Visualizing the Sustainable Development Goals through the Lens of the Indian Indigenous Knowledge System

The market economies in the twentieth century focused on rapid economic growth and increasing gross domestic product. Economic growth due to rapid industrialization brought problems of poverty, inequality, financial market crisis, and biodiversity loss. Ecological degradation, greenhouse gas emissions, depletion of biological resources, and climate change, which accompany carbon fuel-based industrialization, can no longer be ignored as mere ‘externality’ of progress. This realization broadened the view of development to ‘Sustainable Development’, i.e., living sustainably off Earth’s natural resources and promoting well-being for everyone without degrading the Earth’s life-support systems. The 17 Sustainable SDGs were adopted in 2015 as a global framework of a universal agenda ‘to leave no one behind’. The historical continuity of Indigenous communities across the globe reveals that while we are struggling to minimize the negative impact of industrialization on the environment, tribal/local communities with informal livelihood practices and cultural traditions are living ‘sustainably’. The indigenous populations have survived across generations and have diverse indigenous knowledge systems of adaptation to the environment. Their Indigenous knowledge has enhanced their resilience and has enabled them to mitigate and adapt to the climate. This paper's primary focus is on exploring the indigenous knowledge systems, particularly in the Indian IKS, and studying their strategies for sustainable development. The paper gives an insight into the harmonious relationship of Indian IKS with ecology and illustrates that ‘sustainability’ has been a part of our cultural heritage for generations. The spiritual philosophy of Vedic literature, the knowledge in Ayurveda, yoga, and Vastu Shastra, the ethical philosophy of Indian literature, tribal and folk traditions, and social structures - all are closely interlinked with socio-economic and environmental sustainability. The research paper explores various aspects of the Indian indigenous knowledge system to map the targets of the SDGs, which have been an inherent part of our socio-economic heritage for generations.