Scaling Indian Knowledge Systems

Caution: Let Us Not Rush to Scale: A Civilizational Reflection on Indian Knowledge Systems


By Vinay Kulkarni


When it comes to mainstreaming Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS), our first impulse must not be to ask, “How do we scale this?” That is the question of a startup founder. That is the question of a VC-backed enterprise that is racing against time to capture market share before someone else does. That is not the question of a civilization.


We are not starting a business here. We are nurturing the sacred. We are invoking the spirit of a civilization that has stood the test of time—not decades, not even centuries—but thousands and thousands of years. Some say 10,000. Others say 20,000. Some point to the yugas and say we are looking at a continuous flow of wisdom from a time immemorial. We may not know the precise count, but we do know this: we came, we saw, we created, and we thrived. Our ancestors lived by the stars, walked the path of dharma, and passed on the fire of knowledge from one soul to another—not through books alone, but through experience, presence, and parampara.


Then came a time when the world turned its eyes to us. Not in admiration—but in hunger. They wanted what we had—not just a piece of it, but the whole cake. They came in ships, with swords and crosses, with maps and metrics, with guns and trade routes. And they stayed. They stayed to rule. To plunder. To rewrite who we were. To make us forget who we were.


They dismantled what they could see—temples, gurukulas, manuscripts, livelihoods. But even worse, they dismantled what they could not see—the spirit of our self-respect, our inner compass, our civilizational memory. They shattered our self-confidence. Reengineered our society. Implanted guilt where there was once pride. Injected shame into our cultural expression. And left us broken—physically impoverished, socially fragmented, and spiritually numb.


We fought back, no doubt. With courage, with valor, with fire in our bellies. But we also suffered defeat. And with defeat came silence. Amnesia. We forgot who we were.


Today, a renaissance is stirring. There is talk of reviving Indian Knowledge Systems. Curricula are being designed. Textbooks are being rewritten. Institutions are being launched. It is a moment of historic importance. But in our eagerness to act, let us pause. Let us breathe. Let us not repeat the mistake of approaching our own treasures with colonized eyes.


Decolonize the Mind Before You Decode the Text


Before we can do justice to Indian Knowledge Systems, we must decolonize our minds. Most of us do not even realize how colonized we are. We read Indian texts in English. We analyze Samskrita through Western linguistics. We frame yoga in terms of “mindfulness.” We try to “prove” Ayurveda in the language of biomedicine. We try to “scale” our traditions as if they are tech products.


We must stop.


We must learn to see our knowledge systems not as mere content to be inserted into the syllabus, but as living, breathing, pulsating ways of being. These are not just concepts to be understood intellectually; they are truths to be lived, experienced, and embodied.


Pedagogy matters. It is not just what we teach, but how we teach.

Read: The Blindspots of the Modern Education System

Institutionalizing IKS

I agree with the notion and importance of institutionalizing IKS. 100%. But let us first make sure we are clear on the fundamentals. “We” means as a collective. Not as individuals. Let us get organized and let us learn how to truly work collaboratively to achieve the goals of this wounded civilization. Clarity takes time to achieve. We need to re-learn how to dialogue, how to brainstorm, how to collectively create and innovate.

We need a critical mass of people working together in a very effective and efficient way and armed with – clarity of concepts, a clear shared vision, aligned mental models, a vast libarary of fundamental principles extracted from our shastras, writings of Rishis, the guidance of mahatmas and a large army of well trained scholars and very importantly people who can teach IKS the way it must be taught. Designed experiments are a must. New and innovative ways must be found. Let a million experiments happen. At the same time we need not be in a state of paralysis either. The problem can be broken down and solved at many levels. A true and deep dialogue is needed. We need conferences where people can dialogue till some key conclusions are arrived at.

Apply IKS to the problem of scaling IKS

When 4000 teachers across USA were asked how students must be taught they shared some great ideas and insights. However when people were sent to observe how these people actually taught they found that teachers were teaching the way they had been taught. Thus while we may be shouting from roof tops to bring back IKS are we applying IKS to the problem of institutionalizing IKS? Can we do a quick check to see if we are applying colonial lens to the problem of reviving IKS? This is real and present danger. Let us make sure we use IKS to revive IKS.

From Theory to Lived Experience


Let us not obsess over replacing colonial content with Indian content—as if that alone will make a difference. The real shift lies in the process, not just the content. It lies in transforming the learner’s relationship with knowledge. In modern education, the learner is often a passive recipient. In the Indian tradition, the learner is a seeker. The goal is not to accumulate information, but to attain pragya—wisdom born of experience and reflection.


We need pedagogies that make Indian Knowledge Systems experiential. Let the student not just learn about Pranayama—let them breathe it. Let them not just read the Bhagavad Gita—let them inquire within, “Who am I? What is my dharma?” Let them not just understand Nyaya logic but debate, reflect, analyze—and most importantly, trust their own insights.


Teach them self-enquiry. Teach them how to turn the gaze from the scenery to the seer. Let them discover the eternal truths not in abstract texts alone, but in the mirror of their own consciousness. Let them experience—and then analyze. Not the other way around.


This is not a pedagogical technique. This is the way of the rishis.


We Don’t Have a Science vs Spirituality Problem


One of the biggest intellectual traps we fall into is the binary of Science vs Spirituality. This binary comes from the West. There, religion and science had a long and bitter battle. Religion was not necessarily about the search for truth—it was often about control. The spiritual quest was entangled with political power. Science emerged as a rebellion. Later, reformers tried to bring them together. Even today, they are trying to integrate spirituality and science as if they are opposing camps.


We never had that problem. In Bharatiya thought, spirituality was always the highest science. Adhyatma Vidya—the science of the Self—was the crown jewel of all knowledge. In fact, the Vedantic seers classified knowledge into para and apara—the higher and the lower. But never the material versus the spiritual. Both had their place. In fact we start with identifying and recognizing the problem of duality and finding a way out through transcendance.

Champeya gowrardha sareerakayai,
Karpoora gourardha sareerakaya,
Dhamillakayai cha jatadaraya,
Nama Shivayai cha namashivaya. || 1 ||

My salutations to both Parvathi and Shiva
To Her whose body shines similar to molten gold,
To Him whose body shines like the burning camphor,
To Her who has a well made up hair,
And to Him who has the matted lock. || 1 ||

Read: Transcending Binaries to Connect With The Core Indian Knowledge


We should not import their problems and try to solve them here. We must understand our own intellectual inheritance, and solve our own dilemmas. We must resist the pressure to conform to the frameworks of the WEIRD world—Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic. These categories distort our lens.

[“Joseph Henrich and his colleagues use the acronym WEIRD to refer to those raised in Western, Educated, Industrial, Rich, Democracies. WEIRD people are highly individualistic, focused on personal growth, nonconformist, and analytical. They are the minority of the population of the world. (Recent data suggested that WEIRD people represent about 12% of the world’s population but nearly 90% of psychological samples!) The nonWEIRD, raised in other contexts, think of themselves as members of communities.” – Boise State University]


We Must Create, Not Just Conserve


Decolonizing is not just about recovering the past. It is about creating new futures—rooted in dharma, not in imported ideologies. We are not trying to revive Indian Knowledge Systems as museum pieces. We are trying to bring them back to life—as living knowledge that can generate new insights, new research, new technologies, new medicine, new governance, new art, new culture, and above all, a new kind of human being.


We must free our minds from the shackles of WEIRD thinking and reclaim the dharmic imagination. Not just to imitate the past but to innovate for the future—from the inside out.


IKS Is Not an Economic Problem. It is a great economic, cultural and civilizational opportunity. It can create great economic wealth for us but that will come from unshackling our minds tied to western knowledge paradigms and creating new knowledge and applications based on IKS. It was not by merely chanting shlokas that we had achieved the unbelievable feat of being the richest country in the world. The Sone Ki Chidiya. We have to learn to look at our own untapped knowledge treasures with Indic lenses. Is Samskrita merely a language like all other languages? Are Vedas merely religious texts? Are mantras merely religious prayers? Is Ayurveda merely about herbs and jadi bootis? Are temples merely places of worship?

If we approach it the right way and position it correctly, we can unleash untold economic prosperity for our country and pull millions out of poverty. There is no doubt about this.


And as we talk about “scaling,” let us remember: Indian Knowledge Systems are not an economic opportunity. Not only. It is a civilizational responsibility. A pivotal moment in the story of modern India – where we draw new blood from the Old India.


This is not a market moment—it is a maha-yajna. A sacred offering. We are not here to maximize revenue. We are here to restore the possibility of a society where every human being can pursue the chaturvidha purusharthas—Dharma, Artha, Kama, Moksha. We are here to create the conditions for human flourishing, rooted in consciousness and compassion.


We have barely scratched the surface. Modernity has made us productive but not peaceful. Informed but not wise. We have built highways but lost our way. Indian Knowledge Systems are not a shortcut to “success” as the West defines it. They are a compass back to swasthya—to well-being, harmony, and wholeness.

The countries and economies built on the Artha-Kama paradigm are collapsing. They may not know this themselves but the rot is certainly spreading. Do we want the same thing to happen here?


Education Is the Responsibility of Society


And finally, let us remind ourselves: education is not the job of schools and governments alone. In the dharmic worldview, education is the sacred responsibility of the entire society. It begins at home. It is shaped by the family, the community, the guru, the temple, the festivals, the arts, the rituals, the silences between conversations.


We cannot outsource our children’s worldview to institutional syllabi. While policy reform and curriculum redesign are important, what matters more is what happens at the dinner table. What stories we tell. What values we live. What we celebrate. What we question. What we invoke. What we revere.


To rebuild Indian Knowledge Systems is to rebuild the entire ecosystem of knowledge—the cultural soil, the intellectual seeds, and the spiritual water. It will take time. It will demand patience. It will require depth. And above all, it will call for devotion.


Let us not rush. Let us do it right. We must build new institutions to revive our ancient knowledge systems – no question about it. But let us be careful to do so on solid foundations and make sure we are using the right bricks, the right kind of cement, the right type of materials overall.

Let us do it with the spirit of shraddha. For we are not just reclaiming our past—we are reawakening a future that the world desperately needs.


And that, my friends, is not just our opportunity. It is our destiny. Let us dialogue – engage in Samvada.

This is a hurriedly written article. I will share more over the coming weeks. Pardon me if it is overly critical and harsh about certain things. It is not intended to be so. Thanks for reading and please do share your comments and reactions.