Ethnographic knowledge and anthropological epistemologies have established its relevance and capacity to have a firm grip in the public sphere. Innovations in the domain of communications and ease of using technology has facilitated reach of knowledge beyond the confines of academics to general masses. The World is living in an era of uncertainties clouded by the onslaught of Covid-19, challenges emanating from escalation in protracted ethnic violence, religious fundamentalism, militancy and wars across countries and continents over territories and political control. This infectious hatred between the warring factions has brought untold misery to innocent masses.

Most impacted in these wars are always children who have little to do with the causes and consequences of war. Tragedy of wars is that these are premised on anthropological construction of ‘the other’ and ‘othering’ and annihilation of the other as ‘destructive rationality’. Any resolution for bringing global peace must accommodate plurality and diversity. The discipline of anthropology since its inception is engaged in conservations and preservations of indigenous knowledge systems. Ethnographic documentation of indigenous communities provided gaze into multiplicity of sustainable institutional practises. It paved way
for global and national agencies to charter agendas for sustaining indignity and ensuring social justice for an equitable world.

Indigenous people for centuries remained victims of war and violence based on most inhuman form of ‘othering’. How can one talk of global peace when a significant section of the humanity, a majority of whom are constituted by the indigenous people are still suffering from poverty, malnutrition, social exclusion and discrimination? It is their call for social justice that forms the fundamentals on which global peace ought to be negotiated between warring communities across the globe. Our prime concern as practising scholars is to give voice to those seeking redressal from cultural, political, and economic exploitation and historical injustices. The counter-hegemonic resistance of the indigenous people has been supported by anthropological advocacy ever since the incident of genocide of the tribes in the Amazon.

The World community took cognizance of these concerns and in the year 1993 on the recommendation of the World conference on Human rights, the General Assembly proclaimed the international decades of the World’s indigenous people (1995 -2004) and 9th August was declared as the International day of the World’s indigenous people. This was further strengthened in 2007 under UN declaration on the Rights of the Indigenous People. We are now witnessing from 2022 to 2032 as the Decade of the Indigenous languages that proposes to ‘prioritizing the empowerment of indigenous language users’ because nearly 40% of the 7000 languages are now endangered. It is to ensure survival of the indigenous languages that India’s New Education Policy (2020) mandates teaching for primary school children in their mother tongues.

We are also aware that indigeneity is reviewed as polysemic, polyphonic, multi-situated, and contested and often seeks different sustainable goals. For some it could be gender parity, for others equal access to vaccines, innovations in medical research and for most economic support to reduce poverty. To bring aspirations at par UN has designed 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). But our targeted intent to achieve parity by 2030, is now further threatened by
unanticipated consequences of war and pandemics. To aspire and achieve an equitable world, World Peace ought to be ensured to have workable solutions.

The World Anthropology Congress 2023 intends to explore multiple avenues for global peace and harmony for sustainable development of humankind, particularly of the indigenous, Adivasi and tribal people of the world. It is now well understood that Anthropology as a discipline can lend a powerful voice to non-hegemonic and marginalized cultural perspectives on both Global Peace and Development for ensuring social justice to the tribal and autochthones people. Since Global Peace and Development are multi-layered processes and Anthropology promotes the tradition of multifaceted thinking that ranges from the local to the global and traverses the space in bet ween, the discipline can unveil new dimensions in promoting lasting peace and sustained human development. Further, accumulated scientific evidence proves that many non -violent societies co-existed peacefully as a norm throughout the prehistoric period of the human
existence. This indicates that human co-existence and peace were not mere words, but concepts that are integral to the texts of Anthropology. Therefore, deliberations in this Congress will contribute to the processes of Peace and Development of human society at different levels. The proposed World Anthropology Congress 2023 will continue this line of enquiry by playing a crucial role in creating a more contemporary and relevant debate on indigeneity, social justice, and global peace.