https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4879-026X
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ABSTRACT
Indigenization has been an important nationalist project undertaken by various colonized countries seeking to liberate the existing knowledge systems from colonial hegemony. In India too, one witnesses serious efforts at indigenization that began during the colonial rule as part of the anti-colonial nationalist struggle. This continued after independence with new vigour. It found resonance in the domain of social sciences and the Indian social scientists have been engaged in debates around decolonizing the extant knowledge texts in their respective domains. An essential part of indigenization of social science in the Indian context is their vernacularization, which implies a process of translation and adaptation of the knowledge texts in its diverse local/regional languages. Underscoring the importance of both the processes in decolonizing the social sciences, the paper also highlights the existing and the emerging challenges to them.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
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Additional information
Notes on contributors
Chandan Kumar Sharma
Chandan Kumar Sharma is Professor in the Department of Sociology, Tezpur University. His latest co-edited books are Fixed Borders, Fluid Boundaries: Identity, Resources and Mobility in North East India, 2020 (Routledge) and Coronasphere: Narratives on COVID 19 from India and its Neighbours, 2022 (Routledge).
Bhaswati Borgohain
Bhaswati Borgohain is Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) doctoral fellow in the Department of Sociology, Tezpur University. Her research areas are urban studies, Northeast India, and peace and conflict studies.