Building Sustainable Livelihoods through Traditional Knowledge Systems in Indian Higher Education: An Integrative Theoretical Framework

Abstract

The marginalisation of indigenous and traditional knowledge systems within India's higher education landscape represents a critical gap at the intersection of epistemological justice, sustainable development, and rural livelihoods. This paper synthesises evidence from ecological, pedagogical, and economic literatures to construct an integrative framework for embedding Traditional Knowledge Systems (TKS) into higher education curricula as a vehicle for building sustainable livelihoods. Drawing on Sen’s Capability Approach, Shiva’s Ethnoscience paradigm, and Freire’s Critical Pedagogy, the paper advances the TKS-SL Nexus Model, a five-pillar architecture that bridges epistemic plurality, community-embedded learning, bio-cultural conservation, entrepreneurial incubation, and policy co-creation. The paper identifies structural barriers, including curricular rigidity, credentialist hierarchies, and colonial epistemological residue, that systematically exclude traditional knowledge holders from the formal knowledge economy. Three pathways are theorised: (i) institutionalising TKS as accredited disciplinary modules within the National Education Policy 2020 framework; (ii) establishing Living Knowledge Laboratories as hybrid community–university interfaces; and (iii) deploying knowledge co-production protocols that valorise practitioner expertise alongside academic credentials. The framework carries implications for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs 4, 8, and 15) and contributes to emerging discourses on decolonised, pluriversal universities. This paper positions TKS integration not as cultural preservation alone, but as a transformative economic and ecological strategy for twenty-first century India.