Tribal Knowledge Systems: Uniqueness vs Mainstream Knowledge

Tribal knowledge is a working system, not a list of old habits. Three official texts help us describe it.

1. What counts as tribal knowledge?

The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) speaks of the “knowledge, innovations and practices” of indigenous and local people. They follow traditional ways of life. Their knowledge helps to protect nature and use it wisely. So it is far more than old habit.

The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) gives a longer list. It names old knowledge, seeds and medicines. It adds knowledge of plants and animals, and oral traditions.

2. How is tribal knowledge passed on?

It passes from one generation to the next through oral tradition and daily practice. UNDRIP lists oral traditions as part of cultural heritage.

The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) describes indigenous technical knowledge in the same way. It says this knowledge grew from experience over generations. People improved it through informal experimentation. So a child learns by watching and doing.

Unrecorded knowledge can be lost when its holders pass away. Writing it down, as People’s Biodiversity Registers do, slows that loss.

3. How is it unique when compared with mainstream knowledge?

ICAR calls this knowledge tested, local and holistic. It says the knowledge was tested over centuries and suits the local environment. It also says the knowledge is woven into cultural life.

ICAR sets the two side by side. Tribal knowledge is holistic, intuitive and practical. Mainstream knowledge is reductionist, quantitative and analytical. Reductionist means it breaks a subject into small parts to study them.

Mainstream knowledge, such as patent law, asks different questions. It asks whether an idea is new and who the single inventor is. Old, shared knowledge fails that test. That is why it can be taken without credit. The turmeric case shows how.

The turmeric case shows the gap. The patent fell because uses of turmeric were already known in India. In law, that earlier knowledge is called prior art.

Tribal practice has produced a drug, farming systems and water systems. Each one grew from close contact with local land.

4. What is Sowa-Rigpa, and how did the law treat it?

Sowa-Rigpa is a traditional system of medicine. Parliament passed the Indian Medicine Central Council (Amendment) Act, 2010. This is Act 43 of 2010. It added Sowa-Rigpa to the list of Indian systems of medicine, next to Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani.

It also created a separate committee for Sowa-Rigpa in the Central Council. The Act aimed to give the system legal recognition and support its protection. Now it has a place in the law.

5. What did the Kani tribe teach scientists?

They showed scientists a plant that fights tiredness. In 1987 a research team studied the forests of the Western Ghats in Kerala. Kani tribals ate the fruit of a wild plant called Arogyapacha.

The Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute (TBGRI) then made a drug called Jeevani. A trial with 100 people tested its effects. It is mixed with hot water or milk.

6. How was the Kani community paid?

TBGRI shared 50% of the licence fee and royalty with the tribal community. In November 1995 it licensed the Jeevani technology to Aryavaidya Pharmacy, Coimbatore. The fee was Rs 10 lakh for 7 years, plus 2% royalty on sales.

This became a model of fair benefit sharing. Tribals were also encouraged to grow the plant. The community shared in the gain.

7. What are jhum and Zabo?

Jhum is shifting cultivation. It is a main mode of food production in the hills of northeast India. In the cultivation phase the land counts as farmland. In the fallow phase it counts as forest.

A NITI Aayog (the government’s policy think tank) report found this causes confusing rules. The Forest Policy of 1988 treats jhum land as forest and discourages the practice.

In Meghalaya’s Khasi and Jaintia hills, tribal farmers send spring water through bamboo pipes. They use it to drip-irrigate their crops. It saves water and needs no machine.

Zabo is a farming system of the Chakhesang tribe of Nagaland. It joins several farm activities in one plan. Rain water is stored in catchments along hill slopes. Nothing goes to waste.

India uses three tools. These are the Biological Diversity Act, a plant variety law and a digital library of written knowledge. Each tool guards a different kind of asset.

8. What does the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 do?

It controls who may take biological resources and knowledge. It also demands fair sharing.

Foreigners need approval from the National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) before they take a resource or its knowledge. Nobody may seek an intellectual property right over an invention from Indian resources without that approval. In short, outsiders must ask first.

The NBA must make sure benefits are shared fairly with local bodies and benefit claimers.

9. What are Biodiversity Management Committees and People's Biodiversity Registers?

Every local body must set up a Biodiversity Management Committee (BMC). The committee records local knowledge about living things. It also prepares a People’s Biodiversity Register (PBR).

The registers record local knowledge in writing. They help a village show who holds that knowledge. A written record is hard to deny. The Central Government must also try to protect the knowledge of local people. One way is to register it. Registers turn spoken skill into a record.

The NBA was set up in 2003 to run the Act.

10. What does the Plant Varieties law add?

It lets farmers register the seeds they have grown for years. India passed the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Act in 2001. It set up an Authority in New Delhi. The Authority registers new varieties and farmers’ varieties.

11. What is the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library?

The Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL) project began in India in 2001.

The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the AYUSH department (Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy) work on it together. TKDL turns texts in Sanskrit, Urdu, Arabic, Persian and Tamil into English, German, Spanish, French and Japanese.

Patent examiners can then search the old knowledge as prior art. TKDL uses books in the open domain. So it covers written knowledge, not oral tribal knowledge. Still, old knowledge gets a safe record.

Cases of biopiracy led to new rules. Biopiracy means taking traditional knowledge or resources without fair sharing. India fought back and won.

12. What happened in the turmeric, neem and basmati cases?

The US granted a turmeric patent to the University of Mississippi Medical Center on 28 March 1995. CSIR asked for a re-examination. The patent was revoked by an order dated 20 November 1997.

The European Patent Office revoked a neem patent in May 2000. It was held by W.R. Grace and the US Department of Agriculture. Neem had been used for centuries, so the invention was not new. In each case, old Indian knowledge won.

The US granted a basmati patent to RiceTec in September 1997. India challenged it through its export agency APEDA in 2000. RiceTec then withdrew four of its 20 claims.

13. What do global rules and Indian institutions add?

The CBD opened for signature on 5 June 1992 at the Rio Earth Summit. It entered into force on 29 December 1993. Its Article 8(j) asks countries to respect the knowledge of indigenous communities.

The Nagoya Protocol was adopted on 29 October 2010 and entered into force on 12 October 2014. UNDRIP was adopted on 13 September 2007 by 144 votes in favour.

In India there are 75 Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups in 18 States and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The Ministry of Tribal Affairs was set up in 1999. The Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India (TRIFED) began in 1987. The Van Dhan scheme was launched on 14 April 2018.

The Mains 2021 paper asked for a comparison. You must show what is unique about tribal knowledge.

14. What did UPSC Mains 2021 ask, and how do you answer it?

The question came in UPSC Civil Services Mains 2021, General Studies Paper I, as Q9. It was a Society question. Read the words of the question with care. It carried 10 marks and a 150-word limit.

Answer in three blocks. Keep each one short. First, say what the knowledge is. Then compare the form of the knowledge, how it is tested and who holds it. Last, show how law protects it, with the Biological Diversity Act and TKDL. Use plain words and short lines.