Is Indian folk culture and music an act of design?

On 13 June 2026, a research paper presented at the Design Research Society Conference in Edinburgh argued that India’s folk musicians about how folk artists are recognised, credited and compensated. They are firstgeneration creators using music to respond to environment, gender, communal harmony and social reform. The paper, titled “Co-designing Culture,” is by Abhinav Agrawal, Mudit Chaturvedi and Gaurang Agrawal of the Anahad Foundation, which has worked with over 10,000 folk artists across 15 states for 13 years. It draws on interviews with 23 firstgeneration artists in 14 states. Today, a GI tag may protect a craft from imitation but there is no such framework for folk and oral traditions. The Anahad paper at a conference like DRS is the first serious attempt to challenge existing definitions on copyright and ownership. As the orange economy expands, the hardest design move is to collectively agree on all the new domains entering “design” News Source: The New Indian Express

As the orange economy expands, the hardest design move is to collectively agree on all the new domains entering “design” News Source: The New Indian Express