Aspirational India Foundation

FOUNDING VISION

Aspirational India Foundation’s Mission

As India’s global heft increases and we stand on the cusp of impending changes in the world order, the Foundation envisages intellectual initiatives to help make the transition compatible with our civilizational values – thereby spreading them to the world as a model of an inclusive diversity that has marked our values for long.

Hitherto, the framing of India has been done through the lens of the modern west, leaving many stereotypes unchallenged to the extent of making them acquire the strength of common sense. India’s economic and geostrategic rise must be accompanied by informed attempts at unshackling the global academia and intelligentsia from frames that do not do justice to India and its role in the modern world. The Indian academia at home and abroad has also failed to make meaningful interventions, as it largely borrows the same frames and regurgitates them.

As the oldest continuous civilization, alongside China, India has shown tremendous ability to adapt to changes over time. From the 19th century it took to a unique modernity that brought forth fundamental elements of its past, and readapted them to the modern world, taking seamlessly to the modern economy, capitalism and also social reform. The reason: Indian civilization has had a long-standing historical ability to adapt to the new while not discarding the old. One major reason for it perhaps has been the ability of Hinduism, India’s largest religious tradition, to acquire and disseminate a symbolic universe of meaning, piling one layer of meanings over another without having to discard what was there earlier. Harmony and adaptation – the key to both material and social wellbeing in our times – have been central to this ability. The primacy of the truth and the coexistence of multiple truths lie at the core of Indian philosophical beliefs. Adaptation to nature instead of the conquest of it, likewise, has been a central Indian civilizational concern, which is again in sync with many contemporary challenges.

Aspirational India Foundation (AIF) wants these aspects of India – its essential ability to seek harmony in diversity, and seek social responsibility in both political and economic power while embracing both – to be understood at various forums, replacing the monopolistic grip of frames that see India as best understood in terms of fragments in perpetual conflict with one another.

Aspirational India Foundation’s Mission

As India’s global heft increases and we stand on the cusp of impending changes in the world order, the Foundation envisages intellectual initiatives to help make the transition compatible with our civilizational values – thereby spreading them to the world as a model of an inclusive diversity that has marked our values for long.

Hitherto, the framing of India has been done through the lens of the modern west, leaving many stereotypes unchallenged to the extent of making them acquire the strength of common sense. India’s economic and geostrategic rise must be accompanied by informed attempts at unshackling the global academia and intelligentsia from frames that do not do justice to India and its role in the modern world. The Indian academia at home and abroad has also failed to make meaningful interventions, as it largely borrows the same frames and regurgitates them.

As the oldest continuous civilization, alongside China, India has shown tremendous ability to adapt to changes over time. From the 19th century it took to a unique modernity that brought forth fundamental elements of its past, and readapted them to the modern world, taking seamlessly to the modern economy, capitalism and also social reform. The reason: Indian civilization has had a long-standing historical ability to adapt to the new while not discarding the old. One major reason for it perhaps has been the ability of Hinduism, India’s largest religious tradition, to acquire and disseminate a symbolic universe of meaning, piling one layer of meanings over another without having to discard what was there earlier. Harmony and adaptation – the key to both material and social wellbeing in our times – have been central to this ability. The primacy of the truth and the coexistence of multiple truths lie at the core of Indian philosophical beliefs. Adaptation to nature instead of the conquest of it, likewise, has been a central Indian civilizational concern, which is again in sync with many contemporary challenges.

Aspirational India Foundation (AIF) wants these aspects of India – its essential ability to seek harmony in diversity, and seek social responsibility in both political and economic power while embracing both – to be understood at various forums, replacing the monopolistic grip of frames that see India as best understood in terms of fragments in perpetual conflict with one another.

Aspirational India Foundation’s Mission

As India’s global heft increases and we stand on the cusp of impending changes in the world order, the Foundation envisages intellectual initiatives to help make the transition compatible with our civilizational values – thereby spreading them to the world as a model of an inclusive diversity that has marked our values for long.

Hitherto, the framing of India has been done through the lens of the modern west, leaving many stereotypes unchallenged to the extent of making them acquire the strength of common sense. India’s economic and geostrategic rise must be accompanied by informed attempts at unshackling the global academia and intelligentsia from frames that do not do justice to India and its role in the modern world. The Indian academia at home and abroad has also failed to make meaningful interventions, as it largely borrows the same frames and regurgitates them.

As the oldest continuous civilization, alongside China, India has shown tremendous ability to adapt to changes over time. From the 19th century it took to a unique modernity that brought forth fundamental elements of its past, and readapted them to the modern world, taking seamlessly to the modern economy, capitalism and also social reform. The reason: Indian civilization has had a long-standing historical ability to adapt to the new while not discarding the old. One major reason for it perhaps has been the ability of Hinduism, India’s largest religious tradition, to acquire and disseminate a symbolic universe of meaning, piling one layer of meanings over another without having to discard what was there earlier. Harmony and adaptation – the key to both material and social wellbeing in our times – have been central to this ability. The primacy of the truth and the coexistence of multiple truths lie at the core of Indian philosophical beliefs. Adaptation to nature instead of the conquest of it, likewise, has been a central Indian civilizational concern, which is again in sync with many contemporary challenges.

Aspirational India Foundation (AIF) wants these aspects of India – its essential ability to seek harmony in diversity, and seek social responsibility in both political and economic power while embracing both – to be understood at various forums, replacing the monopolistic grip of frames that see India as best understood in terms of fragments in perpetual conflict with one another.

Aspirational India Foundation’s Mission

As India’s global heft increases and we stand on the cusp of impending changes in the world order, the Foundation envisages intellectual initiatives to help make the transition compatible with our civilizational values – thereby spreading them to the world as a model of an inclusive diversity that has marked our values for long.

Hitherto, the framing of India has been done through the lens of the modern west, leaving many stereotypes unchallenged to the extent of making them acquire the strength of common sense. India’s economic and geostrategic rise must be accompanied by informed attempts at unshackling the global academia and intelligentsia from frames that do not do justice to India and its role in the modern world. The Indian academia at home and abroad has also failed to make meaningful interventions, as it largely borrows the same frames and regurgitates them.

As the oldest continuous civilization, alongside China, India has shown tremendous ability to adapt to changes over time. From the 19th century it took to a unique modernity that brought forth fundamental elements of its past, and readapted them to the modern world, taking seamlessly to the modern economy, capitalism and also social reform. The reason: Indian civilization has had a long-standing historical ability to adapt to the new while not discarding the old. One major reason for it perhaps has been the ability of Hinduism, India’s largest religious tradition, to acquire and disseminate a symbolic universe of meaning, piling one layer of meanings over another without having to discard what was there earlier. Harmony and adaptation – the key to both material and social wellbeing in our times – have been central to this ability. The primacy of the truth and the coexistence of multiple truths lie at the core of Indian philosophical beliefs. Adaptation to nature instead of the conquest of it, likewise, has been a central Indian civilizational concern, which is again in sync with many contemporary challenges.

Aspirational India Foundation (AIF) wants these aspects of India – its essential ability to seek harmony in diversity, and seek social responsibility in both political and economic power while embracing both – to be understood at various forums, replacing the monopolistic grip of frames that see India as best understood in terms of fragments in perpetual conflict with one another.