Namaskar!

The Center for Cultural Leadership at Rashtram is aimed at producing cultural leaders who are deeply informed about the cultural ethos of India and grounded in the spirit of Indian Knowledge Tradition. 

Any lasting change in a society has its roots in culture. Politics in almost all cases responds to cultural trends, following the direction that culture points at. Any change which does not have its mooring in culture can be undone very easily when politics changes, but a transformation which is rooted in culture will make it impossible for politics to ignore it. That is why the CCL focuses at the cultural tradition of Bharatvarsha and how it once again inform our future leaders.

We are attempting to regain the control of our narrative that we lost during the colonial era. India has always been a nation of great storytellers. We mastered the art of saying the greatest truth in as little as twelve shlokas of the Mandukya Upanishad and then spreading it out in thousands upon thousands of pages of the Puranas, the Agamas, the Itihasas and the wider Katha Pravachan Parampara. 

This was done to cater both the greatest of jnanis on one hand and the commonest of people on the other. Dharma doesn’t just survive in the minds of the cultural elite. It survives when the entire society imbibes dharma in every aspect of their lives. And this is achieved by telling stories, stories about Bharatvarsha, stories infused with dharma, stories capable of invoking different rasas, stories capable of spiritually elevating the listener and reader to a higher plane of consciousness. 

At CCL our goal is to provide a cultural commentary with dharma at the centre, speaking on issues most fundamental to our civilization and our continued existence in the future. This commentary will not be in a form of reaction over events, incidents and idea. Instead it will be a primary engagement with the lived realities of Bharatvarsha, making sense of Bharatvarsha’s and Hindu dharma’s place in the world in modern times. The anchor will be Sanatana dharma, the vantage point from which the world will be viewed. 

The aim is to produce stories and narratives which will evoke reactions instead of reacting to narratives set by others. In this way CCL hopes to generates dharma-centric ideas and points of view.

Hope many fellow travelers in this yajna for Hindu Renaissance will contribute to this cultural commentary.

Pankaj Saxena

Director, Centre for Cultural Leadership