Today’s India has no need to look backwards for validation – its rich history is deeply woven into the contemporary kaleidoscope that is modern India. And in this spirit, the country is confidently taking its place on the international soft-power stage — globally fluent, locally grounded and increasingly capable of marrying the two. This year, Republic Day on 26 January celebrates that confidence. Because India is a country aware of its heritage not merely as nostalgia but as the ground for a new wave of creative expression.
You see it in the kitchens, where regional recipes are reworked by chefs who’ve trained in top restaurants around the world (including our own talented coterie of Karma chefs) and returned home with sharper knives and wider reference points. In design studios where handloom textiles sit alongside modernist lines. In writers, filmmakers and entrepreneurs who travel widely, think internationally, yet remain rooted in place.
Travel through the subcontinent and that balance becomes tangible. Goa’s coastline hums with creative energy—old Portuguese rhythms layered with centuries of culture and expressed today in contemporary food, art and music. In the Himalayas, Karma Tashi pairs Buddhist heritage with refined, modern hospitality, offering stillness without austerity. Across India, the story repeats: tradition not preserved behind glass, but lived, adapted and shared.
Karma Group’s collection of resorts mirrors this vision of modern India—properties that respect where they are, while speaking comfortably to an international audience. It’s not about dilution; it’s about confidence. India doesn’t need to perform its past. It carries it naturally, even as it looks outward.
That, perhaps, is the most compelling journey of all.
