The Indigenous Concept of Development. As Analysed in Artisans’ Oral Tradition in Karnataka

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During the past five decades, many scholars have studied Indian society through only their own discipline. The isolated approach applied in the social sciences and humanities have indeed increased our knowledge, but rarely our understanding. To overcome this problem, the researcher proposes to begin with an integration of folklore studies and social sciences. In this paper, the researcher will demonstrate the usefulness of such an approach with an analysis of a single narrative from the vantage point of a topic, namely, development. The analysis considers relevant aspects of the Indigenous Knowledge System such as conceptualization of money and the perception for society in terms of intertwined domains. With the help of the concept of Indigenous Knowledge, the analysis of the story reveals the indigenous concept of development. Finally, the researcher argue that the Indigenous Knowledge approach is not only providing insights leading to understanding, but is also relevant for the modern state and other change agents.