Branding the Image of Religious Heritage in India

This research attempts to examine the image branding and placemaking of cultural and religious landscapes in India through ongoing tourism initiatives. With reference to the massively successful “Incredible India” campaign and multiple state tourism campaigns, the research is based on the case studies of key tourism initiatives introduced in the country over the years. Based on the concept of ‘tourist gaze’, multiple visuals depicting cultural and intangible religious heritage are analysed in detail to understand the deeper meanings behind them and to find what new perspectives they wish to portray to the potential tourists. Religious tourism and its marketing generate a huge amount of revenues for state governments, and as a result, branding the places with living religious heritage is seen to be an ongoing trend in India. However, there is a necessity to acknowledge the effects this so-called branding will have on the religious heritage and its core communities. Hence, issues such as representation of identities, possibility of false impressions of destinations and commodifying cultures are analysed in this study to better understand the present working of these initiatives in India.