Cultural performances at the INS Khukri Memorial Amphitheatre in Diu on November 14, 2024.
| Photo Credit: President of India-X/ANI
In his essay in Frontline’s 40th anniversary special, the artist and curator Shuddhabrata Dasgupta writes: “In any society, the health of culture depends on the willingness of practitioners to set their own terms for their existence and activity.” Indeed, it would not be an overstatement to say that the state of cultural freedom is a good barometer for the everyday freedoms of citizens in any country.
To look back on what transpired in 2024, Frontline has compiled a list of 12 stories that encapsulate the delicate equation between culture and society. Be it the heritage influencers or the private archive collectors who facilitate public engagement with the past, the poets from India’s north-eastern region who use poetry both as a weapon and as a shield against conflict, the photography and art exhibitions that reveal hidden histories, or the noted poet and public intellectual Ashok Vajpeyi’s lament on literature today, these stories offer a holistic understanding of the churn Indian society is undergoing right now.
