What can Kaagaz ke Phool, Guru Dutt’s haunting 1959 film about fame and artistic disillusionment, teach us today? Could a study of the sensual divinities of Raja Ravi Varma, alongside the bold lines of Kalighat’s temple art, help decode the shaping of India’s modern visual aesthetic? What truths about humour and survival lie buried in Charlie Chaplin’s difficult childhood?
These aren’t just speculative musings—they’re examples of the thought-provoking journeys made possible by the Tuli Research Centre for India Studies (TRIS), a vast digital archive curated to reimagine how we access, understand, and engage with Indian culture. Founded by writer and cultural entrepreneur Neville Tuli, TRIS aims to make knowledge open, inclusive and visually immersive. As the TRIS mission puts it plainly: “Let not capital, nor institutional systems, continue to restrict the sharing of humanity’s cultural and intellectual legacies. Let not the pursuit of knowledge remain a privilege for the few. Knowledge must belong to all. Education must be free. Inquiry must be boundless.”
At its core, TRIS is an interactive archive of India’s aesthetic, intellectual and historical treasures. What sets it apart is its “jugalbandi” of text, image and sound—India’s traditional trio of storytelling. For students, researchers, educators or simply the curious, this platform offers the tools to rediscover India’s civilisational wealth with fresh eyes. “We’ve brought together rare archival materials, scholarly commentary and visual narratives to allow users to navigate and reinterpret the Indian experience,” says Tuli.
This isn’t a dry database; it’s a living, breathing resource. Users can explore thousands of objects—from oleographs and glass slides to song booklets from old films—tailored to specific interests through an intuitive search and filter system. The visually driven interface helps draw in younger users, allowing them to explore deep ideas through beautiful, surprising artefacts.
TRIS is structured around 16 thematic research categories, each acting like a college in a grand, interdisciplinary university. The categories are delightfully eclectic: Cinema as a Critical Educational Resource, The Social Responsibility of the Creative Mind, The Sensual Discipline within Creativity, and The Animal-Human-Nature Continuum are just a few. “This is the largest open digital resource of its kind dedicated to Indian arts and thought,” Tuli explains, “and it’s designed for anyone—students, teachers, creators—across the globe.”
Tuli knows this terrain well. After earning degrees from the London School of Economics and Oxford, he returned to India in 1993 determined to build what he called an “Oxford for India”—a space of intellectual freedom, artistic excellence and cultural integrity. In 2000, he launched Osian’s, India’s first auction house for fine art, cinema memorabilia and cultural artefacts. But his real long game was TRIS. “After a year of travelling across India in 1995, I sat down and sketched a 30-year plan on a small piece of paper,” he recalls. “It was a roadmap to help transform how India sees itself—through its art, its stories, and its legacy of thought.”
TRIS isn’t just an archive. It aspires to be a movement, albeit low key, rooted in access, driven by beauty, and committed to the idea that knowledge should be a right, not a privilege.