Tuli Research Centre for India Studies (T.R.I.S.)

The Tuli Research Centre for India Studies (T.R.I.S.) encompasses a vast Archive and Library and serves as custodian to the world’s finest integrated knowledge base that, together with tuliresearchcentre.org, bridges the visual, textual, and auditory worlds to create a research ecosystem dedicated to India Studies and related subjects.

The online knowledge-base offers free and open access to a collection exploring India’s fine and popular arts, cinema, culture and society since the 1850’s. Conceived by Neville Tuli, a pioneer in arts infrastructure- building and cultural research, T.R.I.S. distills three decades of scholarship, curation, and pedagogical innovation into a dynamic, curriculum-ready resource for modern and contemporary India Studies.

At its core tuliresearchcentre.org is a dynamic search engine, built upon thousands of meticulously documented and archived objects and images via excel sheets created over thirty years of Tuli’s research, structured and designed by a small core team to empower visual-textual-audio learning and rediscovery anew.

The modern and contemporary India Studies framework conceptualised by Tuli so as to integrate India’s plurality and its diversity with its unique holistic energy and rhythm, significantly improves the current academic inter-disciplinarity frameworks to study India.

The bringing together within a global context of modern and contemporary Indian fine arts, Indian and world cinema, photography in India, India’s vast architectural heritage, the popular arts and crafts and their design sensibilities, along with a deeper understanding of animal welfare, especially canine and feline children, along with studying ecological studies, cultural economics & studies, and a vast world of ethical and spiritual poetics and philosophies, as much as living traditions as theories, while privileging the nature of childhood, the social responsibilities of the creative mind, and the sensuality within the creative spirit, has allowed the rare creation of a cohesive aesthetic, historical and intellectual framework which can now be shared freely.

The platform initially brings together 350,000+ objects, from thirty years of obsessive collecting, plus research from rare antiquarian and contemporary books, journals, magazines, catalogues, art and film archives, and memorabilia through an extensive digital interface—structured across the sixteen Research Categories and thousands of Masterlists. Together, these build the India Studies framework enabling precise, tailored search pathways that encourage deep exploration across multiple disciplines.

Beyond its digital presence, T.R.I.S. sustains a physical learning ecosystem through its Archive and Library, its exhibitions, film screenings, panel discussions, open-days, masterclasses, workshops and grants system. Since 2024, the Centre has held five major exhibitions under its ongoing series Self Discovery via Rediscovering India, expanding a public understanding of India’s creative traditions in contemporary India. Every initiative reflects the Research Centre’s commitment to free and open learning—dismantling the economic, structural, and institutional barriers that have long restricted access to knowledge.

From 3rd January 2026 we share a new offline-online comprehensive learning and public engagement calendar for the “Self-Discovery via Rediscovering India” Series. The live events and social media engagement, will facilitate developing deeper customised learning modules and curricula for individual and institutional collaborations.

The Tuli Research Centre for India Studies stands with every seeker of knowledge—students, educators, and lifelong learners—who believe that access to wisdom, creativity, and critical thought must never be a privilege but a shared human right. Through its integrated and ever-evolving search engine, tuliresearchcentre.org continues to demonstrate that the pursuit of understanding India is not merely an academic endeavour, but a lifelong journey of discovery, connection, identity, and renewal.

We hope this gift long overdue is publicly embraced with the love with which we have built it over the past three decades.

Planned since 1994, TRIS offers an innovative approach that democratizes access to creative knowledge, offering a fresh, visual-driven model for exploring India’s vast cultural and historical diversity.