As India confronts a rapidly transforming cultural and intellectual landscape, The Hind School is proud to launch the Hind Cultural Fellowship—a new platform for rigorous, interdisciplinary, and public-facing engagement with Indian society, identity, and thought.
This Q&A offers a comprehensive introduction to the fellowship's structure, purpose, and vision for cultural leadership.
Q1: What is the Hind Cultural Fellowship?
The Hind Cultural Fellowship is a three-month, part-time, remote/hybrid program designed for emerging researchers, writers, and cultural practitioners working at the intersection of Indian society and storytelling.
The program supports independent or collaborative projects that address enduring and emerging questions in Indian public life—from religion, language, and memory, to ecology, gender, and urban transformation. It invites fellows to interrogate how India is narrated and understood—both by its citizens and in the global imagination.
Q2: What makes this fellowship distinct?
Unlike conventional academic or policy-driven programs, the Hind Cultural Fellowship is rooted in the belief that rigorous storytelling is itself a form of public scholarship.
Fellows are encouraged to pursue original, creative, and critical work that is:
Interdisciplinary in method
Grounded in field experience or regional perspectives
Accessible to public audiences
Each project contributes to the Hind Public Archive—an open-access digital repository showcasing cultural research, oral histories, essays, and multimedia narratives.
Q3: Who is eligible to apply?
The fellowship is open to early-career scholars, graduate students, independent researchers, creative practitioners, and advanced undergraduates with a demonstrated interest in cultural research, writing, or storytelling.
Applicants are assessed on:
Intellectual curiosity and cultural imagination
Commitment to public engagement
Ability to work independently with editorial and peer mentorship
The 2025 cohort includes fellows from institutions such as IITs, TISS, Delhi University, University of Oxford, and Yale, representing a wide range of disciplinary, linguistic, and regional perspectives.
Q4: What kinds of work do fellows produce?
Fellows undertake guided independent projects over the course of the fellowship. Outputs may include:
Interviews with cultural figures and local knowledge-holders
Essays and research articles addressing contemporary or historical questions
Multimedia storytelling, including video, audio, or photo-essays
Critical reflections or field reports based on regional immersion
Each project is refined through workshops, peer feedback, and mentorship, and is intended to be published or exhibited publicly.
Q5: What is the program structure and support provided?
Duration: 3 months
Time commitment: 12–20 hours/week
Format: Fully remote or hybrid (regional meet-ups where possible)
Stipend: ₹2,000/month
Additional support:
Editorial mentorship
Peer learning cohort
Curated readings and writing workshops
“The Hind School” merchandise and publication opportunities
The structure is designed to be flexible, allowing fellows to pursue their projects alongside academic or professional responsibilities.
Q6: What themes or questions guide the fellowship?
The fellowship encourages reflection on foundational and frontier questions of Indian life, including but not limited to:
Indian political thought, religion, and public reason
Caste, gender, and linguistic identities
Memory, folklore, and indigenous knowledge systems
Popular culture, digital media, and climate imaginaries
Urban change, rural ecologies, and migration
Projects are expected to be both locally grounded and globally relevant.
Q7: What is the broader vision of The Hind School?
The Hind School is conceived as India’s first independent institution dedicated to India Studies—not just as a subject of academic analysis, but as a living, dynamic domain of public inquiry.
Through fellowships, publications, and regional engagements, we aim to:
Build an ecosystem of reflective public scholarship
Train a new generation of cultural leaders and narrators
Reimagine India not just as a nation-state, but as a plural cultural and intellectual civilization
The Hind Cultural Fellowship is our inaugural step toward this vision.
How can one get involved or stay updated?
We invite readers, educators, institutions, and future applicants to:
Visit www.hindschool.com
Follow our archive and updates under #TheHindSchool
Read and share the work of our 2025 fellows over the coming months
Reach out for collaborations, speaking invitations, or co-hosted programs
For press, partnership, or program-related queries:
📧 info@hindschool.com
🌐 www.hindschool.com
📍 New Delhi, India
