India's silicon computing strength is now powering Bharat's cultural renaissance. For decades, artificial intelligence (AI) has been imagined as the domain of cold machines, racks of servers, glowing GPUs, algorithmic trading floors and faceless data centres. In much of the world, AI is discussed in terms of productivity, profits and power. India, however, is charting a strikingly different course. Here, AI is increasingly being deployed not just to optimise systems, but to preserve civilisation itself, to protect languages, revive ancient manuscripts, amplify cultural memory and deepen access to spirituality, art and tradition.
From the digitisation of palm-leaf manuscripts to real-time translation across India's extraordinary linguistic diversity, artificial intelligence is quietly reshaping how Indians encounter their own heritage, and how the world understands India. In places where one least expects advanced computing, temples, archives, tribal hamlets, museums and cultural repositories, AI has begun to work as an invisible bridge between the past and the future. At the heart of this effort is a simple but powerful idea: technology should serve people, culture and knowledge, not overwhelm them.
"AI is a very powerful tool to break barriers," says Vivek Aggarwal, Secretary, Ministry of Culture. "Barriers of language, barriers of geography and barriers of access are all being broken. Used correctly, it allows us to take India's vast cultural and knowledge systems to people in forms and languages they are comfortable with." At the upcoming India AI Impact Summit, many of the use cases where AI is helping Indian culture will be showcased in a special display.
Vivek Aggarwal, Secretary, Ministry of Culture, leading the charge on using AI for rocketing India's soft power.
A Linguistic Challenge like No Other
India's cultural challenge is unlike that of any other nation. According to Census data, the country officially recognises 22 scheduled languages, over 100 non-scheduled languages, and thousands of dialects and mother tongues, many of them oral, many endangered, and many deeply embedded in local traditions, folklore and spiritual practice.
Historically, this diversity has been both India's strength and its limitation. Knowledge preserved in one script or language often remained inaccessible to speakers of another. Manuscripts lay unread because few could decipher the script; oral traditions faded because they were never recorded.
Artificial intelligence is now changing that equation.
Through BHASHINI, India's national AI-driven language platform, real-time translation, transliteration, speech-to-text and text-to-speech have become possible across all 22 Scheduled languages and many more dialects, and even international languages. The tool functions as a common language layer that can be integrated across government platforms, cultural portals and public services.
"BHASHINI allows any citizen, or anyone in the world, to access information in the language they understand best," Aggarwal explains. "Whether it is text, voice, or live translation, it removes language as a barrier."
The platform has already demonstrated its potential in high-visibility public settings, offering seamless multilingual experiences that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago. More importantly, it is doing so quietly, without spectacle, embedding inclusion directly into the digital fabric of governance and culture.
In a country where language is identity, BHASHINI has emerged as an enviable AI tool, one that translates diversity into access.
Giving Ancient Manuscripts a New Lease of Life
Perhaps the most profound and surprising use of AI in India lies deep within archives and libraries, where centuries-old manuscripts are being rescued from obscurity.
India possesses millions of manuscripts written on palm leaf, birch bark, cloth and handmade paper, covering subjects as varied as philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, medicine, music, architecture and spirituality. Many are fragile, handwritten, and scattered across monasteries, temples, private collections and remote institutions.
AI is now being used to read what human eyes struggle with.
Advanced optical character recognition, handwritten text recognition and image-enhancement tools are allowing scholars to digitise, catalogue and search texts that were once inaccessible. Indian AI models, including BharatGen, are being trained on indigenous scripts and linguistic patterns, enabling better interpretation of ancient texts rooted in Indian knowledge systems.
"We are not just digitising manuscripts," Aggarwal says. "We are creating intelligent systems that can read, interpret, enhance and make them discoverable. AI helps us remove anomalies, improve image quality, read handwritten text and then link it to metadata so that knowledge can be searched and used."
Through initiatives like the Gyan Bharatam Mission and AI innovation challenges such as Gyan-Setu, India is building a national digital repository of its manuscript heritage. What was once locked away in physical form is now moving toward shared digital access, ensuring preservation, scholarship and public engagement.
For students, researchers and ordinary citizens alike, this means ancient Indian thought is no longer the preserve of a few experts. It is becoming part of the living present.
Culture beyond Preservation: Participation and Livelihoods
India's AI strategy for culture does not stop at preservation. Increasingly, it is being designed to enable participation - especially for artisans, performers and cultural practitioners who form the backbone of India's creative economy.
Voice-based interfaces allow artisans with limited literacy to access digital platforms in their own languages. AI-enabled translation helps craftspeople tell the stories of their work to buyers across regions and borders. Intelligent tagging and documentation systems help establish authenticity for heritage and GI-tagged products.
In effect, AI is helping integrate India's cultural sectors into digital value chains, not by flattening identity, but by strengthening it. When designed inclusively, technology becomes an enabler of dignity, livelihood and continuity.
Museums, Architecture and Living Heritage
AI is also shaping how culture will be experienced physically. As historic buildings in New Delhi's North and South Blocks are transformed into the Yuge Yugeen Bharat Museum, emerging technologies are being woven into curatorial planning.
"There are many possibilities," Aggarwal says. "From managing visitor flow and security to enhancing the visitor experience through AI-based interpretation."
Beyond museums, AI-driven modelling is being explored to integrate traditional Indian architectural knowledge with modern materials and technologies. Ancient principles of climate-responsive design, local materials and spatial harmony, often overlooked in contemporary construction, can now inform future buildings through intelligent systems trained on traditional knowledge. It is an attempt to reconnect modern India with its architectural memory.
The One Mystery AI Has Not Solved
Yet, for all its power, artificial intelligence has its limits.
One of India's greatest intellectual challenges, the decipherment of the Indus Valley or Sindhu-Saraswati script, remains unresolved. Despite international conferences, expert collaborations and the application of AI-driven pattern analysis, the script continues to defy definitive interpretation.
The inscriptions on the Indus Valley seals remain a mystery. Recently, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin announced a $1 million prize for deciphering the 5,000-year-old Indus Valley Civilisation script. Announced in January 2025 during the centenary of the Indus site's discovery, this initiative aims to encourage global research and explore potential links between the Indus script and Dravidian languages, following archaeological evidence found in Tamil Nadu.
Indus Valley script still poses a test to our understanding, "This is a great challenge," Aggarwal acknowledges. "AI and compute capacity will help us, but ultimately, it will be human ingenuity that makes the breakthrough." He notes that AI's large language models can only decipher what humans have trained them on; until now, the Indus Valley script has successfully defied human deciphering.
AI Without Fear
Unlike dystopian narratives elsewhere, India's approach to AI in culture is notably calm. "I don't believe AI can replace humans," Aggarwal says. "It is a tool to improve efficiency, not a substitute for human creativity or judgement."
That confidence reflects a deeper philosophical stance. By grounding AI in public good, inclusion and cultural continuity, India is reframing the global conversation around artificial intelligence. This is not AI for domination or disruption. It is AI for understanding.
Winning the World with Soft Power
As nations compete over computing capacity and algorithms, India is deploying hard computing power to project something softer, culture, philosophy and civilizational depth.
By translating texts across languages, reviving manuscripts, preserving tribal voices and enabling global access to its heritage, India is using AI to extend its soft power organically. Not through slogans, but through shared knowledge.
In doing so, India is offering the world an alternative vision of artificial intelligence, one where the most advanced technology is used not to erase the past, but to remember it better.
At a time when AI often inspires fear, India is quietly showing how it can inspire deep human connection. AI for India's good, using cutting-edge computing to carry civilisation, culture and philosophy to the world.
NDTV is also doing an AI summit on February 18.
