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Monday, March 16, 2026
TopicPopular culture

Topic: Popular culture

Viva – India’s first girl group that sang feminist anthems in the early 2000s

At the dawn of a new century, India had an all-girl band whose members were outspoken, didn't shy away from risque fashion and were unapologetic about their behaviour.

40 Years of MTV — the channel that shaped popular culture as we know it

MTV might not have ‘killed’ the radio star, and its brand salience somewhat diluted in the age of YouTube, TikTok and social media.

Amitabh Bachchan was once ‘casteless’ Hindu. Tandav, Ludo now flaunt loud, proud Brahmins

Pankaj Tripathi in Hotstar’s Criminal Justice to Saif Ali Khan in Tandav, Dabangg to Jolly LLB, Bollywood now showcases only Brahmin stories.

Indians have a new K in their lives. Not Karan Johar, Ekta Kapoor but Korean culture factory

K-pop, K-dramas, K-beauty — 2020 became the year India embraced the soft power of Korea.

Wear Che Guevara, Johnny Walker and Gandhi on your T-shirts, but it says nothing about you

In ‘Consumerist Encounters’, Sreedeep Bhattacharya explores how our relationships & representations of commodities like T-shirts have evolved in urban India.

After Tintin and Tom and Jerry, now it’s Indian Army’s turn to find a Yeti link

Indian Army tweets picture to claim ‘mysterious footprints’ of Yeti, invites social media mockery. But the legend has popular roots.

On Camera

Gulf conflict pushes Dubai diamond traders to eye Surat for rough stone auctions. But there are hurdles

Industry leaders say India’s complicated customs process and GST levies are deterrents for traders to come to Surat for auctions.

Supreme Leader Mojtaba, the man Iran must keep alive & the secret force ‘tasked with it’—all about NOPO

The Nirouyeh Vijeh Pasdaran Velayat, or NOPO, was the only force Ali Khamenei trusted.It was founded in 1991 and is more feared than the Revolutionary Guards.

Peaceful power transfers followed uprisings in India’s neighbourhood. It’s a sign of mature democracies

Rating democracies is a tricky business. I am only using the simple metric of who in the Indian subcontinent has had the most peaceful, stable, normal political transitions and continuity.