Description
The discipline of International Relations has often been critiqued for geo-centric parochialism with scholars increasingly engaging with its colonial origins and legacies. This recent engagement underscores the necessity to unravel and disrupt the epistemic imperialism caused by forces of capitalism and colonialism. The paper offers a contribution by drawing on Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) to puncture the monolithic cultures of modernity by consciously crafting engagement based on principles of reciprocity and embededness and contests the basic tenets of neo-liberal modernisation by underscoring collective forms of rights and control over resources. The first part of the paper highlights the strenuous relationship of Indigenous Knowledge Systems to trajectories of state led ‘development’ within the neo-liberal context of post-colonial India. Drawing on the works of Veena Das and Alpa Shaw, the second section develops the concept of ‘unfinished histories’ by highlighting the role of the state in foundational violence and presents the narratives of indigenous communities as quintessential sites of resistance. These include highlighting the continuities between the current engagement with ‘traditional knowledge’ and the repression, expropriation, and imposition of knowledge in the colonial era thus exposing the colonial cartography of expertise that shapes current global policy-making on ‘traditional knowledge’. It last section further expands on the use of IKS as an effective political tool to advocate for pluralism and acceptance of lived differences. Through the engagement with IKS, the paper thus seeks to elaborates on questions of recognition, legitimacy and visibility within knowledge production in IR by highlighting the disciplinary complicity in reproducing certain colonial hierarchies and binaries.
