Dharma as a Design Logic for Global Governance: An Indic Civilisational Framework for Innovation, Sustainability, and Institutional Trust

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-615-4_34How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Dharma; Global Governance; Indian Knowledge Systems; VUCA; BANI; Civilisational Design Thinking

Abstract

Contemporary global governance operates under conditions of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA) and of brittleness, anxiety, non-linearity, and incomprehensibility (BANI) that expose a persistent deficit in prevailing paradigms: technocratic, legalistic, and economically instrumentalist approaches may improve procedure, yet they often lack ethical depth, relational sensitivity, and systemic resilience. This paper addresses that deficit by conceptualising Dharma as a civilisationally grounded governance philosophy and design logic, and by developing an Indic Civilisational Framework for Global Governance Design with three pillars. First, dharma-led institutional ethics reframes authority as responsibility, stabilising volatility and brittleness through legitimacy, moral coherence, and principled restraint, drawing on the Arthaśāstra and Advaita Vedānta’s ātmabhāva. Second, subsidiarity-driven decentralisation, rooted in India’s traditions of village assemblies and community institutions, strengthens contextual intelligence and relational accountability, thereby addressing anxiety and incomprehensibility in BANI conditions. Third, civilisational sustainability aligns governance with ṛta and loka-saṅgraha, embedding ecological consciousness, cultural continuity, and intergenerational responsibility into institutional design. Methodologically, the paper offers a conceptual and analytical synthesis of classical IKS governance literature, Nītiśāstra and Arthaśāstra traditions, VUCA/BANI discourse, comparative policy theory, and contemporary governance scholarship. It argues that Dharma provides a governance imagination that is civilisationally specific yet globally portable, addressing institutional trust through ethical grounding, innovation through decentralised agency, and sustainability through systemic balance.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Arpit Awasthi
AU  - Chaitanya Solanki
AU  - B. K. Chakravarthy
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/15
TI  - Dharma as a Design Logic for Global Governance: An Indic Civilisational Framework for Innovation, Sustainability, and Institutional Trust
BT  - Proceedings of the Anubhuti 4.0: Discourses in Indian Knowledge Systems – Pathways of Culture, Inclusion, and Sustainability (ICIKS 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 493
EP  - 523
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-615-4_34
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-615-4_34
ID  - Awasthi2026
ER  -