From Indigenous Wisdom to Environmental Resilience: Ecological Knowledge, Sustainable Livelihood and Indian Literary Imagination
Sitansu Sekhar Brahma and Girish Prasad Rath
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Abstract:
This paper explores the tension between environmental conservation and the livelihoods of communities whose existence is connected to their ecological surroundings both in culturally and materialistic ways. Indian literary representations of forests, rivers, agricultural landscapes and the communities of the indigenous when seen through Eco critical perspective, the paper explores how the traditional knowledge offers a fresh perspective on sustainability. We cannot truly understand resilience by just focusing on technology and institutional policies. It is also necessary to consider the knowledge and daily practices of the communities living in these ecosystems. The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh has a good relevance here as it portrays the Sundarbans in the way that highlights the balance between efforts to conserve, livelihoods of the locals, vulnerability towards the ecology and views on how to protect the environment. To highlight the point that one cannot really separate a community’s livelihood and the deep understanding of the environment they live in. It’s also important not to just paint romanticizing indigenous people but also to look at the challenges that fall heavily on them. Such as displacement, impact of modern development and environmental damage. This paper shows how Indian literature is a powerful tool to rethinking what environmental resilience really means, especially when it connects modern sustainability with indigenous wisdom. True sustainability needs more than just saving ecosystems but to actually consider the traditions and livelihoods of the communities than have deep roots in these landscapes.
Keywords:
Eco-criticism, Indigenous Ecological Knowledge, Environmental Resilience, Sustainable Livelihoods, Human-Environment Relations, Conservation.
Citation: Sitansu Sekhar Brahma and Girish Prasad Rath (2026). From Indigenous Wisdom to Environmental Resilience: Ecological Knowledge, Sustainable Livelihood and Indian Literary Imagination. Horizon J. Hum. Soc. Sci. Res. 8 (S), 86–91. https://doi.org/10.37534/bp.jhssr.2026.v8.nS.id1397.p86
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