Daily Briefing Current Affairs

When Does a Tradition Survive by Changing Into Something Its Founder Would Not Recognise?

A recent biopic on the 20th-century guru Neem Karoli Baba has driven a sharp rise in visitors to his ashram in the Kumaon hills, following earlier waves of attention from celebrity visits and the well-known accounts of Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg's pilgrimages there. The surge illustrates a broader, recurring pattern: how digitally-mediated culture repackages older spiritual traditions for new audiences.