Introduction: The Wound of Epistemicide
The concept of epistemicide, first popularized by Boaventura de Sousa Santos, names the systematic destruction of knowledge systems through conquest, colonization, and religious or cultural hegemony. From the burning of Zoroastrian libraries in the Iranian plateau, to the forced conversion of Indic traditions under Islamic and later Christian colonial rule, to the suppression of African cosmologies through missionary schooling, and the obliteration of Indigenous traditions in the Americas — epistemicide has been a planetary phenomenon.
Yet epistemicide is not final death. Knowledge is stubborn; fragments remain in ritual, language, art, oral traditions, and collective memory. Today, a growing body of decolonial thinkers argues that the medium-term futures of humanity may depend on recovering, reviving, and reinventing these ancient wisdom traditions — not as nostalgia, but as living resources for planetary survival in an age of ecological, social, and technological upheaval.
Diagnosing the Crime: From the Iranian Plateau to the Andes
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Iranian Plateau: Zoroastrianism and other pre-Islamic cosmologies were delegitimized and pushed to the margins after Islamic conquest. Yet, echoes of cosmic dualism, reverence for fire, and ideas of ethical struggle survive in Persian poetry and culture. Thinkers such as Dariush Shayegan traced the “wounded consciousness” of Iranian civilization, urging a dialogue between ancient Persian wisdom and modernity.
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Indian Subcontinent: Epistemicide here unfolded in multiple waves. The Indo-Aryan invasions displaced and assimilated earlier Indus Valley traditions, marginalizing Dravidian and pre-Vedic cosmologies. Later, Islamic invasions destroyed centers of learning like Nalanda, erasing Buddhist and tantric knowledge systems, while British colonialism institutionalized epistemic hierarchies that declared Sanskritic, Buddhist, and folk knowledges inferior to European rationality. Scholars such as Raimon Panikkar and Ashis Nandy argue for recovering India’s plural epistemic traditions — Vedic, Buddhist, tantric, folk, and tribal — as living sources of alternative futures.
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North and Sub-Saharan Africa: Islamization and Christianization both enacted epistemicide, erasing animist, pharaonic, and local African epistemes. Souleymane Bachir Diagne calls for a philosophical return to Africa’s own intellectual lineages, while Sabelo Ndlovu-Gatsheni insists that epistemic freedom is central to Africa’s future.
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Latin America: Perhaps the most paradigmatic case of epistemicide, the Spanish and Portuguese conquests burned codices, outlawed Indigenous rituals, and violently imposed Christianity. But in the Andes and Mesoamerica, suppressed knowledges survived underground. Here, thinkers like Arturo Escobar, Enrique Dussel, and Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui speak of the “pluriverse” — a world where many worlds fit, grounded in Indigenous cosmologies.
The Architects of Epistemic Recovery
Several major thinkers — across regions — are articulating a roadmap for revival:
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Boaventura de Sousa Santos (Epistemologies of the South): Introduces the very language of epistemicide and offers “ecologies of knowledges” as a framework for co-existence and mutual translation of diverse epistemic systems.
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Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni (Epistemic Freedom in Africa): Provides a strong African lens, arguing that the liberation of African futures requires reclaiming epistemic sovereignty.
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Souleymane Bachir Diagne (The Ink of the Scholars): A philosopher who advocates revisiting Africa’s own intellectual archives to resist epistemic dependency.
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Raimon Panikkar (India/Spain): Pioneer of intercultural philosophy, urging a dialogue between Indic, Christian, and other traditions to cultivate “cosmotheandric” visions.
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Ashis Nandy (India): Critiques the “colonization of the mind” and calls for re-centering suppressed, vernacular knowledge traditions in shaping India’s futures.
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Arturo Escobar (Pluriversal Politics): Argues for pluriversality, where suppressed Indigenous epistemes become central to ecological and political alternatives.
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Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui (Bolivia): Introduces “ch’ixi” as a mode of hybrid coexistence, envisioning futures where Indigenous knowledge is neither assimilated nor erased.
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Enrique Dussel (Argentina/Mexico): Father of the Philosophy of Liberation, highlighting Latin America’s ancient and colonial histories as sources of alternative global futures.
The Planetary Roadmap: Toward a Pluriversal Future
Drawing on these thinkers, we can sketch a planetary roadmap for epistemic revival:
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Recognition of Epistemicide
Acknowledge that much of modern “universal” knowledge rests on erasures. This is not guilt-driven but diagnostic — we cannot heal wounds we do not recognize. -
Archaeology of Memory
Engage in cultural, historical, and philosophical excavation of ancient wisdoms — from the Gathas of Zarathustra, to Vedic hymns, to African oral cosmologies, to Andean reciprocity (ayni). This step is about surfacing what survived. -
Intercultural Translation
Following de Sousa Santos, suppressed epistemes should not remain isolated “museum relics.” They must enter dialogue with each other and with modern sciences, forming an ecology of knowledges. -
Reinvention, Not Restoration
These traditions cannot be simply “restored” to the past. They must be reinterpreted and reinvented for contemporary planetary challenges — climate change, AI, biotechnology. Ancient ecological wisdoms, for example, can guide post-carbon futures. -
Institutional and Educational Transformation
Curricula, research institutions, and governance systems must shift from monocultural epistemic hierarchies to pluriversal ones. Universities in Africa, Asia, and Latin America are already experimenting with such reforms. -
Planetary Consciousness and Identity
The revival of ancient wisdoms feeds into a broader planetary consciousness — a recognition that humanity’s survival depends on the plurality of its cultural-intellectual heritage. This echoes the framing of a transition toward a Planetary Age of Consciousness.
Conclusion: From Epistemicide to Epistemic Renaissance
Epistemicide is not the end of knowledge; it is a violent interruption. The planetary roadmap suggests that the 21st century could mark a shift from epistemic monocultures enforced by Islamic and Christian hegemonies (later extended by Western colonialism) to a pluriversal epistemic commons. In this commons, suppressed traditions — Zoroastrian, Vedic, African, Andean, Mesoamerican — resurface not as relics, but as guides for futures yet to be written.
The wager is bold: that in the medium-term, once hegemonies recede, humanity will not merely recover what was lost, but enrich its future complexity by weaving ancient wisdoms into planetary survival strategies.
