A makeshift structure being built on the South Lawn of the White House in preparation for Manmohan Singh’s visit. (Reuters)

Washington, Nov. 22: If it was the announcement of the nuclear deal in the White House that electrified the relationship between India and America in 2005, four years later, polo, education and the arts are transforming the Indo-US strategic partnership into a people-to-people relationship.

The change is reminiscent of the Mera Naam Joker era in another of India’s people-to-people relationships when visits by Russian circuses to Indian cities and the export of Indian films to the USSR gave Indo-Soviet relations an enduring character.

Some six months after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who reached America today, and President Barack Obama attempt to revitalise the bilateral relations between their two countries on Tuesday, the US and India will confront each other on the polo field in Washington for the very first time on June 11 and 12 next year.

For Calcutta and the Northeast, it will be a very special moment as Americans are reminded that the Calcutta Polo Club is the world's oldest polo club and that polo originated in Manipur as a local game called Sagol Kangjei.

In 2011, an American polo team will make a return visit to India for a rematch to consolidate the people-to-people link to be established in June next year.

If plans now in the making fructify, A.R. Rahman will entertain the audience on Washington's National Mall, at the foot of the Capitol, during the first Indo-US polo match along with Pussy Cat Dolls, an American pop girl group and dance ensemble from Los Angeles in a curious mix of cultures.

Lest anyone should think that polo is a frivolous addition to a solid bilateral agenda charted by a prime minister and a president, the Americans take polo seriously enough to make it a part of their diplomatic tradition.

The patron of Washington's international polo tradition is none other than a former US president, Warren Harding, who gave his presidential seal of approval for it for the first time in 1923.

In addition to the popular content of the "India vs. USA America's Polo Cup World Championships", the Americans are also looking at the match with India as a new way to deepen their engagement with India's defence establishment.

The polo team coming here from India will have a big defence component.

The US Air Force will put up an air show over the polo grounds on the National Mall to mark the anniversary of the World War II Battle of the Coral Seas between the Japanese and the Allied navies.

The US Army, Navy, the Coast Guard and the Marines will be represented at the event. India's ambassador to the US, Meera Shankar, has already agreed to be the honorary patron of the occasion.

To test the waters and to provide a foretaste of what is to come next year, the US polo team played against the Indian-American polo team here two months ago in a match-cum-entertainment event here that drew thousands of polo fans and spectators.

Even as preparations for introducing polo into Indo-US equations are under way, the Smithsonian Institution has been exposing ordinary Americans to India's rich artistic and cultural legacy.

At the Smithsonian's Freer Gallery of Art and at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, a two-year celebration of the arts and culture of India is already under way.

An exhibition of one of the world's greatest collections of 17th-century Mughal empire album paintings has already taken place under the theme of "Muraqqa: Imperial Mughal Albums from the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin."

Another exhibition "Garden and Cosmos: The Royal Paintings of Jodhpur" has also been held here. Smithsonian museums are open free to the public and, therefore, they offer the best way to expose Americans to India's artistic riches.

The Americans typically are using these events raise funds for their galleries as well, organising special events at a different level for those who can afford to pay -- and pay big.

For one fund-raising dinner which attracted over 200 guests, Gaj Singh II, the Maharaja of Marwar-Jodhpur, was the chief guest. Those who attended the black-tie dinner paid a minimum of $1,500 per plate.

Meanwhile, the US assistant secretary of state for South Asia, Robert Blake, told reporters here last week that "we passed a very important milestone this year in that for the first time, more than 100,000 Indian students are studying in the US.

"They are the most numerous of all foreign student groupings in the US. And they play an extremely important role in bridging our two societies, and increasingly those students are taking what they learn in the US" back to India.

Singh and Obama plan to unveil a new initiative on education on Tuesday, which will institutionalise academic exchanges between their countries and streamline the presence of Indian students in the US much like Indian boys and girls became a large presence in Moscow's Patrice Lumumba Peoples' Friendship University and other educational institutions in the USSR.

Obama is expected to visit India next year. When Bill Clinton addressed a joint session of parliament in New Delhi in 2000, even CPM members of the Lok Sabha from Kerala were bowled over that they fell over each other to shake Clinton's hand.

Obama, naturally, would like to outdo his predecessor. Those making Obama's travel plans, researching details much in advance, will at some point come across the historic visit to India by Soviet leaders Nikita Khrushchev and Nikolai Bulganin in November 1955.

The two men drew a crowd of over one million people in Calcutta. Obama, who reaches for the moon, may be hoping to match that crowd by fostering people-to-people relations with India.