Exploring Indigenous Knowledge System in India

Email

Whatsapp

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

Copy link

The research papers presented in this volume are stories that will help one to have an analytical look at the nature and significance of indigenous knowledge system in our country. The authors strongly and authoritatively highlight and discover various indigenous knowledge system of our society and bring out the human face in the traditional culture. The past 25 years has seen meaningful interpretations and active negotiation about the extent that intellectual property law should be utilized to protect indigenous peoples' knowledge.

The present work is an invitation and a challenge to the present generation to know, appreciate, preserve and promote indigenous knowledge system and its practices in India.

PROF KAMAL K. MISRA (b. 1954) is currently the Vice-Chancellor of Utkal University of Culture. Bhubaneswar, Odisha He was the Director of Anthropological Survey of India. Kolkata; Director, Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangarahalaya. Bhopal, Dean of the School of Social Sciences, University of Hyderabad; and Head of the Department of Anthropology, University of Hyderabad. twice He has 24 books to his credit and more than 75 research papers published in international and national journals. He was a Fulbright Fellow and was the recipient of Commonwealth Fellowship. He was awarded Sarat Chandra Roy Memorial Medal by the Asiatic Society, Kolkata.

DR. GNANAPRAGASAM LAZAR (b.1954) has obtained his MA in Philosophy, in the University of Poona (1986) and he furthered his studies in World Religions at the University of Lancaster, England, where he obtained his degree of MA, M.Phil., and then Ph.D. (1994). Apart from his regular teaching, he has published four books and more 32 scholarly articles in Anthropology, Sociology and World Religions. He is the Founder Director of SANSKRUTI, member of Anthropos International, Currently he is the President of Asia Pacific Mission and Research (ASPAMIR).

It was indeed a great learning experience for me for having associated year after year with the annual National Seminars being organized by Dr. Lazar and his institution. SANSKRUTI-Institute of Dravidian Culture and Research, at Hyderabad. On January 18 & 19, 2018, appreciably, the National Seminar was organized around the theme of "Exploring Indigenous Knowledge System and Empowerment of Marginalized Communities of Indian Society: Policies and Practices" The theme is very close to my heart, as I was trained at the University of Kent, Canterbury, U.K. in Ecology and Conservation, and had taught Ecological Anthropology, including Indigenous Knowledge, for several years at the University of Hyderabad. Moreover, had attended several rounds of meetings of Intergovernmental Committee on IP & GR, TK and Folklore at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) at Geneva between 2010 and 2013 as a delegate of the Goverment of India to deliberate on issues related to tradition-based literary, artistic or scientific works, performances, inventions, scientific discoveries, designs, marks, names and symbols, undisclosed information and all other tradition-based innovations and creations resulting from intellectual activity in the industrial, scientific, literary or artistic fields. With this background, it is but natural that my interest in Indigenous Knowledge has been intense and intimate. In fact, my only worry is that as IK is oral and unrecorded, it is getting lost, and along with it the survival strategy of many marginalized and tribal communities. These communities are deliberately pushed into poverty and destitution, and these people are made paupers in their own territories. The ultimate beneficiaries of the loss of IK are the nations and communities who make huge profits from the knowledge that was once exclusive of the marginalized and the tribal communities. The ever growing pharmaceutical, agricultural, mining and tourism industries are the ultimate beneficiaries on the debris of the rich repository of IK.

**Contents and Sample Pages**