A single mustard-and-maroon saree becomes the thread weaving together generations of memory. As a mother recounts its journey - from saree to half-saree, curtain, cushion cover, and album cover—her daughter discovers how fabric can carry family history. Each transformation holds laughter, sisterly love, and the ingenuity of making do with what one has. In the end, the saree becomes more than clothing - it becomes a living archive of relationships, creativity, and continuity.
Latest Posts

Inventing the Oppressor: Social Theory and the Logic of the UGC Regulations
Aryan Anand argues that the debate around the recent UGC guidelines has remained confined to immediate political reactions, ignoring the deeper intellectual frameworks shaping such policies. Drawing on strands of critical social theory, he contends that contemporary policy increasingly operates through rigid oppressor–oppressed binaries. Applied mechanically to the Indian context, this framework risks misreading the complex realities of caste and society. Anand suggests that policies built on such assumptions may ultimately deepen social divisions rather than address them.

Gaffe or Gambit – Did A R Rahman Cross a Line While Keeping Within Others?
Was A.R. Rahman’s reference to a “communal thing” in Bollywood a careless gaffe—or a calibrated signal within a larger minority-progressive discourse? Situating his remarks within a broader pattern of celebrity secularism, this essay argues that selective invocations of intolerance often coexist with studied evasions on questions of history, identity, and civilizational memory. Rahman’s diplomatic silences—on Aurangzeb, on cultural politics, on ideological alignments—appear less accidental than strategic. The result is a familiar cycle: grievance, outrage, clarification, and international amplification. At stake is not merely celebrity speech, but the narrative framing of Hindu-majority India itself.

Inside the Temple Crisis: Governance and Preservation Challenges
Across India’s temple towns, rising tourist footfall, evolving governance structures, and new revenue models are reshaping how sacred sites are administered and preserved. Temples, once self-sustaining civilizational institutions, are increasingly treated as revenue-generating assets, with properties sold, offerings monetized, and darshan commodified. Rema Raghavan writes that this commercialization displaces local communities, erodes ritual continuity, and weakens the organic moral oversight once provided by resident devotees. As temples transform from living centers of worship into tourist spectacles, the intimate bond between deity, devotee, and community frays. Restoring temples as civilizational epicenters, she argues, requires accountable governance, empowered local participation, and an uncompromising commitment to ritual and heritage preservation.

An Air of Social Doom: Political Propaganda Passed off as Moral Messaging
This article by Sriram Chellapilla, the fifth in a series of essays on the subject, argues that celebrity anguish over press freedom, NGOs, and society functions less as moral concern and more as selective political signaling. Using Naseeruddin Shah’s statements as a framing device, the author exposes how unelected NGOs, opaque media ownership, and celebrity activism often mask ideological agendas behind the language of freedom. Chellapilla contends that scrutiny of NGOs and media is neither new nor authoritarian, having been pursued by successive governments. What is troubling, he argues, is the hypocrisy of invoking free speech only when aligned with preferred politics, while remaining silent on censorship and intimidation by “secular” regimes.
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Dharma and Development : A Civilizational Balance
When development is not rooted in culture, a nation is reduced to just a geographical landmass. Development and culture are not mutually exclusive in the Indian civilizational context. Sanatana Dharma doesn’t ask us to choose between development and devotion to faith — it asks us to integrate them. Its Purushartha framework enables human fulfillment in every aspect of life, with Dharma as the guiding principle. From the Ram Mandir to the Kumbh Mela, what critics dismiss as distractions are often engines of economy, culture, identity, and belonging.
Behavioural Game Theory approach to inclusive growth
Game theory is the study of how interacting choices of economic agents produce outcomes with respect to the preferences of those agents.
“Oppenheimer”, the Gita, and Dharma
Imbibing the spirit of true Dharma, one achieves communion with nature, the cosmos, and eventually the Supreme being. The eternal fight therefore, is not between good and evil, or between believers and non-believers, but between Dharma and Adharma.
‘The Battle for Sanskrit’ by Rajiv Malhotra – A Review
First published in 2016, Rajiv Malhotra's 'The Battle for Sanskrit' is as relevant today as it was then. In the book, the author challenges dominant Western narratives that seek to desacralize Sanskrit by stripping it of its religious and cultural significance. Written in an easy-to-read style with scholarly insights, the book urges both traditional and modern readers to engage in an honest dialogue. The book is an important one that defends heritage and also seeks to de-westernise Indology.
Somnath Temple – Rising Phoenix
Somnath is a veritable treasure trove of pilgrimage locations, all clustered around the famous Jyotirlinga temple.
A storyteller’s experiences with divinity
The tradition of storytelling is as old as Hindu culture with its immense impact having defined our very way of life.
Is There an American Caste System?
Americans have developed their own unique caste system along ethnic lines which has subliminally entrenched itself in their society.
‘Flight of the Deity’ from Modhera – Part 2
The followers of Surya Devta still rever him even after centuries of turmoil.
The poor little rich Hindu seeker
Societal pressure and a lack of grounding in one's culture leads to a disconnect which has been the bane of many a Hindu seeker.
Saraswati as Aurobindo saw her
The origin of Saraswati worship is in the Vedas, which have a very precise and detailed exposition of her role and place in the spiritual universe.
The Patron Saint of Indigenisation
Roberto de Nobili with typical missionary zeal launched his "Madurai Mission" at a time when the Portuguese were on a conversion spree post their conquest of Goa.
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What does it mean to be ‘Indian’?
Indians have always had the capacity to create knowledge by reflecting on their own experiences without any foreign influences.
The Limits of Equality: A Dharmic Appraisal of Modern Political Theology
Modernity universalizes Enlightenment ideals of equality, recasting Dharmic order as moral failure. But in Dharma, justice lies not in sameness, but in harmony—each being acting in accordance with its Svabhāva and Svadharma. The caste system, far from being a hierarchy of worth, was a framework of reciprocal duty, now misunderstood and maligned through colonial and liberal lenses. True reform lies not in dismantling tradition, but in reclaiming its wisdom with renewed understanding.
Understanding Political Systems Of India – Part 4 – Chaos In The Narratives And The Resistance To Correct Them
"Post-independent academia propagated a linear version of history: past equals primitive equals India; future equals advanced equals West. Indian civilization, at least five thousand years old, apart from a high quotient of personal happiness, had a thriving economy with highly evolved arts, literature, education, sciences, spirituality, architecture, and so on. And then came the Western political philosophies, which persistently ill-fit our experiences.
Modern social sciences, with a great colonial hangover, have a strong antipathy for the traditional systems of India. This antipathy and the failure to look at Indian traditions have been dominant narratives in academia, the media, and politics.
We can always look at the past to handle the future better, and there is no better place than India to begin this, as Sri Aurobindo always insisted."
In the final installment of the series titled "Understanding Political Systems Of India" Dr. Pingali Gopal wraps up the discussion about force-fitting Western thought and political frameworks to Indian social systems, at the cost of Indian traditional systems tailor-made for our diverse society.
Pishacha Vivaha – Reparation Marriage
Treating a rape as less consequential if the victim agrees to marry the perpetrator has no place in contemporary society but to call it "patriarchal" is downright silly.
Dharmik View on Human Birth and Grihastha Ashrama
Shashank Poddar throws light on the shastrik view and importance of grihashta ashrama in this beautifully researched piece.
Kama and the Nature of Sensual Desires
In this article, Rohan Raghav Sharma talks about degeneracy and blind gratification of carnal desires becoming the norm in the West and all modern societies inspired by the West, and suggests that the Hindu framework of the four Purusharthas - Dharma, Artha, Kama, and Moksha; can provide guidance for a balanced view of life.
‘India In The Eyes Of Europeans’ By Martin Farek: A Review Summary
‘India In The Eyes Of Europeans’ by Martin Farek, one of the scholars of the Comparative School of Cultures in the Czech Republic; is a book that analyses the biases of the Christian European scholarship in interpreting all that is foreign to it; especially the way that scholars influenced by Christian theology, Western and Indian alike, view Indian and more specifically Hindu history.
Guha's Golwalkar (Part 1)
Noted columnist Ramchandra Guha completely misunderstands and therefore, misrepresents, the influence of Golwalkar's ideology on the RSS of today.
The concept of Nirashrayatva in the Gita
A powerful concept for the Karma Yogi though mentioned only once in the Gita.
Hinduism and Tribal cultures : Understanding Interactions, Assimilation and Coexistence
Mihir Keshari, a student at JNU, analyses the coexistence of "Hindu" and "Tribal" cultures.
Morality of Silence
A look at the moral forces at play behind the silence of moderate Muslims.
Dissecting Hinduphobia
The West's categories have been force-fitted on India making our civilisation seem crude and archaic.
