Beyond Textual Traditions: Reframing the Knowledge of Denotified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Communities within the Indian Knowledge System

Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS) encompass diverse forms of knowledge produced, preserved, and transmitted through textual traditions, lived practices, oral histories, and community-based learning. However, dominant discussions of IKS have often privileged classical textual and institutional forms, leaving the intellectual contributions of historically marginalised and mobile communities comparatively under recognised. This paper examines the living knowledge traditions of Denotified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic (DNT/NT/SNT) communities and argues for their greater recognition within IKS. Drawing on secondary sources, including government commission reports, historical records, ethnographic studies, and scholarly literature, the paper adopts a qualitative conceptual approach to examine knowledge domains including livelihood and craft practices, healing traditions, ecological adaptation, mobility, and oral and per formative traditions. The analysis highlights how such knowledge is produced through lived experience and sustained through oral transmission, apprenticeship, collective memory, and intergenerational participation. Historical marginalisation, particularly colonial criminalisation and subsequent institutional neglect, has contributed not only to social and economic exclusion but also to limited recognition and documentation of these knowledge traditions. The paper argues that DNT/NT/SNT knowledge should be understood as dynamic, adaptive living knowledge systems, thereby expanding IKS beyond predominantly textual and institutional forms.