U.K. and India can be exemplars of how you can use culture to bring people closer together: U.K. Culture Secretary

India and the UK aim to lead global cultural collaborations, uniting people and celebrating shared heritage.

India and the United Kingdom can be the world’s “exemplars” of using cultural collaborations to transcend national boundaries and bring people together, U.K. Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Lisa Nandy, said on Saturday (May 3, 2025).

On Friday (May 2, 2025), India and the United Kingdom signed a new bilateral Cultural Cooperation Agreement. This pact is expected to facilitate increased U.K. creative exports to India and enable more partnerships between British and Indian museums and cultural institutions.

The U.K. Culture Secretary remarked on Saturday that the agreement serves as a “signal of intent” and marks “the beginning of the next chapter” in the relationship, anticipating further collaborations.

Observing that Prime Minister Narendra Modi aims to use India’s significant cultural heritage to unite people globally, Ms. Nandy noted this aligns closely with the message from U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

In an interview with The Hindu, Ms. Nandy, who is on a three-day visit to India, stated that while cultural collaboration between the two countries is economically important, its greater significance lies elsewhere. “We feel that at a time when the world feels very divided, [the] U.K. and India can be real exemplars of how you can use culture to bring people much closer together,” she said.

“That is why David Lammy [U.K. Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs], Jonathan Reynolds [U.K. Secretary of State for Business and Trade], Rachel Reeves [U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer (Finance Minister)] and myself, we have all been to India recently,” she explained. “Because India is one of our most important partners, nowhere more so than in culture.”

Ms. Nandy stressed the importance of acknowledging India’s influence on modern Britain, which she feels is often overlooked compared to Britain’s impact on India. “Even the Beatles, which was a quintessentially British band, was profoundly influenced by the sounds of Indian music,” she pointed out. “Without which we would not have the vibrancy across our music industry.”