Can people-to-people initiatives offset the growing heterogeneity of an expanded BRICS? Critically analyse.

BRICS now has 11 members, including Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Indonesia, plus 10 partner countries, and together they account for 49.5% of the world's population [1]. This growth has widened the gaps between members' political systems and strategic goals. People-to-people (P2P) initiatives can soften these differences, but they cannot settle them on their own.

Nature of the heterogeneity

• Political: democracies, monarchies and theocratic systems sit at one table, and members disagree on whether BRICS should be non-Western or anti-Western.
• Strategic: rivalries inside the group, such as India–China and Iran–Gulf monarchies, make consensus harder.
• Uneven commitment: the 2026 Culture Ministers' Meeting in Bhopal drew 10 of the 11 members and four partners [3].

How P2P initiatives can help

• Engagement in a less contested area: the BRICS Traditional and Indigenous Sports Demonstration Games (Ahmedabad, 2026) bring 11 member and partner countries together in a non-competitive format built around cultural exchange [2].
• Formal frameworks: the Bhopal Declaration promotes exchanges between artists and creative industries, and India has piloted a Voluntary Artist Registry [3].
• Shared heritage as a bridge: Gorodki is listed for both Russia and Belarus [2]. The Bhopal Declaration backs multinational UNESCO nominations [3]. North and South Korea's joint Ssireum inscription shows that shared heritage can bring even adversaries together [4].
• A sports track: traditional sports were made a focus area at the Visakhapatnam Sports Ministers' Meeting [5].

Limitations

• Cultural ties do not fix security disputes: cultural festivals do not resolve border disputes or rivalries in the Gulf.
• Episodic and state-curated: the Ahmedabad event lasts one day and is not described as a recurring series [2]. Countries also tend to send their prestige forms (India sent Yogasana, Mallakhamb and Kalaripayattu), which turns heritage exchange into national branding [2].
• Disputed ownership: Iran showcases Zoorkhaneh [2], while Azerbaijan separately inscribed its own zorkhana tradition with UNESCO [6]. Labelling heritage by country can create rivalry instead of a sense of shared identity.

P2P initiatives make disagreement less costly by building trust among societies. They act as a shock absorber, but they are not a substitute for political convergence. To make them last, BRICS needs a recurring calendar of exchanges, an open digital archive of the documentation produced at such events, joint UNESCO nominations and youth exchanges. Combined with India's preference for issue-based, multi-aligned cooperation, these steps can help an expanded BRICS hold together in the spirit of SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals).