Debates on the Indian Knowledge System (IKS) frequently frame English as a colonial residue that marginalised indigenous epistemologies and disrupted traditional modes of knowledge transmission. While the historical role of English within colonial education cannot be overlooked, this paper argues that in post-independence India, English has increasingly functioned as an epistemic mediator in the preservation, institutionalisation, and global circulation of Indian knowledge traditions. Through processes of translation, academic standardisation, interdisciplinary engagement, and international dissemination, English enabled Indian philosophy, traditional sciences, and cultural knowledge to enter modern scholarly frameworks without forfeiting their conceptual distinctiveness. Drawing upon postcolonial language theory, translation studies, and selected case examples from philosophy, yoga studies, and traditional medicine, the paper contends that English, when employed with critical awareness and intellectual agency, has facilitated rather than obstructed the contemporary advancement of the Indian Knowledge System. The study concludes by advocating a multilingual model of knowledge production in which English complements, rather than replaces, indigenous languages.
Neelam Poonia (Fri,) studied this question.