“How must we redesign India’s institutions so that those who live the consequences also shape the decisions?”
On the occasion of 125 years of Birsa Munda’s Ulgulan, the Tribal Design Forum reflects on how India’s institutions of design and development grew without custodians from the communities they claim to serve – and what must change for authorship, accountability, and representation to coexist.
“A house without its keeper is soon claimed by dust.” – Tribal saying, Chotanagpur
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Birsa-Ulgulan Context – Governance as Belonging
Birsa Munda’s vision of freedom was not simply political; it was institutional. He imagined a society where decisions about land, learning, and livelihood were made by those who lived their consequences. The Ulgulan was therefore a protest against governance without belonging – the imposition of systems detached from soil. Modern India inherited the rhetoric of inclusion but rarely its substance. We created ministries, missions, and institutes, yet very few are designed or governed by the people they represent. When institutions lack custodians, they lose their moral anchor; they drift toward efficiency without empathy.
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Policies – Representation Without Voice
Tribal-focused ministries were meant to safeguard constitutional intent, yet their boards and committees remain largely bureaucratic. Representation is numerical, not epistemic: seats filled, voices unheard. Policies emerge from Delhi but seldom from Khunti, Dumka, Koraput, Bastar, Wayanad, Tura or Ukhrul. This structure breeds dependency – decisions made for communities, not by them. The Fifth Schedule promised autonomy, but administrative hierarchy diluted it into compliance. When custodianship is absent at the drafting table, even the best-intentioned schemes reproduce paternalism. True representation is not a quota; it is co-authorship. A system that speaks about the tribal must be accountable to the tribal.
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Practices (Design) – Expertise Without Context
Design schools mirror the same asymmetry. Institutions built to democratise creativity remain demographically narrow and epistemically exclusive. Curricula reference tribal art, folklore, and crafts, yet few tribal educators hold teaching positions or decision-making authority. In such environments, “inclusion” becomes content, not culture. Communities are subjects of study, not participants in design. The result is a pedagogy that documents tradition while erasing its custodians. An institution that borrows inspiration but withholds inclusion is not a centre of learning – it is a museum of borrowed voices. Without tribal professionals in faculty, boards, or juries, design remains a language spoken about the margins, never from them.
Emerging Design Questions
1. Custodianship & Institutional Design
• What happens to an institution when the people it represents are absent from its design and governance?
• Can an institution be legitimate if its custodians do not belong to the soil from which its mandate arises?
• What is the design vocabulary of an institution that is governed with people rather than for them?
• How might institutions be redesigned so that custodianship becomes a structural principle, not a symbolic gesture?
2. Authorship & Knowledge Justice
• How do we design systems where authorship is not extracted from communities but returned to them?
• What mechanisms can ensure that communities are not knowledge donors but knowledge co-authors?
• When does inclusion become appropriation, and how must design intervene to prevent it?
3. Representation & Governance
• What does true representation look like when numbers are not enough – when lived experience must shape decisions?
• How do we redesign governance so that tribal presence is not merely demographic but epistemic?
• What design structures ensure that those who inherit consequences also inhabit decision-making roles?
4. Pedagogy & Design Education
• What might a design school look like if its faculty, boards and juries were shaped by the cultures it studies?
• How can design education shift from documenting communities to being accountable to them?
• How must curricula be redesigned so that tribal knowledge is not content to be consumed but context to be lived?
5. Power & Institutional Architecture
• How can institutions break the cycle of circulation of power and begin redistribution of power?
• What architectural changes ensure that expertise does not overshadow context?
• What does moral architecture mean in an institution – and who must author it?
6. Policy & Public Systems
• How can policy frameworks move from paternalistic delivery to co-authored governance?
• What design principles ensure that representation includes agency, not just presence?
• How might the Fifth Schedule spirit be redesigned into everyday administrative practice?
7. Aspiration & the Future of Tribal Professionals
• What institutional designs enable tribal professionals to lead rather than merely participate?
• How can governance itself become a domain of tribal authorship?
• What new leadership pathways must we create so that belonging becomes a precondition for authority?
8. Ethics & Accountability
• What does accountability look like when the custodians of a system are also its beneficiaries?
• How do institutions audit not only finances but fidelity to ethical custodianship?
• How can design embed moral responsibility into institutional processes?
9. Community & Co-Creation
• What forms of co-creation emerge when community knowledge is treated as a governing force, not merely a cultural resource?
• How do we design collaboration where communities are equal partners, not case studies?
• What governance models reflect reciprocity, not representation alone?
10. Custodianship as a Design Framework
• What would a “Custodianship Council” look like as a design system?
• How can institutional design embody the tribal epistemology of stewardship rather than ownership?
• Can design create institutions that are capable of learning from the soil they stand on?
In the last 50 years, how many of India’s Institutions of National Importance – proudly teaching systems design, social innovation, inclusion and ethics – have truly confronted these questions or built inclusive and empathetic frameworks for the nation?
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The Tribal Gap – Policy Without Presence
Across ministries and institutions, the same gap recurs: policies exist for the tribal citizen but not with tribal agency. The imbalance manifests in four ways – authorship, access, accountability, and aspiration.
1. Authorship: Decisions cite communities but rarely credit their thinkers.
2. Access: Entry barriers keep tribal professionals outside governance structures.
3. Accountability: Evaluation focuses on outputs, not representation quality.
4. Aspiration: Young tribal designers see participation, not leadership, as the ceiling.
Without custodianship, institutions become self-referential – circulating power instead of redistributing it. They deliver benefits but not dignity.
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How Can It Be Bridged? – The Custodianship Council Model
To rebuild legitimacy, every institution serving tribal communities must incorporate custodianship at its core. The Tribal Design Forum proposes the Custodianship Council Model, a governance architecture anchored in parity and participation.
Key Principles:
1. Equal Representation: At least 50 percent of governing-body seats reserved for tribal professionals or recognised community custodians in tribal-focused institutions.
2. Rotational Leadership: Shared chairpersonship alternating between institutional and community representatives.
3. Authorship Mandate: All projects and publications include identified tribal co-authors or advisors.
4. Transparent Appointments: Open nomination process from community and professional bodies.
5. Custodial Review: Annual audits assessing not only finances but fidelity to custodianship ethics.
This model converts representation from symbolism into structure. It does not reject expertise; it decentralises it. It ensures that those who inherit the consequences of policy also inhabit its design.
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A Call to the Custodians – Reflections for Tribal Professionals
For emerging tribal designers, administrators, and scholars, governance is the next frontier of authorship. It is not enough to participate in projects – you must also shape the institutions that commission them. Train in ethics, policy, and institutional design. Observe how boards function; learn how decisions are recorded. Prepare not to enter institutions but to redefine them. Custodianship is governance rooted in humility – leading without leaving the ground. When tribal professionals assume such roles, institutions rediscover purpose. They become places of reciprocity, not representation alone.
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Call to Action
Engage with the Tribal Design Forum to co-create the first Custodianship Council framework for design and development institutions – ensuring that the next 75 years of India’s growth are built not only on innovation but on inclusion, not only on excellence but on equity.
If this article resonated with you, tell me in one line what stayed with you – even by DM.
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Disclaimer
This essay is published by the Tribal Design Forum (TDF) as part of its ongoing public-awareness series What India and Its Tribal Communities Have Lost. It represents an independent research-reflection initiative under Ulgulan 2025 and does not necessarily reflect the official views of any ministry, design institution, or governmental agency. The content is intended for educational, archival and dialogue-building purposes under the Fifth Schedule framework, UNESCO–WIPO guidelines on Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property, and the TDF Custodianship Principles. All references to historical figures, institutions, or programmes are for contextual analysis only. Reproduction or citation is permitted with acknowledgment of Tribal Design Forum (2025)
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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.
