125 years ago, Birsa Munda’s Ulgulan rose to protect jal, jangal, zameen – land, dignity and self-rule. Today, a quieter Ulgulan is underway – one that seeks to protect knowledge.
When tribal creativity is seen as knowledge capital instead of heritage, authorship and equity return home. But this shift needs new mindsets – from policymakers, institutions and tribal professionals alike.
Context
Birsa Munda’s Ulgulan – and why it’s needed again
In 1899–1900, Birsa Munda led Ulgulan – “the Great Tumult” – to defend jal, jangal, zameen (water, forest, land) against colonial revenue regimes, landlordism and the erosion of Munda customary khuntkatti (land tenure). It challenged beth begari (forced labour), outsider exploitation and called for accountable local governance under the Munda-Manki system. Birsa was captured in early 1900 and died in Ranchi jail on 9 June 1900, yet the movement etched a template of dignity, self‑rule and land custodianship.
Why now?
Today’s Ulgulan is a quieter churning – moving from land custodianship to knowledge custodianship: from heritage to knowledge capital, from welfare to ownership, from token recognition to authorship and accountability. This article proposes that embedding those principles in institutions, markets, and policy can do for the tribal economy what Ulgulan did for land: place authorship and stewardship back with communities.
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If India Treated Tribal Culture as Knowledge Capital
For seventy-five years, India has celebrated tribal communities as keepers of heritage – not as authors of knowledge. This single distinction has shaped the destiny of millions. When culture is treated as heritage, it becomes something to be preserved – curated in museums, catalogued in reports, displayed at festivals. But when culture is treated as knowledge capital, it becomes something to be invested in – generating equity, royalties, and intergenerational wealth.
If livelihood programs became enterprises, not projects, the logic of development would shift from grants to returns. Tribals would no longer be recipients of aid but shareholders in their own ideas – with registered authorship, brand rights, and licensing models similar to any creative industry. Artisan cards would give way to authorship rights – certifying creative sovereignty rather than existence. A shift from heritage to knowledge economy would mean integrating tribal systems of agriculture, design, and ecology into India’s mainstream innovation frameworks.
Recognise tribal culture as living knowledge,
not dying heritage – and let authorship replace tokenism.
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The Missing Bridge: Tribal Epistemology
This transformation cannot be achieved through policy paperwork alone. It requires a shift in epistemology – in how India defines innovation, authorship, and originality. But it also demands a shift in how we understand the role of a designer in creating economic and cultural impact within tribal communities. Policymakers seldom grasp this; and sadly, even design institutions often fail to fathom its depth.
Design is not only about form and function – it is about translation: of experience into value, of culture into economy, of memory into modernity. And that translation can never be authentic unless designers from within tribal communities lead the process themselves.
Bring tribal epistemology into the heart of India’s innovation story –
it is the root system of true originality.
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The Unrecognised and Ignored Bridge Builders: The Untapped Reservoir of Human Excellence.
Across India, there exists a quiet generation of tribal designers, artists and professionals – highly skilled, deeply rooted, and yet structurally invisible. They navigate between two worlds: one that measures progress in portfolios and pitches, and another that measures meaning in continuity and care. These young professionals are the missing bridge between heritage and enterprise – the human infrastructure of the next economy. Yet there is almost no social or institutional support to enable them to design for their own people, in their own lands, on their own terms. They are often absorbed into metropolitan markets where their creativity serves as cultural material for others’ innovation, rather than as leadership for their own ecosystems. The system celebrates them as diversity hires, not as epistemic equals.
Acknowledge and empower the invisible generation of tribal designers
and professionals – they are the architects of the next economy.
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The Work of Tribal Design Forum
This is where the Tribal Design Forum (TDF) has intervened over the last four years – building a living network of tribal designers and professionals across India and beyond. Through mentorships, dialogues, workshops, and community-led projects, TDF has created a space of recognition – where tribal creativity is not charity, but sovereign contribution. Each engagement, each dialogue, and each framework developed by TDF is an experiment in designing infrastructure for belonging – a way to convert cultural fluency into creative leadership, and creative leadership into community value.
TDF’s work proves that the future of design in India will not emerge from the metropolises but from the margins that know how to make meaning from memory.
Support TDF’s mission to turn belonging into infrastructure –
so that every tribal creator finds agency at home.
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From Authorship to Accountability
The journey from welfare to custodianship cannot begin with registration alone – it must begin with accountability. Before we record ownership, we must first ask:
Who decides?
Who benefits?
Who narrates?
No register can protect tribal knowledge if institutions continue to operate without acknowledging where that knowledge comes from. This is why the Tribal Design Forum (TDF) has spent the past four years quietly laying the groundwork – building protocols, case archives, and verification systems that recognise not just creative output, but the ethical chain of its creation.
Make accountability the first principle of creativity –
every idea must trace back to its origin with integrity.
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The TDF Custodianship Principles
The TDF Custodianship Principles were developed to address the vacuum of accountability that sits between recognition and exploitation. Each principle asks a simple but radical question:
• Authorship – Who first conceived, created, or evolved this idea?
• Custodianship – Which community, lineage, or collective has historically preserved it?
• Consent – Has permission been sought for its use or adaptation?
• Benefit – Who profits from this knowledge, and does value return to its origin?
• Continuity – Will the next generation inherit this knowledge in dignity, or in dilution?
These are not bureaucratic steps – they are ethical instruments. They form a living protocol through which creative accountability can be practiced by designers, institutions, and policymakers alike.
Adopt the Five Custodianship Principles in every project –
to make design ethical, transparent and rooted in consent.
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The Case for a National Register
Once accountability is embedded, recognition can follow. A National Register of Tribal Authorship and Custodianship would give legal and economic shape to what TDF has been prototyping in principle – an integrated framework where tribal knowledge is treated not as heritage, but as knowledge capital, owned and governed by its custodians. Such a register would protect authorship under collective custodianship models, enable fair-market participation and equitable royalties, and provide a transparent system of certification ensuring that every purchase or partnership strengthens, not extracts, community value.
Advocate for a National Register of Tribal Authorship and Custodianship –
the cornerstone of a fair creative economy.
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The Road Ahead
While the world remains preoccupied with global design trends and technological fads, TDF has been quietly constructing the scaffolding of a different future – one where tribal designers are not symbols of inclusion but architects of India’s most ethical design economy. A future where knowledge is capital, authorship is protection, custodianship is power, and accountability is the bridge between dignity and prosperity.
Reimagine tribal professionals as system builders and thought leaders –
not job seekers in an alien system.
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Much Needed Change in Mindsets and Policies
This transformation in the tribal economy demands more than frameworks – it calls for a shift in mindset. A new imagination is needed from policymakers, tribal leaders, and professionals alike: to move from managing communities to empowering creators. Once this shift takes root, it will reflect across India’s economic, cultural, design, and education policies – aligning growth with justice, and creativity with custodianship.
What is equally needed is a transformation in the mindset of tribal professionals themselves – from being employment seekers to becoming system and knowledge creators, innovators, and thought leaders who weave their lived experiences and ancestral knowledge into new forms of value for their communities. They must see themselves not as beneficiaries of welfare systems, but as custodians of innovation – equipped to design, build, and lead new models of growth that are fair, just and equitable.
However, this change cannot happen in isolation.
It requires an enabling ecosystem:
• Policymakers who can frame conducive policies.
• Institutions that recognise tribal professionals as creators, not case studies.
• And systems capable of executing these frameworks at scale.
Only then can a generation of tribal professionals rise –
not to transcend the system, but to transform it from within.
Join the Ulgulan movement – to build an India where design justice begins
with tribal authorship.
If this article resonated with you, tell me in one line what stayed with you – even by DM.
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Disclaimer: The perspectives shared in this document are intended to support ongoing policy and institutional efforts toward inclusive development. TDF remains a collaborative partner to all public and private bodies working to strengthen creative ecosystems. Tribal Design Forum (TDF) collaborates with professionals, institutions, policymakers and communities to advance fair and inclusive frameworks of authorship and custodianship. The intent of this paper is to invite dialogue and shared action – not critique or confrontation.
To explore how tribal epistemology can reshape the future of knowledge, design and authorship – and to read more insights, essays and reflections at the intersection of indigenous knowledge and innovation – visit www.ulgulan2025.com
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Whether you’re curious about custodianship, intellectual sovereignty, or how tribal communities are reframing design and scholarship, there’s much to learn and engage with.
