Integrating IKS into Modern Higher Education and Research: An Analysis

Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS) are now being brought into mainstream higher education and research, and this marks a real change of direction toward teaching that is rooted in local culture, crosses disciplinary lines and treats learning as a whole. Taking the vision of NEP 2020 as its starting point, the paper looks at what it would take, in pedagogy, institutional structure and ways of knowing, to bring traditional Indian learning in astronomy, mathematics, medicine, agriculture and ethics into present-day curricula. It draws on policy initiatives, curriculum models and interdisciplinary research approaches to show how IKS can sharpen critical thinking, speak to global sustainability problems and widen the range of ways in which knowledge is produced. The paper also takes up the obstacles to implementation: the difficulty of translating old material into classroom teaching, the readiness of faculty, the absence of common standards, and the risk that traditional claims get read in a pseudo-scientific way. It concludes that IKS should be seen as a partner to modern science and not a replacement for it, and that a balanced approach can support innovation and research of high quality.