Book Chapters

As global tensions intensify—China’s assertiveness in South Asia, political flux in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Maldives, and the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan—many view India’s posture as strategic alignment in response. Simultaneously, Washington’s Indo‑Pacific presence deepens. Yet beyond power‑play, a deeper narrative shapes India’s diplomacy.

The paper touches on the dating of a few key Nataraja bronzes from archaeometallurgical considertations to the Pallava period (c 7th to 9th century), prior to the Chola period and also explores the connections of the iconography to celestial observations of star positions of Orion and Syrius 

The value that local communities ascribe to ecosystems is fundamentally emergent from the cultural bonds to their lands and associated natural elements. Human–wildlife relationships (HWR) in the multicultural Global South are often deep-rooted, owing to a long history of people and their neighbouring species sharing and co-constructing spaces and lives. This diversifies our current definitions of cultural ecosystem services (CES), and we argue that the use of interdisciplinary tools that unpack the complexities of HWR can provide necessary, often-overlooked insights into CES.

The Doctoral Program of any country is the central pillar of higher education. The conspicuous absence of a well-thought-out doctoral program in India's national research policy has resulted in asymmetries in policies and practices related to research and development. The history of doctoral research in India presents a unique trajectory with a mixed influence of the colonial past and isolated efforts of genuine intellectuals who have thrived in an environment of deep motivation and passion that defined their research pursuits.