“Imbibing the adivāsi identity in rural India”: Invitation to present independent research paper at an international symposium
/Towards the end of last year, Rob and Shivani from our team were invited to present their research paper at the International Symposium on Sustainable Rural Built Environments at the Kulliyah of Architecture and Environmental Design, International Islamic University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Their research reviews the current Indian legislative and planning framework and the involvement of adivāsi communities (India’s indigenous communities) in rural planning processes to balance their socio-cultural needs and the built environment’s demands.
For many years adivāsis have developed innate interrelationships with their land. Their lifestyle, socio-cultural practices and sustenance mechanisms embody unique land management practices that are slowly but surely beginning to gain international recognition in the form of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK). For generations they have relied heavily on the forests that they have conserved, managed and lived. Today these areas are classified as Protected Areas that are under Government ownership. The bureaucratic notions of ‘nation building’ are beginning to risk the erasure of adivāsi communities and their traditional knowledge as the idea of conservation and ‘progress’ combined with a lack of acknowledgement of their customary rights dominates the Indian planning and legislative framework.
Indigenous groups from world over have learnt to survive and sustain in some of the most hostile environmental conditions and have proved that humans can sustain as an integral aspect of ecology. Over 19% of the Earth’s surface is managed and conserved by about 300 million Indigenous people in 4000-5000 different cultures. To learn and promote their traditional knowledge can prove to be beneficial in today’s day and age where issues such as climate change begin to demand a change in our approach to managing and planning for the future of our landscapes. Their research draws upon community-based conservation initiatives that have been adopted in other contexts in order to decipher methods that could perpetuate environmental, socio-cultural and economic justice for the adivāsis.
For further information on the Research Symposium, see the following link:
Photos to follow soon!