Epistemic Sovereignty in the Brahmaputra Valley: Integrating Indigenous Knowledge into Multi-Level Governance of Climate and Resource Justice in Assam
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Epistemic sovereignty, CARE Principles, Indigenous data sovereignty, decolonial justice, Brahmaputra governance, Assam##article.abstract##
This interdisciplinary study interrogates how centering epistemic sovereignty Indigenous communities’ authority over their knowledge systems can reconfigure climate governance in Assam’s Brahmaputra Valley. Facing rising flood threats and cross-border hydro political conflict, Mising and Dimasa peoples are also poorly represented on policy for a despite their advanced socio-ecological knowledge: Mising stilt houses (chang ghar), community-based embankment management, and phenological predictions reported among Indigenous populations in Assam (e.g., Sonowal Kachari, Bodo). Political ecology and decolonial theories help us diagnose institutional obstacles to incorporating Indigenous relational/living waters ontologies into state tools such as the Climate Action Plan (SAPCC) in Assam. We propose co-governed knowledge-bridging institutions, operationalizing data sovereignty via CARE Principles and UNDRIP compliance to advance resource justice through decolonial governance praxis.
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