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Art and aesthetics illustrate the cultural traditions and often define the identity of urban space that evolved through time. Street art and graffiti are underrated and condemned to negligence among the society residing in urban cities. Street graffiti is one such art form that represents the creative expression of suppressed minds. Architecture and street façade in historic urban spaces has become a canvas for their ideas and emotions, expressed as street art and graffiti. The question we face in policy-making is whether this accounts as vandalism or a public display of creativity and whether we accept it as a dynamic layer of heritage. The paper aims to examine the socio-cultural impact of graffiti and street art in historic precincts by assessing three selected case models in India. The article also discusses the role of street art and graffiti in society and their impact on urban heritage. This study will contribute to forming a policy for rejuvenating such heritage streets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

M.N Srinivas' concept of Sanskritisation helped us understand that the emulation of ritual practices of people in the upper strata of the Hindu social order by those in the lower order is a critical route of social mobility in everyday life. It is in this context that the present article, delineates as to how Srinivas's concept of 'sanskritisation' seen as a 'Chronotope' (or layered-process; used in the Bakhtian sense) helps us to (a) bring the debate out of the Brahmanical mould and hence entrench it into non-brahmanical hierarchies and (b) examine the change in community-interaction from being a mere emulation of established orders to that of setting up of alternatives. In other words, this paper tries to prod on the question as to why in recent years are caste communities articulating an independent cultural identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Art is the representation of life through different media. Words are the tools of a writer while lines constitute the paraphernalia of a cartoonist. The art of graphic satire and humour resembles a lot to the satiric and humourous sketches of a creative writer. In both cases, the representation of life emerges from visual sensibility and minute observation which make them create a universe where lines seem to be speaking immediately and words seem to be sketching a lively world of human beings. The present paper concentrates on the works of two artists: R.K.Narayan, whose novels and stories replete with the comic account of humanity and R.K.Laxman whose cartoons capture the entire gamut of contemporary conditions in India. Laxman creates an archetypal Common Man who is a silent spectator of multi-faceted humanity, which he minutely draws, pinpointing and highlighting their singularities and absurdities. Narayan's Talkative Man is a story teller with an irresistible urge to share his experiences with others. In the novelette Talkative Man, he finds himself caught into the mire of troubles as he publishes in his paper a photograph of Dr Rann who claims to be a United Nations' specialist. Talkative Man has an affinity with Laxman's Common Man. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author presents her encounters with venerated and Sacred Trees on field trips to India to affirmatively answer the question: Is it possible for the artist to change how we perceive the environment to the extent that people change the way they respond to and inhabit it? She argues that how we perceive and contemplate the land affects how we treat the land, and ultimately how we live within it. The paper goes beyond the economic or conservationist perspective, setting out the religious context with which the tree is perceived aesthetically in its natural environment. The practice of venerating the tree through decoration has, over time, effected cultural change in India. The tree is seen as a form that houses the sacred and thus is protected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tattooing as a form of graphic art occupies a unique place in the life of a tribal society. It is also a means of communication of values and social relations. It cannot be brushed aside simply as engravings of graphic designs. This form of art is widespread all over the world as Darwin stated that "... not one great country can be named from file polar region in the north to New Zealand in the south in which aborigines do not tattoo themselves'. The present paper attempts at understanding the age old art of tattooing among the Wanchos of Arunachal Pradesh and their social relations as reflected in this art form. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]