From Virasat to Vikas: The two sides of India’s civilisational rebound
Prasenjit K. Basu’s India Reborn: The Epic Story of a Civilisation’s Rebound from Two Centuries of Decline is an important book with a clear purpose. It refuses to treat India’s…
India’s civilizational inheritance is not merely a repository of ideas but a living continuum expressed through its arts, architecture, literature, sacred geographies, knowledge traditions, and social practices. As India’s global presence expands, reclaiming cultural self-confidence and integrating this vast heritage into contemporary national thinking becomes essential to articulating a worldview rooted in continuity rather than colonial reference points. The TIF Indian Heritage initiative studies how India’s cultural expressions, historical experiences, and knowledge systems can inform a confident model of national identity and development in the 21st century.
The Indian Heritage initiative undertakes interdisciplinary research across classical texts, artistic traditions, languages, monuments, pilgrimage networks, folklore, and indigenous knowledge systems to derive practical insights for education, cultural policy, tourism, environmental stewardship, and community life. We analyze how heritage preservation, curriculum design, cultural industries, and civilizational diplomacy can reinforce India’s intellectual and cultural sovereignty. TIF advances a culturally anchored yet future-oriented understanding of Bharat as a living civilization whose heritage strengthens its path toward global leadership.
Netaji’ Subhas Chandra Bose’s ‘parakram’ must guide Bharat’s path to progress
On Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s birth anniversary, the nation pays tribute to his courage, sacrifice, and unyielding passion for freedom. From a young age, Netaji displayed rare moral intensity —…
Harnessing technology to strengthen democracy
As the winter mist settles over New Delhi, the historic Samvidhan Sadan is hosting the custodians of the Commonwealth’s parliamentary traditions. It is with a profound sense of responsibility and…
Do Hindus have Human Rights?
The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights enshrined the principle that human beings are born equal in dignity and rights, principles underlying every culture and civilization, religion and philosophy today.…
Hindu revivalism, reform help recover civilisational confidence
One of the most persistent distortions in modern Indian intellectual life is the portrayal of Hindu revivalism as either reactionary or rebellious, a mirror image of modern revolutionary politics spearheaded…
How Television Debates Are Distracting a Generation from India’s Own Journey
In recent years, a strange and troubling pattern has taken root in many television news channels in our Bharat. For long hours each day—sometimes stretching close to twenty hours—screens are…
150 years later, why the Vande Mataram debate is still relevant
Some years ago, a perceptive British writer observed that his country was sharply polarised between the ‘somewhere’ people and those who could be dubbed the ‘anywhere’ people. In a curious…
Why India’s democratic renaissance matters
As a diplomat since 1974, I have felt proud representing the world’s largest democracy—a role model for other developing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. India kept faith against…