Indian Images Research Articles

Analysis of Hedonic and Utilitarian Consumer Values Affecting the Retail Store Image in India

Analysis of Hedonic and Utilitarian Consumer Values Affecting the Retail Store Image in India

A consumer perception study on CSR reputation shaping brand image in India

The purpose of this study is to reveal that a brand incorporating corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives helps strategically shape its brand image and enables it to stand apart in a competitive market. Data for this research was gathered from a primary data collection exercise done across a sample of respondents in India. The paper succeeds in establishing the hypothesis (H1) of 'Whether CSR reputation (CSRR) and brand image (BI) are statistically related? ' through canonical correlation. The study established that there exists a positive correlation between CSRR and BI; consumers are willing to praise CSR performing brands publicly and easily distinguish such brands from other competing brands. Consumers' respect for such brands grows every time they learn of their CSR efforts. This study extends the dynamic relationship between the consumer and the brand. It concludes by suggesting that strengthening CSR makes business sense.

A Consumer Perception Study on CSR Reputation Shaping Brand Image in India

A Consumer Perception Study on CSR Reputation Shaping Brand Image in India

The Dark Side as a Case Study of OYO Hotels Aggregator : Do They Really Matter to Tourism Image in India

The goal of this research study is to look at how COVID affects OYO hotel chain aggregators and consumer perception throughout the COVID era. The information was gathered using a quantitative survey approach from 278 respondents from various OYO hotels in India throughout the COVID period. All returned questions were entered into SPSS and analysed using AMOS 23.0 and the structural equation modelling (SEM) approach. The data revealed that all of the investigated parameters had a substantial andfavourable impact on the image of OYO hotels during COVID. Furthermore, the results indicated that sales promotion and pricing contribute the most to the aggregator. Finally,the findings revealed that hotel location, ambience, and atmosphere had a considerable favourable impact on shop image. The outcomes of this study contribute to our understanding of the impact of these elements in affecting OYO hotel aggregator consumer behaviour during the COVID era in India.

Status of Crop Diversification by Land Size Classes: A Case Study from State of West Bengal, India

The food basket of the world is diversifying toward high-value crops. A diversified cropping system offers multifaceted opportunities for farmers. The nature of diversification in developing countries is significantly different at both farming and cropping levels; thus, it is felt important to investigate such a study at different land size holding. This study is conducted to examine the spatiotemporal pattern of crop diversification under different land size classes in the state of West Bengal, which assumes as a representative image of India. The study uses secondary data obtained from the Agriculture Census for the years 1995–1996 and 2015–2016. Gibbs-Martin’s diversification technique is employed for the calculation of the diversification index. Overall analyses reveal that the stunting change in diversification is noted in marginal, small, large, and all land classes. The implication of such growth pushes the rural economy in a skewed direction. For de-stunting growth in diversification index, short- and long-term policy push from public and private agencies is the need of the hour.

India of 1920s as Seen by Soviet Playwright, Consulting Indologists, Theater Critics

The authors of this contribution analyze the circumstances and the history of a popular play that was staged in the Soviet Union in 1927-1928. Titled Jumah Masjid, this play was devoted to the anti-colonial movement in India. A manuscript of the play, not indicating its title and the name of its author, was found in the St. Petersburg Branch of the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences among the papers related to A.M. and L.A. Meerwarth, members of the First Russian Expedition to Ceylon and India (1914-1918). Later on, two copies of this play under the title The Jumah Masjid were found in the Russian Archive of Literature and Art and in the Museum of the Tovstonogov Grand Drama Theatre. The authors of this article use archival and published sources to analyze the reasons for writing and staging the play. They consider the image of India as portrayed by a Soviet playwright in conjunction with Indologists that served as consultants, and as seen by theater critics and by the audience (according to what the press reflected). Arguably, the celebration of the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution in Russia in 1927 and the VI Congress of the Communist International (Comintern) in 1928 encouraged writing and staging the play. The detailed picture of the anti-colonial struggle in India that the play offered suggests that professional Indologists were consulted. At the same time the play is critical of the non-violent opposition encouraged by Mahatma Gandhi as well as the Indian National Congress and its political wing known as the Swaraj Party. The research demonstrates that the author of the play was G.S. Venetsianov, and his Indologist consultants were Alexander and Liudmila Meerwarth.

Image of India as a Destination—Perceptions of Mobile-savvy Seniors from China

ABSTRACT This study is aimed at examining mobile-savvy Chinese seniors’ perceptions of India as a tourist destination. The research identifies and characterizes a distinctive outbound segment among Chinese urban seniors based on their usage of mobile information technology and focuses on the analysis of how they perceive Indian as an international destination. An online questionnaire was used to collect data via WeChat, a social media platform in China. The study results reveal that there is a notable absence of a clearly formulated destination image of India in the minds of Chinese seniors. The findings illustrate that Mobile-savvy Chinese seniors are a viable inbound segment for India and suggest that mobile information technology is an effective tool for destination marketing organizations to target this untapped market from China. The marketing implications for India’s tourism industry are discussed in detail.

Image of India and Pakistan in Digital Age: A Comparative Study on Tweets of International News Agencies

Pakistan and India are two important South Asian neighboring countries equipped with nuclear capabilities. Unfortunately, the checkered bilateral foreign relations history is hostile and both countries have been fought four conventional wars since 1947. Mass media plays a significant role in shaping international relations and it is considered important to study the image of nations and states to assess international standing of a nation. In present study, we explored and compare the image of Pakistan and India in the representation of tweets of international news agencies. Methodologically, we used content analysis and network analysis techniques to find out the country-issue networks in news tweets. We have designated tweets of four major news agencies;Reuters, Agence France Press, Associated Press and Xinhua related to Pakistan and India for the duration of 7 years (from 2010-2016). We found that India and Pakistan are being covered negatively in news tweets of these news agencies. However, Pakistan’s image seems more negative through lens of international news agencies as compare to India in terms of peace and conflict issues coverage. Both countries should take steps and formulate vibrant policy towards creation and dissemination of their positive image on digital media.

Images of India in South Slavic Literatures

This article examines the presence and the impact of the stories, motifs, and images that originate in India but have made their way into medieval South Slavic literatures. Through a complex mediation of the multiple languages and cultures, the stories from The Pañcatantra and The Legend of Barlaam and Josaphat, a Christianized story of the Buddha, were transposed into various idioms of medieval Europe, including several Old Slavonic manuscripts of South Slavic recension. Additionally, stories, motifs, or images that can be traced back to India are also found in the folk literatures of South Slavs, their epic poems and plays. From these, two very different ideas and representations of India transpire: on the one hand, India as a land of opulence and, on the other, a land of unlawfulness, or “a damned land”. An example of the latter, imaginatively articulated in the Serbian epic poem “The Saints Divide the Treasures”, evokes India in the context of “the end of time”, with images that are very similar to the depiction of “the end of the Eon” in the ancient Indian epic of the Mahābhārata.

Cinematic itineraries and identities: Studying Bollywood tourism among the Hindustanis in the Netherlands

For decades, the ‘make-believe’ world of Bollywood has created elaborate imaginaries of India. A sizable part of its audience consists of diasporic communities, who not only consume Bollywood movies for entertainment but also as a way to stay connected with their Indian heritage. This study closely looks at one such diasporic community, namely the Dutch Hindustanis, investigating how Bollywood cinema affects their image of India, and how influential Bollywood cinema is in influencing their travel decisions to India. In-depth interviews indicate that Bollywood is a dominant cultural source for defining the respondents’ relationship with India. Moreover, the repeated consumption of Bollywood cinema stirs the desire to actually travel to India, seldom in search of ‘home’, but to visit sites associated with multiple Bollywood movies. Bollywood cinema being from their ‘distant homeland’ also incentivizes their travels to India thereby making it a meaningful experience. This study contributes to film (and) tourism research by introducing the concept of ‘cinematic itinerary’ to refer to these comprehensive film tourism practices.

The dancing image in India, England, and the Caribbean, 1770–1870

The dancing image in India, England, and the Caribbean, 1770–1870

ОБЗОР МЕЖДУНАРОДНОЙ НАУЧНОЙ КОНФЕРЕНЦИИ «НАСЛЕДИЕ СЕМЬИ РЕРИХОВ: ИНДО-РУССКИЙ МАГНИТ. К 100-ЛЕТИЮ СОЗДАНИЯ ФИЛОСОФСКОГО УЧЕНИЯ ЖИВОЙ ЭТИКИ»

The article covers the proceedings of International academic online conference ‘The Roerich Family Heritage: Bridge between India and Russia. Marking the Centenary of the Creation of the Philosophical Teaching of Living Ethics’, which was held on November 27, 2020. The conference was organized by the Indian Association of Teachers of Russian Language and Literature (INDAPRYAL) and The International Centre of Roerichs (ICR). Researchers from India, Russia and Belarus took part in the project. The entire Roerich family was indeed brilliant in its versatility: Nicholas Roerich — a great Russian artist, humanist and public figure of the 20th century, Helena Roerich — a cosmist philosopher, George Roerich — a prominent orientalist, historian and linguist, and Svetoslav Roerich — an outstanding artist and public figure. The philosophical doctrine of Living Ethics was created by Helena Roerich in close connections with the ancient spiritual traditions of India. March 24, 2020 marks the 100th anniversary of the beginning the creation of the corpus of these texts. Living Ethics was the main common factor of all the Roerichs’ works. The conference discussed the exceptional role of the Roerichs’ heritage in Indo-Russian cultural interrelations. The topics of the papers included a wide range of areas for studying the multi-faceted creative heritage of the Roerich family — the close connection between the philosophy of Living Ethics and Vedic and Buddhist philosophy, epistolary works of Helena Roerich as a detailed commentary on the texts of Living Ethics, images of India in the Roerich heritage, preservation and popularization of the Roerich heritage in the space of Indian culture etc. The conference showed that the Roerichs’ heritage contains a rich scientific, cultural and creative potential for the development of Russian-Indian relations, deepening mutual understanding and bringing the cultures of the two countries closer together.

Imagining ‘the Orient’ on ‘the Other’ side of Europe: perceptions of India in the Slovak tourism sector

ABSTRACT It has often been pointed out, by several researchers in postcolonial studies, that despite several distinctive images of ‘the Orient’ produced by Orientalists, most of them extensively associated ‘the East’ with ‘the Other’. Thus, the perspective of postcolonial theories is that of trying to deconstruct the cultural dominance of Western colonizing subjects, and its impact on the present situation in former colonial nations. However, in contrast, in the case of attitudes in East European countries to non-European colonized people and their lands, there are concerns about the applicability of the critical concepts of domination or subordination. On the basis of a study of the perceptions of tourists from Slovakia visiting India and travel agencies providing services to the Indian subcontinent, this paper tries to capture some of the tendencies prevailing in recent images of India in the Slovak tourism sector. The evidence presented in this paper suggests that the Orientalist view of other cultures that formed during the colonial era can no longer be considered as solely a matter of the encounter between Anglo-European and Indian cultures, but instead, recently represents globalized way of thinking in the ‘Westernized’ world.

BRICS Countries in Political Consciousness of Russian Citizens

The article analyzes the Russian citizens’ perceptions of BRICS countries. The authors focus on the cognitive, emotional, behavioral, and symbolic aspects characterizing BRICS countries in political consciousness of the Russians as well as common stereotypes, intentions, and associations. Since the Russian Federation has political and economic interests in cooperation with the BRICS countries, it is important to study representations of Brazil, India, China and South Africa in Russian consciousness and identify the possibilities of their transformation. Proceeding from the results of qualitative politico-sociological (a series of focused interviews) and politico-psychological (projective tests) studies held in 2016-2018 the authors conclude that the emotional component prevails in the structure of Russian citizens’ perception about of Brazil, India, China and South Africa. The image of China appears to be the most complicated and multidimensional, with the key elements being the “thousand-year history”, the “great culture” and the recognition of the geopolitical power of this state. The images of India and Brazil among the Russians have a significantly more amorphous character, but at the same time hold a moderately positive emotional connotation. The image of South Africa is the most fragmented, devoid of stable emotional valence and bright associations. It is remarkable that the perception of the BRICS countries by the majority of respondents is primarily influenced by implicit factors which manifest in appeal to stereotypes and associations (India – cinema, Brazil – football, etc.). Dynamic factors, determined by political agenda, play a minor role forming the images of the BRICS countries. A noticeable feature of their representation among the Russians is the blurring of the “image of due” and “image of the future”, as well as the minimal role of the political component (with exception of China). Therefore, it is necessary to change the information policy for the countries studied. In order to enhance the understanding of significance and relevance of cooperation with the BRICS states among the Russian citizens, it seems to be necessary 1) to build a positive image of political relations with them; 2) to cement an image of a “partner” and an “ally” in mass media, both on a rational and an unconscious level of political perception.

Discovering India Through Imagery in Postcolonial Travel Writings

During the colonial and the imperial era certain conceptions or images were held and cherished, largely by the white world of the non-white world. Drawing upon the postcolonial theories beginning with Said's Orientalism to Graham Huggan's ideas of postcolonial discourses being marketed and domesticated for Western consumption, an investigation is made here of travel writings about India over a period from 1977 to 2002. This article focuses on the perceptions of India in the following travel writing books: V. S. Naipaul's India: A Wounded Civilization, Mark Tully's No Full Stops in India, and Sarah MacDonald's Holy Cow: An Indian Adventure. The article discusses the different impressions that the travelers have of India and the representations that they make motivated by their contrasting personal experience and ideas about traditions and culture. For these writers India becomes a fictional construct and a sum of the tourist attraction it lays out through a chronological sequence of events. The article unravels the postcolonial agenda of the postcolonial writers and attempts to build the real image of India through distorted representations in these three travel writing books. The article reflects important cues on the travel writings in India and at the same time openly reveals their transnational link to the global sphere.

Need for Changing Nursing Image in India

Need for Changing Nursing Image in India

Letters of marque and reprisal: image of India in R. Kipling’s Letters of Marque

Letters of marque and reprisal: image of India in R. Kipling’s Letters of Marque

Образы Индии в советской повседневной культуре 1950–1960-х годов

Образы Индии в советской повседневной культуре 1950–1960-х годов

Political Tolerance in the Global South Images of India, Pakistan and Uganda, by Sten Widmalm

Political Tolerance in the Global South Images of India, Pakistan and Uganda, by Sten Widmalm

Medicine and the Cultural Politics of National Belongings in Contemporary India

AbstractThe Government of India claims to promote plural medical traditions, currently institutionalized under the acronym AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, and Homeopathy). Yet, one medical system—Ayurveda—receives most social and ideological support: Ayurveda is routinely constructed as the only truly Indian, homegrown, and national medicine, while the national belonging of other AYUSH traditions is challenged. This essay explores discourses surrounding the promotion of AYUSH and the privileged position of Ayurveda, situating them within two competing nationalist ideologies: the ideology of inclusive secularism anchored in the principle of India’s cultural diversity and the ideology of Hindu nationalism, which promotes a distinctive image of India as a country with a culturally monolithic foundation. By doing so, I show how a nation can be differently imagined through one medical tradition or through medical plurality. Furthermore, by analyzing media reports, official statements, and the narratives of AYUSH practitioners, I outline factors that contribute to Ayurvedic hegemony. In particular, I argue that the exceptionalism of Ayurveda rests on the fact that, unlike other alternative medical systems in India, it has been promoted as both cultural (“Indian”) and universal medicine—that is, medicine with global appeal.