Commons Management & Resource Governance
How villages managed forests, pastures, water bodies collectively; the concept of sthala and gramakshema; temple tanks and irrigation systems; preventing the 'tragedy of the commons' through dharmic principles; lessons for modern environmental governance
Lessons in this chapter
- Samanya-Sampada: Collective Management of Commons — When Everyone Owned What No One Could Own Alone
- Sthala: Community Land and Resource Concepts — The Rules That Made Commons Work
- Gramakshema: Village Welfare Systems — When Temples Were Banks, Hospitals, and Schools
- Devakula-Tadaga: Temple Tanks as Community Assets — Sacred Water, Sacred Forests
- Samanya-Durghatana-Nivarana: Preventing Tragedy of Commons — What Went Wrong, and How to Fix It
- Dharmic Paryavaran-Shasan: Governance Through Dharma — Traditional Knowledge for Modern Crisis
- Relevance in 2026 and Beyond — From Village Tanks to Global Commons: Dharmic Governance for the 21st Century