MLHKP-MCD: Evidence-Preserving Digital Infrastructure for Munda Living Heritage

In the vast landscape of human culture, some traditions are written in stone, while others live in the breath of a storyteller, the rhythm of a drum, or the specific way a community prepares a meal. These living heritages are constantly changing, shaped by the people who practice them. When scholars try to record these traditions, they face a difficult choice: do they create a simple, clean list of facts that is easy to read but loses the story behind the fact? Or do they keep the messy, complex details of where a story came from, who told it, and whether it is still true today? For the Munda people of eastern India, whose language and customs span centuries of history and diverse local communities, this question is critical. A simple list might say "the Munda bury their dead in a certain way," but that single sentence could hide a dozen different practices, some from long ago and some from today, some agreed upon by the whole community and others that are still debated.

To solve this problem, a team of researchers at Usha Martin University has built a new kind of digital library called the Munda Living Heritage and Knowledge Project. Instead of flattening complex cultural stories into a single row of data, their system acts like a careful archivist who keeps every piece of evidence separate but connected. Imagine a library where every fact is not just a statement on a card, but a small bundle containing the original source, the exact words used, the location where it was heard, the date, and a clear note on whether the community agrees with it or if it is still being checked. This approach ensures that a historical record from a book written a hundred years ago is never accidentally mixed up with a modern observation, and that sacred or private knowledge is never shared without the community's permission.

The researchers focused on the Munda people, an Indigenous group in the Jharkhand region of India, whose culture includes a rich history of language, farming, rituals, and oral storytelling. They started by gathering a wide range of materials, from old encyclopedias and government records to modern interviews and field notes. The challenge was that these sources often disagreed with each other. One book might describe a funeral ritual in a specific village, while a newer interview suggests the practice has changed or is different in a neighboring area. In many digital databases, these differences would be smoothed over to create a single "correct" answer. The Munda project, however, decided to keep the disagreement visible. Their system links every claim to its specific evidence, allowing a user to see not just what is said, but who said it, when, and under what conditions.

To make this work, the team created a digital structure that treats the source of information as a distinct layer from the information itself. They built a model where a "claim" about a cultural practice is always tied to an "evidence record." This evidence record points back to the original source, such as a specific page in an old book or a segment of an audio recording. If two sources say different things about the same topic, the system does not force a choice between them. Instead, it creates a link showing that the two accounts contradict each other. This allows researchers to see the full picture of a tradition, including its variations and uncertainties, rather than a simplified version that might be wrong. The system also includes strict rules about who can see what. Some parts of the Munda heritage are considered sacred or private, and the digital library respects these boundaries by locking certain records so they cannot be viewed or copied without specific community approval.

The team tested this system using a massive historical collection known as the Encyclopaedia Mundarica, a sixteen-volume set of books that documents Munda culture. They treated this collection as a stress test to see if their system could handle the complexity of real-world data. They broke down the books into individual pages and passages, checking the accuracy of the text and linking every piece of information back to its exact location in the original book. They found that their system could successfully track thousands of details, from the names of plants used in medicine to the steps of a marriage ceremony, without losing the context of where that information came from. In their initial release, they populated the system with 14 source documents and 38 specific claims, each backed by clear evidence. While this number is small compared to the vastness of Munda culture, it proved that the system works. Every single claim in this test group could be traced back to its source, and every source was checked to ensure it was not a computer-generated guess but a verified record.

One of the most important findings of this work is that technology can preserve the integrity of a culture without stripping it of its human context. The researchers showed that it is possible to have a database that is both machine-readable for computers and culturally responsible for people. For example, a user can search for information about a specific ritual and immediately see if that information is from a historical text, a modern field observation, or a community validation. They can also see if the information is restricted to community members only. This prevents the accidental misuse of sacred knowledge and ensures that the history of the Munda people is told with the nuance it deserves. The system does not claim to have all the answers or to have documented every aspect of Munda life. Instead, it provides a reliable framework for asking better questions and finding answers that are honest about their origins.

The project also highlighted the importance of community authority. The digital infrastructure was designed to respect the rules set by the Munda people themselves. If a piece of knowledge is considered secret or sensitive, the system keeps it hidden, regardless of whether it is technically possible to share it. This approach goes beyond simple data protection; it acknowledges that the people who own the culture have the right to decide how their heritage is shared. The researchers worked closely with community members to ensure that the digital tools they built aligned with local needs and values. This collaboration ensures that the project is not just a collection of data, but a tool for stewardship that helps the community manage its own history.

As the project grows, the researchers plan to add more sources and expand the range of topics covered. They are already using the system to track changes in language, food practices, and social customs over time. The goal is to create a living archive that evolves as the culture evolves, always keeping the connection between a fact and its evidence clear. By doing so, they offer a new way to think about digital heritage, one that values the complexity of human tradition over the convenience of a simple list. This work shows that with careful design, technology can serve as a bridge between the past and the future, preserving the richness of living cultures for generations to come without losing the stories that make them real.