The importance of cultural continuity

The question of India’s former royal families — what they represent today, and how they should be understood — sits at the intersection of culture, history and politics. It is not a neutral subject. It provokes strong reactions, often shaped by one’s lens be it aesthetic, ethical or ideological. At its core lies a deeper tension: how a modern democracy negotiates the preservation of cultural continuity, particularly forms of lived heritage, within the project of social and political reform.

A common critique is that the continued visibility of India’s former royals — particularly in the realms of fashion, culture and spectacle — risks reinforcing structures of inequality that modern India has sought to move beyond. At its core is the idea that royalty, even in its post-political form, remains a symbol of inherited privilege. When presented through imagery such as dress, ceremony, and architecture, it can aestheticise hierarchy, transforming systems of historical power into objects of beauty. In a country where inequality remains deeply embedded, such imagery can appear disconnected from lived realities, or complicit in masking them. The historical realities of inequality that shaped these structures cannot be overlooked.