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VOL. 1, ISSUE 3 (2025)
Tradition, transformation, and continuity: Cultural concepts, historiography, and symbolic change in Indian and global contexts
Authors
Ganesh Shrirang Nale, Dr. Priyanka Sambhaji Jadhavar
Abstract
Culture remains one of the most contested and dynamic concepts within
the social sciences, encompassing symbolic meanings, material practices, moral
frameworks, and institutional structures. This paper critically examines
traditional and modern notions of culture through textual, anthropological,
archaeological, and sociological perspectives, situating Indian culture within
global debates on civilization, identity, and modernity. Beginning with
classical textual traditions and evolving anthropological definitions of
culture, the study traces the conceptual expansion of culture as a lived,
symbolic, and political phenomenon. It explores the constitutive elements of
culture, the idea of Indian ness, and indigenous value systems while
analytically distinguishing culture from civilization. The paper further
engages with historiographical approaches to Indian culture, critically
assessing imperialist, nationalist, Marxist, and subaltern interpretations,
with special attention to issues of objectivity, bias, and stereotyping.
Methodologically, the study evaluates ethnographic survey methods, historical
approaches, and comparative frameworks in cultural research. Symbolic
transformations—manifested through rituals, beliefs, signs, and symbols—are
analyzed in relation to changing material culture, moral economy, and education
systems. Contemporary cultural dynamics such as commodification of rituals,
communalism and secularism, cultural identity and political mobilization,
gendered bodies, art and aesthetics, ethics, sports, pilgrimage, religious
tourism, and the religion–economy nexus are examined to highlight culture’s
embeddedness in power relations. The paper also addresses culture’s interaction
with environment and the emergence of new religious movements under
globalization. By emphasizing India’s civilizational heritage and the world’s
intellectual debt to Indian culture, the study argues for a plural, reflexive,
and interdisciplinary understanding of culture as both continuity and
transformation. The paper contributes to cultural sociology and anthropology by
integrating classical theory with contemporary cultural realities.
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Pages:89-93
How to cite this article:
Ganesh Shrirang Nale, Dr. Priyanka Sambhaji Jadhavar "Tradition, transformation, and continuity: Cultural concepts, historiography, and symbolic change in Indian and global contexts". International Journal of Research in All Subject, Vol 1, Issue 3, 2025, Pages 89-93
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