Reclaiming Indian Knowledge Systems in English Language Teaching: An Inclusive Pedagogical Approach for Rural and Tribal Learners
Name: Dr. Preeti Chandrashekhar Dave
Affiliation: Assistant Professor of English, Athavale College of Social Work, Chimur. MS. Email: davepreetiacsw27@gmail.com , preetidaveojha27@gmail.com
Phone: 8007835759
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-5948-7339
Abstract
Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS) constitute a comprehensive, holistic, and culturally embedded body of indigenous wisdom that has evolved in the Indian subcontinent through centuries of lived experience, oral traditions, philosophical inquiry, and community-based practices. These systems emphasize contextual learning, ethical consciousness, collective responsibility, and the inseparable relationship between language, culture, and society. Despite their richness, contemporary English Language Teaching (ELT) in Indian higher education largely follows Western pedagogical models that privilege standardized curricula, monolingual practices, and urban-centric cultural contexts. Such approaches often marginalize indigenous knowledge traditions and alienate rural and tribal learners, particularly first-generation college students who come from linguistically diverse and culturally rich backgrounds.
This research paper examines how the integration of Indian Knowledge Systems into English language teaching can create culturally responsive, inclusive, and empowering learning environments for rural and tribal students. Adopting a qualitative and experiential research methodology, the study is grounded in sustained classroom practices, reflective teaching journals, observations, and student interactions in a rural college in Maharashtra, where undergraduate Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) students from tribal communities form the primary learner group. The paper explores how folk narratives, oral storytelling traditions, community knowledge, indigenous ethical values, experiential learning, and bilingual pedagogy (English–Marathi) can be systematically incorporated into English classrooms.
The study argues that an IKS-based pedagogical framework enhances learner engagement, reduces language anxiety, and strengthens students’ cultural identity while simultaneously facilitating English language acquisition. Rather than positioning English as a replacement for indigenous knowledge, the paper advocates a dialogic approach in which English becomes a medium for articulating local knowledge, lived realities, and social concerns. Reclaiming Indian Knowledge Systems within English language teaching is therefore presented as both a pedagogical necessity and an ethical imperative for achieving educational equity, epistemic justice, and cultural sustainability in Indian higher education.
Keywords
Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS), English Language Teaching, Rural and Tribal Education, Indigenous Pedagogy, Bilingual Education, Cultural Context, NEP 2020
DOI link – https://doi.org/10.69758/GIMRJ/2601S01V14P059
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