Call for Papers
Kishwar Memorial All-India Essay Competition to ‘Deep Dive into your individual family or village/town/ city history’ welcomes
- Students, research scholars, teachers of all disciplines—including literature, history, economics, sociology, political science, anthropology, engineering, law, medicine, architecture et al.
- Gyanis without any academic degrees who have knowledge of Bharatiya Parampara of maintaining family histories;
- Those whose own families have maintained such records;
- Persons from communities, such as the Nat sampradaya, that have maintained the age-old tradition of recording jati puranas.
Vision Statement
The macro-level historiography in India has become very contentious and divisive. The battles between the Left-Wing Vs Right Wing historians have become truly unmanageable. The battle lines are ideologically driven. Therefore, they cannot even agree on basic facts of our history.
History is witness to the fact that people without a sense of their past have a difficult time negotiating their future. This is not meant as an exercise in mindlessly glorifying the past or trashing it in order to prove our “progressive” credentials, but to understand our history through our own eyes—with all its strengths and weaknesses.
Roadmap for the Deep Dive
My Family & Community History, including the history of my larger kinship group. This will involve the participant to:
- Conduct interviews with family and community elders;
- Explore historical records, if any;
- Family legends i.e. legendary narratives about some of the ancestors of the family. (need not check for the rationality etc. of the descriptions/capabilities etc) legends are legends;
- The decision-making process in the family:
