Mapping local knowledges in Indian rural development

The study analyses the local context of diverse knowledge production and community specific knowledge innovations across diverse rural communities in India. The new awareness of context specific diverse knowledges and their significance in global development is visible throughout the development studies and social science literatures. It is the grassroots knowledge innovations and the critical development literature that motivated the knowledge context analyses in the present study. The focus of the study is to map local knowledge diversity and identify institutional constraints in adapting diverse local knowledges in global development.;The study builds on a range of knowledge epistemologies that have influenced the policy and practice of development over the years. It argues that historically 'marginal' and 'lost' knowledges are being revived within the diverse local communities and that the future global development efforts will embody an active negotiation between the established and emerging knowledges. The field research analyzes the tacit knowledge dimensions and a range of local knowledge innovations within the rural communities in India.;The study discusses four distinct aspects of local knowledge cognition: (i) local perceptions of knowledge(s); (ii) the nature of local knowledge production; (iii) the local knowledge innovation context; (iv) institutional constraints in adapting local knowledges in global development.;The discussion in the study raises a complex array of theoretical and methodological concerns such as mechanisms required to create favorable environments that would facilitate local knowledge orientations within global development and the role of theoretical constructs and academic conceptualization (concerning formal and informal knowledges) in relation to development practice. It recognizes that there is an urgent need to challenge the politics of knowledge production in development practice and to address the issues of mainstreaming marginal knowledge traditions in education. In conclusion the study points out that grassroots' indigenous and innovative practices reflect a synthesis of modern, traditional, formal and informal knowledge systems.