Ganesh Devy-Frontline

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Villagers travelling on a country boat along with their motorbikes at Kharinasi ghat in Kendrapara district, Odisha.

India cannot be reduced to one narrative, one order, one analysis

The country’s diversity and plurality means such an attempt is likely to end in the realisation that the opposite is as much valid.

In winter, when the countryside prepares for the cropping season, songs waft in the air at night, invariably accompanied by drum and harmonium. Tribal women singing while harvesting paddy at Umswai village in Karbi Anglong, Assam.

How India as a civilisation is defined by its engagement with music

The nation’s vast ocean of songs belongs to everyone and is transferred from one generation to another.

Ananda Coomaraswamy (1877–1947).

How androgyny and ambivalence outdid other methods of resistance in India

One gets the optics of union between the feminine and the masculine very many times throughout India’s cultural history.

Tribes of Nagaland at the annual Hornbill Festival, also known as the “Festival of Festivals”, in Kohima.

How marginalisation threatens the survival of indigenous communities

To be indigenous is to be severely marginalised in economy, politics, institutionalised knowledge, and institutionalised religion.

A statue of Lord Hanuman at the Pampa Sarovar in Dangs district, Gujarat. A file picture.

Putting the useless to use: The divisive politics of the word ‘Hindutva’

People in India have been known to put to imaginative use things that for them do not serve their intended purpose.

At the Ramanathaswamy temple in Rameswaram on April 14, Tamil New Year. Countless communities in India have the ability to live at once in several traditions of time.

Why people measure time differently in India

The hundreds of languages in India have had different measures of time, apart from being conversant with the Gregorian calendar too.

English, which arrived in India in the 17th century and has wide acceptance, is shown in the 2011 census as spoken by 2,59,878 speakers.

Languages not liked by Hindutva ideology suffer existential crisis

The 2011 census shows that except for Hindi, Sanskrit, and Gujarati, all other scheduled languages have suffered erosion.

Students of Pali language department in University of Mumbai protest against their V-C for neglecting the department’s growth, at Kalina campus in 2019.

Why Pali lost out and Sanskrit received more than its due

Our amnesia about how greatly Pali has contributed to all that we speak and think is not of recent origin.

Anupama Hireholi, who scored full marks in Class X, was advised by relatives to drop out of school and support her brother’s education instead.

Girl power revolution: Anupama Hireholi from Saundatti creates history

Half a century after Vijay Tendulkar’s controversial play about the jogtin practice, the town will be known for something besides the Yellamma temple.

Mohandas K. Gandhi delivering a discourse at a prayer meeting during second day of his fast to force communal peace in India on January 22, 1948, in New Delhi.

Despite the NCERT’s shocking move, Gandhi lives on

The decision to drop the Gandhi assassination from the NCERT’s history textbook just cannot extinguish the Mahatma’s memory.

Lonely crusaders: A common Indian phenomenon

Such individuals, who dedicate their entire lives to unusual projects, deserve our attention and appreciation.

Temsula Ao: Voice of the orange tree

The poet, writer, and ethnographer brought the Naga sensibility to the attention of the nation.

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