Why India’s Arts and Culture Need a Seat at the CSR Table

Beyond balance sheets: investing in heritage, humanity, and heart

Industrialist and philanthropist Anand Mahindra recently sparked a much-needed national conversation — one that doesn’t just belong in boardrooms, but in the soul of our society. In a powerful statement, he urged that even India’s brightest engineers and management graduates should immerse themselves in the world of arts and culture, not as a diversion, but as a necessity.

Technical education, he said, teaches you to calculate and code. But it’s the arts — literature, music, painting, heritage — that build the ability to observe, understand different perspectives, and connect with people. These skills often develop when one engages with cultural expressions — whether through visual art, traditional crafts, or literature.

And yet, ironically, though eligible for CSR support, the arts and cultural sector continues to be underfunded and frequently overlooked.

CSR and the Forgotten Pillar of Culture

India’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) rules do, in fact, explicitly encourage the promotion and protection of national heritage, art and culture — including the restoration of historical sites, preservation of traditional crafts, and support for public libraries and museums. This isn't charity. It is nation building in its most intimate and meaningful form.

When companies choose to support a handloom cluster, a tribal dance academy, or an ancient temple’s conservation, they’re not just preserving artefacts. They’re preserving livelihoods, identities, and dignity. They’re creating jobs, reviving dying art forms, and ensuring that a country as rich in culture as India does not fade into monochrome in the name of modernity.

Handloom textiles and handicrafts are the heart of our Indian heritage

Health, Education, Livelihoods — Yes, But Also Heart

Let’s be clear: education, health, and employment must always be pillars of CSR funding. But what kind of education ignores its own roots? What kind of healthcare forgets the role of mental well-being that music or folk storytelling can provide? What kind of livelihood policy overlooks the potter, the puppeteer, the poet?

Without art and culture, society risks becoming disconnected and one-dimensional. If CSR is meant to reflect a company's values and long-term vision, then supporting the arts must become a more deliberate and consistent part of that commitment.

The Call to Action

In Mahindra’s words — paraphrased — to build leaders of the future, we must first build citizens who feel, connect, and care. And that begins with ensuring the spaces, stories, and symbols that shaped us do not vanish into silence.

To India’s corporate leaders: your CSR has the power to shape not just infrastructure, but imagination. Use it. Support a museum. Adopt a theatre. Fund a folk art school. Revive a forgotten script. And in doing so, don’t just change lives — preserve the very soul of a civilisation.

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