In the 21st Century: Cultural Geography of India

Abstract

The practice of cultural geography in India is already part of the broader field of human geography. Despite multidisciplinary approaches to the Indian classics, there are rarely hagiographic attempts to self-reflect internal social and cultural phenomena, as Wescott and others conclude. (2003). They also point out that most of the notable work in this field has been done by non-geographers and that geographers have not paid serious attention to the work of geographers for other purposes. This has had the effect of weakening the practice of cultural geography in India. Habitat, economic and traditional anthropological literatures still predominate in geographical publications. These studies include descriptions of tribes and their lives, language differences, and East-West discourse in the representation of cultures and peoples, including new topics such as cinema, the role of media, diaspora communities, religious landscapes, sacred geometry, symbolism, etc. Architecture, and cultural astronomy. The study of pilgrimages and sacred landscapes has also received recent attention, with a long tradition begun by Bhardwaj (1973). Recent additions to these topics include conservation and cultural heritage, always within the framework of an interdisciplinary approach.