The Art of Noticing: Policy, Pride & Politics in India

Policy in India today is no longer limited to the realm of budgets, tenders, and files. It has begun to function as language — a deliberate construction of meaning. Major decisions are being framed not as technical outcomes but as symbols loaded with emotional resonance. When the State develops cultural circuits, reimagines ancient pilgrimage routes, restores urban heritage, or positions cultural festivals as global showcases, it does more than just improve infrastructure; it curates identity.

The country’s policymaking apparatus seems increasingly aware that people respond not only to efficiency, but to imagination — to stories that affirm their sense of belonging. Infrastructure is turning into narrative, and narrative is becoming governance. The bureaucracy is no longer transmitting decisions; it is crafting meaning.

Photo by Shakeb Tawheed

In this landscape, policy acts as a bridge between collective aspiration and cultural memory. A riverfront redevelopment project that visually anchors a historic temple does not just enhance public spaces — it symbolises reclamation. The government is not merely modernising cities; it is stitching together fragments of history into a coherent cultural vocabulary. What was once separated — governance on one side, culture on the other — is now being woven into a single fabric. The act of policymaking today is not only the act of organising resources, but the act of defining who we are.

Civilisational Pride — Culture as Strategy

Civilisational pride is often mistaken for nostalgia, but in contemporary India, it has become a strategy.

There is a noticeable shift from looking at heritage as something to protect to treating it as something to project. The State is actively mobilising cultural memory — not in a museum-like, passive manner — but in a forward-facing, diplomatic language. By reviving ancient maritime histories, celebrating traditional arts, translating classical texts, and showcasing cultural soft power across global platforms, India is signalling that its identity predates the nation-state. Civilisation becomes the unit of pride, not the republic alone. In doing so, the State is positioning India not just as a country among many, but as a civilisation among civilisations. It is a subtle but powerful distinction.

“Policies in India increasingly function as stories rather than mere administrative decisions.”

Civilisational pride works because it creates emotional infrastructure. Unlike physical infrastructure, which demands capital and material, emotional infrastructure demands belief. When people begin to feel that they are part of an unbroken lineage of knowledge, trade, philosophy, and cultural exchange, their sense of possibility expands.

This confidence plays out in entrepreneurship, diplomacy, education, and self-perception. The past becomes fuel for the future. Instead of aspiring to global recognition by adopting Western standards, the narrative shifts — the world must recognise us because of who we already were. Not as imitators, but as inheritors. Not as learners, but as contributors. Culture becomes a form of assertion — a window through which the world is invited to see India not as emerging, but as re-emerging.

Politics — When Narrative Becomes Power

Politics understands the potency of identity. It knows that people may rationally evaluate economic growth, but emotionally, they crave belonging. When cultural revival and policy converge, political influence intensifies. The political narrative does not need to claim economic success; it only needs to claim ownership over pride. The moment heritage becomes a political currency, it becomes a tool of mobilisation. Pride becomes rallying. Cultural symbols become political assets. The narrative shifts from “Vote for development” to “Vote for civilisation.” Political capital is accumulated not through performance alone, but through emotional anchoring.

However, this mobilisation is not inherently harmful. Every nation uses identity as a narrative. The question lies not in whether identity is used, but in how. If civilisational confidence leads to collective upliftment — greater conservation, wider inclusion, more access to heritage — it is generative. But when pride narrows into exclusion, it stops being heritage and starts becoming hierarchy. The danger is subtle: the line between celebration and homogenisation is thin. When a single narrative becomes the sole narrative, memory turns into messaging. History becomes selective. Culture becomes controlled. And the power of pride gets redirected into the politics of possession.

What Requires Noticing

In this dynamic landscape, noticing becomes an act of citizenship. Noticing means refusing to consume narratives without reflection. It means paying attention not only to what is being celebrated, but to what is being curated and what is being omitted. It means recognising when heritage is being preserved, and when it is being packaged. It means asking who gets to speak for culture, and who gets spoken over in culture’s name. Noticing is not criticism. It is awareness. It is attentiveness to nuance in a time of grand statements and sweeping declarations.

“The citizen’s role is to remain attentive, aware, and alert — to notice what pride includes and what it leaves out.”

We must notice which sites receive restoration funds and which remain neglected; which languages are supported and which are sidelined; which histories are spotlighted and which vanish into footnotes.

We must notice when pride becomes persuasion, when debate becomes discomfort, when representation becomes narrative management. The citizen’s responsibility is not blind acceptance or blanket rejection. It is awareness. Awareness that culture can unite, but also divide. That identity can empower, but also silence. That the same pride which uplifts can, if unchecked, overshadow plurality.

Pride with Awareness — The Middle Path

There is nothing wrong with civilisational pride. A nation with thousands of years of memory should not apologise for its heritage. Pride is necessary. Pride is healthy. Pride gives confidence to create, build, and imagine. But pride must coexist with humility. It must have room for many stories, not one. True civilisational confidence is spacious — it welcomes multiple identities, multiple histories, multiple expressions of belonging. The mark of a strong civilisation is not uniformity, but multiplicity.

The real work lies in ensuring that cultural revival remains expansive, not exclusive. A civilisation that once absorbed influences from Persia, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, Africa, and Europe should not be afraid of diversity. A civilisation that shaped mathematics, grammar, philosophy, science and trade should be able to hold complexity without insecurity. Pride should not need an enemy. Pride should simply exist.

“Nations are built not only by remembering the past, but by allowing the past to hold space for the future.”