For all the stereotypes surrounding Gen Z, there is another story quietly emerging.
A generation often portrayed through social media trends, political arguments and internet culture is also showing an interest in something far older: its civilisational roots.
A recent Bhajan Sandhya reportedly organised at IIM Bengaluru has caught attention online, with young students participating in devotional music and bhajans.
The visual is striking.
Inside one of India’s premier management institutions, young Indians are choosing devotional songs and collective prayer over the usual image associated with campus life.
It may look like a small cultural gathering.
But sometimes, small cultural moments reveal something much larger.
Gen Z Is Not One Monolithic Generation
It is easy to describe an entire generation through its loudest voices.
Social media often amplifies the most rebellious, provocative or destructive trends. As a result, Gen Z can sometimes be portrayed as increasingly disconnected from tradition.
Reality is more complicated.
Millions of young Indians continue to participate in festivals, visit temples, learn classical music, practise yoga, read Indian philosophy and celebrate traditional customs.
A Bhajan Sandhya at a premier institution is therefore worth noticing precisely because it challenges the assumption that modernity and tradition must exist on opposite sides.
Young Indians can be ambitious professionals and deeply connected to their heritage at the same time.
From Rejection To Rediscovery
For decades, modern Indian education and popular culture often presented tradition as something belonging to an older generation.
Young people were encouraged to look outward.
Global culture was modern.
Western lifestyles were aspirational.
Indian traditions were frequently reduced to festivals, rituals or family obligations.
But the internet has changed the equation.
Gen Z has unprecedented access to Sanskrit texts, lectures by spiritual teachers, Indian classical music, temple traditions and historical research.
They can now encounter their civilisation directly.
That creates a different relationship with tradition.
Instead of simply inheriting it from parents and grandparents, young Indians can explore it themselves.
They can ask questions.
They can debate.
And increasingly, some are choosing to reconnect.
Modernity Does Not Require Cultural Amnesia
There is a false choice often presented to young Indians.
Either embrace modernity or remain traditional.
Either become globally connected or remain rooted in Indian culture.
But there is no such contradiction.
A student at IIM Bengaluru can study finance, strategy and global business while also singing a bhajan.
A young entrepreneur can build a technology company while observing traditional festivals.
A management student can discuss capitalism and markets during the day and participate in a spiritual gathering in the evening.
That combination is not a contradiction.
It is perfectly compatible with India’s civilisational tradition of accommodating knowledge, inquiry and spiritual practice.
IIM Bengaluru itself has hosted programmes engaging with Indian spiritual traditions. In March 2026, the institute hosted a talk by spiritual teacher Sri M on managing the mind and the first step towards the art of management.
Sanatan Is Finding Its Way Into New Spaces
The significance of such moments is not that every young Indian is suddenly becoming religious.
That would be an unreasonable conclusion.
The more interesting development is that Sanatan traditions are increasingly visible in spaces where they were once assumed to be out of place.
Campuses.
Start-ups.
Corporate offices.
Fitness communities.
Music circles.
Social media.
Young Indians are discovering that their heritage does not have to disappear when they enter modern professional spaces.
Instead, it can travel with them.
That is perhaps the more important cultural shift.
Not All Hope Is Lost
Every generation has its problems.
Gen Z is no exception.
There are concerns about social-media addiction, loneliness, political polarisation and the pressure to constantly perform online.
But focusing only on those problems misses another development.
There is also a search for meaning.
And for some young Indians, that search is leading them back to their roots.
A bhajan is simple.
There is no elaborate political campaign behind it.
No grand declaration is required.
A group of young people sitting together and singing devotional songs can itself become a statement of cultural confidence.
It says that being modern does not require abandoning the past.
It says that ambition and spirituality can coexist.
And perhaps most importantly, it suggests that India’s younger generation is not necessarily moving away from its civilisation.
Some are discovering it all over again.