Purnima Lallan Sharma Foundation · Est. 2021
PLS FoundationPLS FOUNDATIONEducate. Empower. Care.

KNOWLEDGE ROOTED IN INDIA

Know India: people, places, culture and public life

Understand India through its geography, institutions, heritage, science and everyday public services. Start with a question or follow a guided reading path.

Choose a subject area

A guided place to begin

Explore every topic

Guides 1–22 of 22

Heritage, arts & material culture

Intermediate

Bhakti poetry: languages, images and community

Devotional poetry can make a philosophical relationship feel immediate: a speaker calls, waits, complains, remembers or surrenders.

Learning outcome: Analyse a devotional image, distinguish speaker from historical author, and explain how performance can create shared memory without assuming identical beliefs.

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Institutions & public life

Beginner

Elections and representation: find reliable voter information

Understanding an election begins with the office being filled, the voting system and the correct electoral roll.

Learning outcome: Distinguish parliamentary, assembly and local representation; interpret a fictional election result; and prepare a safe checklist for finding current official voter information.

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Heritage, arts & material culture

Intermediate

Indian handloom: weaves, work and material culture

A woven cloth preserves decisions made before and during weaving: fibre choice, yarn preparation, colour placement, tension and interlacement.

Learning outcome: Explain a loom’s basic actions, draw a plain-weave repeat, distinguish ikat from surface printing and connect technique to cultural context.

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Heritage, arts & material culture

Intermediate

Indian temple architecture: reading plans and forms

A temple can be read as an arrangement of spaces, a structure assembled or carved by skilled workers, and a place carrying sacred meanings.

Learning outcome: Interpret a simple temple plan, compare sanctum towers and gateways, and support a stylistic judgment with several visible features.

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Heritage, arts & material culture

Intermediate

Inscriptions, scripts and Indian history

A few words cut into stone can preserve a donor’s name, a royal order or a claim about a repaired reservoir.

Learning outcome: Read a model inscription in layers, distinguish regnal dates from calendar dates, and assess a royal claim without discarding its historical value.

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Institutions & public life

Beginner

Local government: panchayats, municipalities and everyday services

A broken streetlight or blocked drain raises two questions: who is responsible, and what evidence helps them act? Learn the structure of local government and a practical way to trace a service.

Learning outcome: Distinguish a Gram Sabha from a Gram Panchayat, map a service responsibility, and prepare a factual request without promising a guaranteed result.

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Institutions & public life

Intermediate

Read a public budget and ask evidence-based questions

A large allocation is a useful starting point, but it does not tell you what was spent or what changed for people.

Learning outcome: Calculate a budget change, distinguish BE, RE and Actuals, and turn a spending claim into a fair, specific question.

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Understand the idea. Put it into practice.

Learn through explanations, worked examples and questions with answers. Sources support the lessons and offer a route into deeper study.

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