Roots, Rituals, and Resistance: The Indigenous Knowledge Systems of the Tharu People in Nepal

Abstract

Indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) are epistemological traditions that have supported human communities over time which are dynamic, ecologically embedded, and socially reproduced. Although growing scientific and policy attention is being directed towards indigenous knowledge systems. In general, Tharu people continue to be underrepresented in mainstream scientific and development discourses, and in particular, ethnically and geographically marginal communities within South Asia have their traditional knowledge systems devalued. This paper critically analyzed the peer-reviewed studies from the last 25 years (2000-2026) to explore the organization, substance, spread, current issues and scholarly documentation of Tharu indigenous knowledge systems, filling gaps in a theory-based and empirical synthesis. A critical narrative review was undertaken, identifying 40 peer-reviewed journal articles, scholarly monographs, ethnographic documents, policy documents from Scopus, Web of Science, JSTOR and Google Scholar, and synthesizing in themed synthesis and critically evaluating them in relation to epistemology.  This study proposes an epistemological sovereignty approach, which combines decolonial theory, critical ethnoecology, and knowledge justice, which can offer a suitable theoretical framework for the analysis and protection of Tharu IKS in the broader struggle for decolonial sovereignty. Findings carry direct implications for educational policy, conservation governance, intellectual property law, healthcare integration, and community-driven documentation initiatives in Nepal and comparably situated indigenous contexts. This is one of the first critical narrative reviews that brings together, in a single entity, indigenous knowledge theory in a global sense, with insights from the Tharu people, and provides an analytical framework that is interdisciplinary and decolonial in orientation.