INTRODUCTION:

Indigenous knowledge is generally understood as that knowledge which has emerged through experience and practice (Kolawole, 2015; Singh, Pretty, and Sarah, 2010; Weiss, Hamann, and Marsh, 2013). It comprises of all values which are originated and adapted locally in different parts of world for survival (Kotze, 2002) and have developed within various societies before the advent of the modern scientific knowledge system (Tharakan, 2015).

Thus it has also been termed as “experience based knowledge” and “informal knowledge” (Brook and McLachlan, 2008) as it is unique to particular culture and society (WorldBank, 1998). Indigenous knowledge plays a vital role for making a livelihood of people in several parts of the world and on the other hand indigenous knowledge has emerged from people’s livelihood through experience (S. C. Ellis, 2004). Livelihood is a much discussed and debated issue in modern day development studies as it raises questions about how “different people in different places live”(F. Ellis, 2000). At the heart of its study lies the issue of people’s assets, activity and income to gain a living (Barett, Reardon, and Webb, 2001; Scoones, 1998).Thus in economic parlance and livelihood frame, knowledge forms an important factor in the formation of peoples assets and thus livelihood (F. Ellis, 2000; Kotze, 2002)..

BACK GROUND OF THE STUDY AREA:

Sikkim is a very recently transited from a feudal to a democratic federation of India in the year 1975 and has remained historically backward. It is totally a hilly state measuring area 7096 sq. km with a population of 607688 persons. Sikkim is a landlocked state in the eastern Himalayas, making almost the entire state hilly and mountainous. According to the Census of India 2011, nearly 76 % of the population lives in some 447 Villages. This clearly shows the rural character of the state. And being rural in character historically it has been an agrarian economy with its subjects engaged in crop cultivations and animal husbandry. Because of its hilly terrain and acute problem of infrastructure which was not harnessed, the state was less developed till merger. Sikkim was a feudal state since 3 centuries and it was only in 1975 that it was aligned with democratic federation of India. In traditional Sikkim’s economic system all the land belonged to the king Chogyal ( Sinha, 1975:47) as cited in (Chakrabarti, 2010), there were different types of tenants and accordingly the rent was collected from them. Due to very little number of educational institutions and inaccessible health care services, human capital formation was very limited. This was clearly shown in the literacy rate of 43.6% in 1981 census, the first census after integration with Indian federation.

Heavy dependence on subsistence agriculture, lack of transport, communication and other development activities kept the hill economy at a subsistence level. But after integration with the Indian federation, situations changed a lot. Infrastructure development, social development and institutional establishment were the basic priorities. The clear example to show improvements in human capital was the rise in literacy rates in various population censuses from 43.6% in 1981 to 52.2% in 1991, 64.8% in 2001and 74% in 2011.

But more demographic pressure the per-household land holding is decreasing. All mountain area is ecologically fragile, instable and steep thus being very vulnerable to environmental disturbances and has strong influence on the living of the people (Awasthi, 2012). Forty seven per cent of area in Sikkim is under tree cover, and is a reservoir of several floras and faunas. The geo settings do not permit to have large scale industrialization, on the other hand farm based activities to make a living is also not applicable. Tourism is in its heights as many tourists both national and international visit the state every year. And similarly many other nonfarm activities are seen to be in action. Irrespective of all these local knowledge in different forms still prevails in people’s life both in rural and urban areas. The ethnic composition of Sikkim comprises mostly of the Nepalese, Bhutias, Lepchas and peoples migrated from other places. The Nepalese people are mostly Hindus and Buddhists composed of diverse cast and cultures and are the major sources of indigenous knowledge. The Bhutias and Lepchas are tribal people who follow Tibetan Buddhism, and spirituality. The geo setting is very fragile and prone to natural disasters like earthquake, landslides and avalanches. People in larger section in rural areas follow a traditional type of life, thus indigenous knowledge plays an important role in shaping their livelihoods.

IMPORTANCE OF INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE:

Indigenous knowledge has been providing the basis for problem-solving strategies for local communities, especially the poor, isolated and the tribal’s (World Bank, 1998). To undertake development locally a local understanding of environment and problems is of dire importance. Communities live for many centuries directly practicing complex cultural norms that have successfully regulated human activities to integrate and blend themselves with the natural environment. (Messerschmidt and Hammett, 1998). This very “experimenting and learning” at the local level gives the pathways to local knowledge base (Bohensky, Butler, and Davies, 2013).

Knowledge and practices are developed to adapt to the natural conditions for their survival in sustainable ways (Trung, Quynh, and Hieu, 2007). Communities whose livelihood depends on natural resources have depth knowledge of land, water and environment surrounding them (Riu-Bosoms et al., 2015; Smith, Woodrow, and Vodden, 2015). So it is believed that here is a strong connection between people’s knowledge of nature and their relationship to place where they live in (Bell, Hampshire, and Tonder, 2008).

In indigenous societies economic activities and business are also interwoven and embodied with culture and knowledge accumulated (Cahn, 2008). Thus communities whose livelihoods are directly related to natural resources are a great source of indigenous knowledge. Better understanding of local knowledge and practice will further enhance development work (Borchgrevink, 2002).Indigenous Knowledge is also seen as an alternative way of promoting development locally in poor rural communities in many parts of the world (Briggs, 2005). Local environmental knowledge is multifaceted (Bell et al., 2008) and influenced by changing social and economic circumstances. Indigenous knowledge also shows the way to summarizes and conceptualize concerns and hopes about peoples, livelihoods, life styles, and resource systems. Land-use traditions and related knowledge constitute local peoples’ identity globally (Barlindhaug and Corbett, 2014). Thus knowing indigenous knowledge implies different ways of knowing and understanding the world (Agrawal, 2009).

But there is a conflict of modern scientific knowledge and indigenous knowledge, conflict in the sense the former is considered advance and later as primitive. Modern scientific knowledge in some sense has become a threat to indigenous knowledge as modern day ecotourism to indigenous homelands and culture (Johnston, 2000). Preservation of indigenous knowledge is the need of hour. In India there is a conflict of opinion basically in the sense that Indigenous knowledge are considered to be back ward or primitive (Sengupta, 2015) and there are reports of extinction of these knowledge along with old peoples. Further advancement in peoples livelihood from natural resources based to non natural resources base is depleting the indigenous base (Beneria‐Surkin, 2004; Punch and Sugden, 2013) Therefore there is a need for institutionalization of indigenous knowledge as suggested by Damme and Neluvhalani (2004) to prevent extinction of indigenous knowledge.

OBJECTIVE:

This paper intends to explore and outline different forms and practices of indigenous knowledge in rural households of Sikkim.

METHODOLOGY:

The study is mainly based on primary survey of rural households regarding the investigation of the form and application of indigenous knowledge.

Data and Sampling:

All four districts were taken and 10 villages were purposively selected at first step. The villages selected purposively were of such a type that in each district, at least one remote village and the other village near to a town were selected to capture variations. Then from those 10 villages, 20 households were selected at random from each village making a total of 200 households. Using open-ended questionnaire, household member were interviewed and the idea and use of indigenous knowledge was explored. As the nature of data was qualitative in the form of opinion there was no scope of using sophisticated statistical tools, thus simple percentage method was used to analyze the information gathered.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS:

Table 1: Percentage division of household opinion on indigenous knowledge.

Form of Indigenous knowledge	% yes	% no
Food and wellbeing	100	0
Healing methods	70	30
Conservation of Nature	60	40
Ethno botany and biodiversity	100	0
Indigenous ecotourism	undecided	undecided

The above table reveals the opinion of the people in rural Sikkim in context to the uses of indigenous knowledge in their making of living. It was revealed that in regards to food and wellbeing all the houses use indigenous food in some ways. There were little lesser people who still practice traditional healing methods and it was revealed that due to better availability of modern hospitals and conversion of faith into Christianity less people practice these methods. Majority of the rural people feel the traditional practice of conserving environment still holds relevance. Identification of herbs and plants strongly feels the need of indigenous knowledge and similar with the medicinal plants in the area. With regards to indigenous ecotourism, very few segments of people were associated to it, so due to dearth of knowledge it was undecided. Yet a larger group feels that indigenous art, culture and lifestyles do play an important role in promoting and preserving tourism. One major problem that was pointed was that new generations lacked ideas of traditional knowledge and were more inclined towards modern knowledge.

Indigenous Knowledge in Sikkim and its form:

The following ideas emerged from the interviews and information gathered from the informants.

1) Livelihood, Food and wellbeing:

Livelihood perspective raises question about how people in different places live. It comprises of every aspects that is required to make a living. In rural areas farming is still a predominant livelihood activity and therefore farming is much impacted by the indigenous knowledge the rural people practice. Food forms an important component of people’s livelihood as it is the basis for human survival. In Sikkim there are several foods which are consumed traditionally and are the direct outcome of indigenous knowledge. Mostly fermented foods like Gundruk, Sinki and Kinema comprises the meals of all three traditional communities even though it was started by the Nepalese Community. These foods have got historical relevance and are unique. These Communities have their own pattern of making bread out of flour, the Bhutias and Lepchas make bread called Khapjey and the Nepalese communities make Selroti. These foods have their own cultural significance as it is always prepared during festivals and social gatherings. The three traditional communities have their own style of making wine known as Jard or Chang. Similar types of indigenous foods have been identified in Benin by Chadare, Hounhouigan, Linnemann, Nout, and Boekel (2008) and by Termote, Damme, and Djailo (2010) in Congo.

2) Healing methods:

Healing methods forms an important part of well being in Sikkim. It is still practiced in rural as well as in urban areas by all the three traditional communities. The name of Traditional healers varies across communities, Lepchas have their Bongthin, and Bhutias have Lamas. The name of traditional healers varies among castes in the Nepali community from Jhakri, Mangpa, Fedangpa, Bombo, and Dhami. The healing process has different names like Chinta, Henaymenay, and Sergem etc. Different types of illness are treated ranging from minor body ace to jaundice, epilepsy etc. One thing which is very unique of all these healers is that while treating, they use very different languages which is not used in common practice. Healing methods similar to this have been discussed by Martin and Vermeylen (2005).

3) Conservation of Nature:

Indigenous knowledge has helped in conservation of environment in Sikkim as all the traditional communities worship nature. The Bhutias and the Lepchas mostly live near the mountains and worship the Mountains as deity. And as a result they do not allow pollution in the mountain and help in conservation of environment (Subba, 2009). The Nepalese communities also worship the nature and mostly worship water sources as “Devithan” meaning place of goddess. They undergo different rituals and worship these water sources. And due to belief and fear no one pollutes this place and hence water bodies are conserved. So agriculture, land and forest use practices have been shaped by indigenous knowledge and have been conserved. Literature reveals similar methods of nature conversation in Africa by Sammy and Opio (2005) and Masoga and Kaya (2014). And water management in Australia by Ayre and Mackenzie (2013) and Wohling (2009).

4) Ethno botany and biodiversity:

Ethno botany and biodiversity occupies an important position in Sikkim’s economy as it is been regarded as a resource abundant belt. Several varieties of floras and faunas are found in this Himalayan range. It is also home to diverse ranges of medicinal plants both cultivated and uncultivated. People possessing indigenous knowledge can only identify both cultivated and non cultivated edible plants. Plants like Nakima and Dungdungey constitute a diet of local people, are sold in the markets in good price, and help the cultivators in making a living. A mushroom called Yashagumba⁶ is found in high altitudes of Sikkim and is sold in a very high price globally. It use to be consumed by the indigenous people since ages and since few years it has got global recognition. Similar cases have been discussed in Australia by Langton and Rhea (2005) and Wohling (2009).

5) Indigenous ecotourism:

Due to ‘strong bond between indigenous cultures and the natural environment, eco and agro tourism has become an important source of livelihood to the people. Tourists from different parts of the world come here to see traditional fests, cultures, houses, attires and eat traditional foods. These have been seen in the growth in number of traditional home stays and preferences of tourists to stay in traditional home stays rather than in hotels. Traditional baskets, mats and hats weaving, arts and handicrafts constitute an important source of tourist attraction in Sikkim especially in North Sikkim by the Lepcha Community. Dzongu village in North Sikkim is an excellent symbol of indigenous ecotourism in Sikkim. Thus collectively this is evidence in itself that tourists prefer indigenous eco and agro tourism, culture and handicrafts and has been supported by the findings of Borchgrevink (2002) and Higgins-Desbiolles (2008) in other parts of the world.

CONCLUSION AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS:

The above discussion clearly shows that indigenous knowledge constitutes an important component of people life in Sikkim. In rural and far flung area indigenous knowledge occupies an important position in shaping peoples livelihood. But for people who choose non rural and nonfarm based livelihood; indigenous knowledge may not be of very high importance. Though there is a dominance of modern scientific knowledge over indigenous knowledge in modern day lifestyle, indigenous knowledge has played an important role in shaping the people’s livelihood in rural areas. In Sikkim where almost 75 percent of the population lives in rural areas, indigenous knowledge should not be neglected but be preserved. It should be shared, taught, applied and passed on to newer generations in its original forms. Government should frame policies for institutionalization of indigenous knowledge, its documentation, make it as a curriculum in higher education and allow its research. So awareness is the major solution to preserve and protect the nearly extinct indigenous knowledge.

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Received on 10.06.2018 Modified on 15.07.2018

Res. J. Humanities and Social Sciences. 2018; 9(3): 593-597.

DOI: 10.5958/2321-5828.2018.00100.6