Teaching and Learning Indian Knowledge Systems

Namrata R Ganneri writes:

On 12 April 2023, the University Grants Commission published its draft guidelines for incorporating Indian knowledge in higher education curricula. These guidelines, drafted in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 mandate to promote research and instruction in Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS), at all levels of education, by preparing and teaching new courses/programmes at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Students both at the undergraduate and postgraduate programmes are to gather at least 5% of their mandated credits from IKS courses. At least half of these credits are to be sourced from IKS courses related to the student’s major discipline of specialisation. Students of medicine, for instance, are expected to read a foundation course in Indian systems of medicine followed by another elective course on a similar theme in the subsequent semester. The model curricula appended in the guidelines, therefore enlist IKS foundational courses, presumably compulsory for all students, delineating contributions of early Indians in disciplines ranging from architecture, metallurgy, health sciences to fine arts and economy. What runs like a red thread through the guidelines is the emphasis on an uninterrupted knowledge tradition right into the 19th century (see, for instance, the injunction “Highlight the continuity of the Indian astronomical tradition [1400 BCE–19th century CE],” p 22), the rupture sourced ostensibly to the introduction of Western education.