Society, Culture and Peace

Enhancing socio-cultural well-being, ensuring justice and equity

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Featured here are initiatives to enhance social and cultural aspects of human life: the revival and progressive use of visual, performing, and other arts, of the myriad crafts of the country, of threatened or submerged languages, of food and cuisine diversity, and other such cultural traits and processes. They also cover the various struggles and constructive movements to achieve social justice, to reduce inequalities and inequities of various kinds including caste, class, gender, ethnicity, and religion, and to create dignity in living for those currently oppressed and exploited. Finally, they include movements to generate ethical living and thinking, and spread values such as simplicity, honesty, frugality, and tolerance.

Why is the Centre dragging its feet on autonomy for Ladakh?

The Ladakh administration's decision to revoke the land lease of the Himalayan Institute of Alternative Learning is the latest of a series of moves aimed at suppressing a people demanding constitutional autonomy and self-governance.

Beyond the Elephant and the Blind Men: A Story of Collective Sense-Making

Vikalp Sangam answers the parable: we listen to each sector's truth to see the whole elephant of an equitable, just & sustainable future.

Remembering Dayamma: In Grief, Celebration And Protest

In Chennai, a theatre festival paid a moving tribute to a beloved trans elder and stage stalwart, pushing boundaries and transforming the stage into a space of resistance and queer joy.

Tracking seasons through changing tree behaviour

Citizen science platforms, such as SeasonWatch, are generating large-scale, long-term biodiversity data that help track ecological responses to climate change, such as changes in species distribution, flowering times, and migration patterns.

How Arunachal’s Women Healers Are Conserving Rare, Endangered Plants

With climate change driving several medicinal herbs into extinction, women healers in the Adi tribe of Arunachal Pradesh are making a difference by conserving their traditional knowledge of botanical medicines.

How a Homestay in Rural Bengal Is Helping 2500 Tribal Women Build Independent Lives Through Art

In a quiet village on the outskirts of Shantiniketan thrives a vibrant forest of craft, care, and community. Built by and for tribal women, Moram Earth is a movement rooted in art and rural craftspersonship.

Shramyog: How a remote Himalayan region, Sult, is empowering itself

Shramyog aims to strengthen these pillars of “Sahyog”, “Shiksha” and “Sangathan” through various activities and initiatives.

Nine ways of seeing deserts as landscapes of richness – not symbols of failure

This photo essay tells a story of these landscapes not as empty or degraded spaces in need of rescue, but as living and meaningful ecosystems that support vibrant biodiversity, pastoralist ways of life, and a delicate balance with scarce water and tough soils.

With no guarantee of autonomy, sub-zero Ladakh will continue to boil

Ecology and culture have been at the core of Ladakhis' demands for autonomy and self-governance. If the Centre continues to sidestep these issues, the geo-politically important and climate-sensitive region will continue to boil, even in the sub-zero temperatures.