Date: 30/11/2022
Relevance:GS-1: Indian Culture - Salient aspects of Art Forms, Literature and Architecture from ancient to modern times.
Key Phrases: National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST), Re-documentation, Tribal Knowledge Systems, Knowledge Superpower, Cultures and Social Practices, Tribal Communities and Leaders, Indian Knowledge System, National Education Policy, Database of Literature.
Context:
- Recently, President Droupadi Murmu addressed the delegates of a National Workshop on ‘Janjatiya Anusandhan – Asmita, Astitva evam Vikas’ on November 28, 2022.
Key Highlights:
- According to the 2011 Census, the Scheduled Tribes account for 104 million representing 8.6% of the country’s population.
- The essential characteristics of these communities are:
- Primitive Traits; Geographical isolation; Distinct culture; Shy of contact with community at large; Economically backwards.
- What are Integrating tribal knowledge systems?
- Tribal knowledge systems represent inter-generational wisdom in band societies passed on to the present times through centuries of experience and learnings.
- Tribal societies have contemporary knowledge of nature due to continued closeness to forests, flora and fauna.
- Tribal methods are based on conservation of knowledge.
- For example, the awareness among tribals of Andaman & Nicobar about a wall of sea helped them against Tsunami in 2004.
Indian Knowledge System (IKS)
- About
- Indian Knowledge System (IKS) is an innovative cell under Ministry of Education (MoE) at AICTE, New Delhi.
- It is established to promote interdisciplinary research on all aspects of IKS, preserve and disseminate IKS for further research and societal applications.
- It will actively engage in spreading the rich heritage of our country and traditional knowledge in the field of Arts and literature, Agriculture, Basic Sciences, Engineering & Technology, Architecture, Management, Economics, etc.
- Functions of IKS:
- Facilitate and coordinate IKS based/related inter and transdisciplinary work done by various institutions in India and abroad including universities, institutions of national importance, R&D laboratories and different ministries and inspire private sector organisations to engage with it.
- Facilitate funding of various projects and develop mechanisms to undertake research.
- Establish, guide and monitor subject-wise interdisciplinary research groups of researchers from institutes, centres and individuals.
- Create and promote popularisation schemes.
- Make Policy recommendations wherever required for the promotion of IKS.
Significance:
- The promotion and development of knowledge of tribal society would play an important role in making India a knowledge superpower.
- This will enable the government to understand tribal societies, identity and rights better.
- Tribal knowledge systems promote integrated learning for the community.
- Tribal knowledge systems are non-exclusionary and marked by equity.
National Commission for Scheduled Tribes
- The National Commission for Scheduled Tribes was established by amending Article 338 and inserting a new Article 338A in the Indian Constitution through 89th Amendment Act, 2003.
- The National Commission for Scheduled Tribes is a constitutional body.
- Its role is to safeguard the interests of the scheduled tribes or under any other order to the Government and to evaluate the working of such safeguards.
- The Union and every State Government shall consult the Commission on all major policy matters affecting Scheduled Tribes.
- The Commission and its officers participate in formulation of policies and in the developmental programmes for Scheduled Tribes including Tribal Sub-Plan.
Government’s Initiative:
- The National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST), along with the Union Government, is now pushing for the “re-documentation” of the cultures and social practices of indigenous and tribal societies in India as existing scholarly literature is heavily reliant on the body of knowledge created by colonising governments.
- The NCST held a series of events over the past year at more than 125
institutions and TRIs under the theme of "Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav,"
where the history of tribal freedom fighters was a prominent focus.
- These events served as the framework for the workshop this week.
- Following these incidents, numerous conferences were held in New Delhi to discuss what areas of research in the areas of tribal identity, tribal rights, and tribal development could be pursued.
Conclusion:
- To ensure the benefits of development reach to all of tribal communities and at the same time, their cultural identity remains intact, is the challenge before us.
Source: The Hindu
Mains Question:
Q. Examine the uniqueness and use of tribal knowledge systems as compared to mainstream society culture. (250 Words).
