Recontextualizing or Reifying Tradition? A Critical Analysis of the Indian Knowledge Systems Mandate in NEP 2020
Author : Dr. Mohammad Irshad Hussain
Abstract :
India's National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 introduces a significant and contentious directive: the integration of Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS) across all levels of education. Framed as a decolonial move to restore cultural pride and epistemic diversity, this mandate presents a complex terrain of pedagogical promise and ideological peril. This paper conducts a rigorous critical analysis of the NEP's IKS framework, interrogating its conceptualization, operational challenges, and potential implications for the aims of a 21st-century education. Through a close reading of the policy text and an examination of subsequent implementation guidelines, this research argues that the NEP's articulation of IKS, while a necessary corrective to historical epistemic erasure, risks four key pitfalls:
- A reification of "tradition" as a monolithic, static category, often conflated with a selectively curated Hindu Brahmanical canon;
- A superficial, additive approach to integration that may sideline critical engagement and social contextualization;
- An unresolved tension between valorizing indigenous knowledges and meeting the demands of a globalized technological economy; and
- A significant implementation gap stemming from a lack of qualified scholars, pedagogical frameworks, and institutional mechanisms.
The paper concludes that for the IKS mandate to fulfill its stated goal of developing "rooted yet global" citizens, it must move beyond symbolic inclusion. It must adopt a rigorously critical, pluralistic, and interdisciplinary methodology that engages with IKS as dynamic, contested, and socially situated systems of knowing, encouraging students to analyze both their intellectual insights and their historical intersections with power, hierarchy, and exclusion.
Keywords :
Indian Knowledge Systems, NEP 2020, Decolonial Education, Epistemic Pluralism, Curriculum Politics, Indigenous Knowledge.
