Cultural Studies

Cultural Studies is the study of the meanings, practices, symbols, traditions, identities, narratives, institutions, and everyday forms through which communities understand and express their collective life. It examines how culture is created, transmitted, transformed, contested, and remembered across generations, while exploring the relationship between culture, power, society, language, media, and identity. An Indic approach to Cultural Studies further engages with Samskara, Parampara, Smriti, Shruti, Kala, Utsava, Tirtha, and Lokachara, exploring culture as a living process through which knowledge, values, memory, practices, and civilizational consciousness are transmitted.

Interrogating Cultural Studies

1. What exactly are we teaching as “Cultural Studies” today? Syllabus and analysis of school-level Cultural Studies and Social Studies, undergraduate and postgraduate Cultural Studies, and major themes and fields of cultural study

2. Whose theories and frameworks are we using to understand culture and civilization? Indian Cultural Theories and Frameworks, Western Cultural Theories and Frameworks

3. Whose cultural thinkers and scholars are we reading? Indic Cultural Thinkers and Scholars, Westernized Cultural Thinkers and Scholars

4. What are the sources of our cultural knowledge? Indian Sources of Cultural Knowledge, Western Sources of Cultural Knowledge

5. Whose cultures, traditions and civilizational experiences are we studying? Indian Cultural, Traditional and Civilizational Experiences, Western Cultural and Social Experiences

6. How are we studying and understanding culture? Indian Approaches to Understanding Culture and Civilization, Western Cultural Studies Methods and Approaches

Decolonizing Cultural Studies

Articles examining the colonial assumptions, categories, theories, and academic frameworks through which culture is conventionally studied and taught. This section reconsiders culture, identity, tradition, representation, memory, and cultural change through Bharat’s own civilizational experience.

Tradition vs Modernity?

Tradition vs Modernity?

Rethinking Cultural Change Why do we so often speak about cultural change as if a…
August 12, 2026
Who Represents Culture?

Who Represents Culture?

Power, Representation and the Making of the “Other” When a culture is described, who decides…
August 12, 2026
What Is Culture? The Problem of Critical View in Cultural Studies

What Is Culture? The Problem of Critical View in Cultural Studies

Rethinking What We Mean by Culture What do we mean when we say “culture”? I…
August 12, 2026

Saṃskṛti Dṛṣṭi

A space for exploring culture through Indic understandings of Saṃskṛti, Paramparā, Ācāra, Dharma, and Loka. It moves beyond syllabus-bound Cultural Studies to develop broader approaches to tradition, cultural transmission, identity, diversity, and civilizational continuity.

Utsava, Katha and Kala: The Cultural Life of Meaning

Utsava, Katha and Kala: The Cultural Life of Meaning

What does a society remember when it does not sit down to study its history?…
August 12, 2026
Parampara: How Does Culture Survive?

Parampara: How Does Culture Survive?

Transmission, Adaptation and Continuity What allows a culture to survive across generations? At first glance,…
August 12, 2026
Samskriti: What Makes a Culture?

Samskriti: What Makes a Culture?

Culture as a Way of Life What does Saṃskṛti mean beyond the translation “culture”? If…
August 12, 2026