Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) Sponsored TWO DAYS NATIONAL SEMINAR on From Ancient Wisdom to Present Knowledge: Relevance of Indian Knowledge Systems in the Modern Intellectual Landscapes of India

deadline for submissions: 
September 30, 2026
full name / name of organization: 
Department of English Kashipur Michael Madhusudan Mahavidyalaya Kashipur, Purulia, West Bengal
contact email: 

Bhāratīya Jñāna Paramparā, another name for Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS), is a comprehensive body of knowledge which has been accumulated over millennia. Indian Knowledge Systems encompasses philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, medicine (Ayurveda), government, ecology, the arts, and sustainable living. It is based on books such as the Vedas, Upanishads, Puranas, and treatises like the Arthashastra, Charaka Samhita, and Sushruta Samhita. This Knowledge systems place a strong emphasis on interconnection, moral behaviour, and harmony with the natural world - principles embodied in ideas such as Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (the world is one family). Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS) is relevant because it can enhance rather than replace current knowledge. India's intellectual environment may be enhanced by critical, evidence-based integration that addresses inclusion and focuses on verified contributions. India can develop and provide answers for global problems like sustainability and well-being while producing culturally grounded, internationally capable people by fusing traditional holistic knowledge with modern science.
India's continuous pursuit of independent (Atmanirbhar) intellectual sovereignty in a diverse world is seen in this shift from ancient wisdom to contemporary knowledge.

    The National Education Policy 2020 mandates that curricula in Indian schools and universities should incorporate topics related to ancient India. The Ministry of Indian Education acknowledges Indian way of working towards a society that is welfare-based and sustainable. The Jnan, Vignan, and Jeevan Darshan approach is developed through experience, observation, experimentation and thorough analysis used in education, arts, administration, law, justice, health, manufacturing, and commerce. It contributed a Bhartiya Drishti to offer answers to the new global issues that India and the world are currently experiencing on various levels. It recognises Indigenous and traditional learning methods and tribal knowledge in the areas of mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, yoga, architecture, medicine, agriculture, engineering, linguistics, literature, sports and games in addition to government, politics and conservation. The goal of Ek Bharat Shrestha Bharat is to realise this vision through Indian Knowledge Systems in higher education institutions, introducing Indian heritage and culture, human values, Vedic Maths, Yoga, Ayurveda, Sanskrit, Indian Languages, sacred religions of Indian subcontinent, archaeological sites and monuments and heritage and culture. The Indian Knowledge Systems, as a part of Bharatiya Parampara, are considered to be the social capital of the people of India. The main assets of the Indian knowledge system are the struggle for survival, producing food, providing shelter and achieving control of their own lives. Most of the Indian knowledge disappears due to the intrusion of foreign technologies and developmental concepts, which bring promise of short-term gains or solutions to problems without being capable of sustaining them. The tragedy of the disappearance of this knowledge system is most obvious to those who have developed it and make a living through it. But the disappearance of it for others can be detrimental when skills, technologies, artefacts, problem-solving strategies and expertise are lost. Although Indian knowledge may be focused on particular individuals and may achieve a degree of coherence in rituals and other symbolic constructs, its distribution is always fragmentary. Generally, it does not exist in its totality in any one place or any individual. It is developed in the practices and interactions in which people engage. Despite claims for the existence of culture-wide (indeed universal) abstract classifications of knowledge based on non-functional criteria, where Indian knowledge at its deepest and directly applicable, its organisation is essentially functional. Indigenous knowledge is characteristically situated within broader cultural traditions, separating the technical from the nontechnical, rational from non-rational, is problematic. Indigenous knowledge systems have a comprehensive understanding of ecosystems and the use of sustainable resources. Nonetheless, colonial education offered a viewpoint on ecosystems and sustainable resource use. The everyday life of Indian knowledge and learning methods has also been displaced by Western concepts and their theoretical knowledge and academic learning methods. As a result, Indian wisdom is lost along with knowledge on how to live sustainably in terms of environment and society. Indigenous knowledge systems are therefore not easily accessible to agricultural researchers, development professionals, politicians and have not been methodically documented in their writings. Some works have expressed interest in Indigenous knowledge with a more condensed discussion, along with a thorough review and general explanation of Indigenous knowledge, with a focus on genetic resources, pastoral management and agroforestry. However, there remains a serious gap in indigenous knowledge about how to live sustainably in terms of both the environment and society.

    Therefore, seminar will be a thorough discussion on the Bhartiya Gnana Parampara and knowledge of the indigenous people of India to offer answers to the new global issues that India and the rest of the world are currently experiencing, as well as influencing in the broad category of linguistic, textual, oral and artistic traditions. Therefore, papers are invited on, but not limited to, the following sub themes.

Sub-Themes:

  • Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS) and NEP 2020
  • Indian Knowledge Systems and Goals of Vikshit Bharat
  • Indian Knowledge Systems and Self-Reliant India
  • Indian Knowledge System in Society, Culture and Heritage
  • Information Literacy on Indigenous Knowledge Conservation and Preservation
  • Community Information System and Services Reinforcing of Indian Knowledge System
  • Climate Change and Indigenous Knowledge
  • Indian Knowledge in Public Library Systems in India
  • Indian /Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Folk Writings
  • Indian Knowledge Systems and Medicines
  • Indian Knowledge Systems and Women’s Question
  • Indian Knowledge Systems and Modernism and Postmodernist Knowledge Transfer
  • Indian Knowledge Systems and Environmental Sustainability
  • Indian Knowledge Systems and Literature from Ancient to Modern 
  • Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Library for Archiving Knowledge
  • Indian Knowledge System and India’s Economy and Agriculture
  • Indian Knowledge Systems and Culinary Tradition of India
  • Traditional Knowledge Systems of Indian and Memory, Tradition and Heritage
  • Indian Knowledge Systems and Decoloniality/Decolonial Turn  
  • Indian Knowledge Systems, Bahasa and Aesthetics   
  • Indian Knowledge Systems and Contemporary Challenges
  • Indian Knowledge Systems and Reframing Policy through Intellectual tradition and Knowledge
  •  Indian Knowledge Systems, Policy, Good Governance and Nation Building