the fragile and very secure field of ‘dual citizenship’, which India does not allow because of the complicated regional security scenario, and established a separate, sports-specific status.

Comparative Framework of Nationality vs. Athletic Status

This ‘Sports Passport’ empowers an OCI/PIO athlete to represent the country of origin, India, in international competitions without losing his passport of the country where he was born. This is a high-quality compromise in policy, encompassing an increase in the Indian athletic talent pool at no cost at the time; however, at no expense to the guiding principles of the Citizenship Act of 1955.

The Geopolitical and Institutional Gauntlet navigated

Our internal understanding of what’s generally agreed in the Sports Ministry and sports federations is clear, but the approval that needs to be finalised is both domestic and international and therefore a complex topic to thread through.

1. Domestic Sovereign Approval

The proposal is now under consideration by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). The next step is a balancing test between the immediate benefits of athletic performance and the long-established legal principles of nationality and national security.

2. Governing Body Alignment International

Despite New Delhi’s permission, the country will have to make sure that the new system is exclusive to the regulations set by international bodies such as FIFA or the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Under the FIFA Statutes (Article 7), an athlete is able to play for an association if he/she meets nationality requirements (the player must hold the same nationality as the association and must have a parent or grandparent born in the area/region of the association).

International institutions, however, subject such instruments closely to the test to make sure they are not “passports of convenience. To ensure diaspora athletes are properly cleared to play in the World Cup or Olympic qualifying in India without fear of disqualification, the Sports Passport must be a genuine ‘certification’ of their identity which is backed by the state and formally recognised.

The geopolitical implications: soft power/diaspora diplomacy

The Sports Passport is a new approach used as a diaspora diplomacy instrument from an international relations perspective. India is one of the world’s most vast and wealthy immigrant communities. The presence of foreign athletes in New Delhi provides a concrete opportunity for representing one’s original country, which further fosters an emotional and cultural tie between people from overseas and the Indian state. This policy is changing the definition of ‘diaspora’ from a ‘financial remittance’ to an ‘active player’ in India’s ‘national branding’ and soft power projection.

In addition, sport is a broadly visible measure of a country’s ability. The narratives through football or the Olympic Games influence perceptions across the world, and they will demonstrate a country’s modernity, organisation and international competitiveness. India should tap into its own talent pool as well as foreign talent to fast-track its path to a sports powerhouse and have its feats soon resonate with its lofty international standing.

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Parag Gilada

Parag Gilada is a Mukherjee Fellow who has recently graduated from the Jindal School of International Affairs with a keen interest in Sports Diplomacy. Views expressed are the author’s own.