Desert Dialogues: Oral Histories and Echoes of Arid Past
5–6-7 February, 2026
Centre for Kachchh, Somaiya Vidyavihar University, Mumbai
ABOUT THE CONFERENCE
The Thar desert, stretching across what is now politically divided into Punjab, Sindh, Multan, Gujarat, and Rajasthan, has historically been defined not by rigid boundaries but by the fluid mobility of its people. This arid land, unmarked by the easy abundance of riverine civilisations, has instead nurtured a culture of movement—of pastoralists, traders, mendicants, and storytellers—who have carried with them a wealth of memory, wisdom, and tales shaped by resilience and scarcity.
The desert’s most enduring legacy lies in its oral traditions—mesmerising vignettes passed down across sand dunes, often in poetic or performative forms, by its peripatetic populace. These oral narratives, dynamic and adaptive, preserve histories often absent from written archives. They complicate dominant historical accounts and provide insight into alternative ways of life, social organisation, and ecological knowledge. Memory becomes a valuable asset with travelling cultures. For philosophers like Plato, writing was, however, a trivial product of mass culture and as such was an inadequate “vehicle for expressing the highest knowledge. Traditions are sanctified by being written or printed; in oral cultures they are fixed aurally. As Greg Woolf put it, “The idea that literacy implies higher levels of modernity and rationality remains deeply ingrained in our consciousness, popular as well as academic.” The shift from oral to written was not prehistoric but surprisingly within the limits of civilization’s historical memory. There have been arguments that the written records of prose undermined the traditional status of poetic genres. Oral discourse became the best way to practise philosophy. Oral histories have been unique ways conversing and sharing dynamic viewpoints. They enable one to express one’s political and philosophical opposition to ideologies as well. Oral communication can anticipate and respond to changing circumstances; it can add to its instruction because of the fluid nature of the medium. It is this very lack of rigidity that encourages the very illusion of power and control. There also arise the questions of cultural choice that stem from technological determinism of the technologies of communications being used. The side effect of technological determinism is the hierarchy of the written word over the socially disadvantaged orality.
But oral cultures resist this hierarchy. Oral discourse is responsive, politically potent, and philosophically rich. It is a space where diverse knowledge can be voiced, ideologies contested, and identity reclaimed. This conference proposes to explore the intersections of oral history and desert cultures in India, inviting scholars to reflect on how desert narratives have traversed geography, time, and even genres. While rooted in the deserts of the subcontinent, we also wish to explore the afterlives of these narratives in urban spaces—particularly Mumbai, a city shaped by migration, memory, and maritime trade, including from desert regions such as Kachchh, Saurashtra, and Sindh. In doing so, we connect seemingly disparate landscapes—desert and city—as shared spaces of storytelling and cultural continuity.
In this context the conference invites scholars to dwell upon the narratives that originated in the deserts and travelled across with or without water with a thirst to survive the sands of time. The conference is open to accept abstracts on the following themes but not restricted to them in its entirety:
- Migration, Mobility and Circulation
- Pastoralists and Sedentary Communities
- Desert–Urban Continuums (e.g., Mumbai)
- Food, Fodder, and Survival Ecologies
- Networks of Trade, Memory, and Communication
- Polity, Territory, and Environmental Imagination
- Kachchh Cultural Scapes
- Desert and Border Narratives
- Gendered histories from arid landscapes
- Desert Tourism and its impact
- Methodological Reflections on Oral History in Arid Ecologies
VENUE
Somaiya Vidyavihar University, Mumbai
PAPER / PRESENTATION REQUIREMENTS
- Mode: The conference will be held in-person only. There will be no hybrid or online sessions.
- Submissions should be grounded in oral histories drawn from interviews, focusing on the lived experiences and memories of communities from the arid zones and desert regions. Papers are expected to demonstrate how these oral histories contribute to a deeper understanding of the broader themes of the conference.
- Abstract submission by 20th September: An abstract of 300 words along with a bio note not exceeding 100 words. Both the abstract and the bio must be submitted by filling up this form: https://forms.gle/G6KCzZ3ohE9W9CAm6 by 20th September. No separate attachments are allowed.
- Presentation format: The conference will include Paper presentations, Poster, Panel, and Mixed Media presentations
- Only multimedia submissions(poster, art, film, podcast etc.) may include attachments. Accepted file formats: JPEG, PNG, or other standard formats. Files have to be renamed as follows : Single Author: FirstName_LastName_Title. Joint Authors: PrimaryAuthorFirstNameLastName_SecondAuthorFirstNameLastName_Title.
- Paper Submission: If your abstract is accepted, the full paper must be submitted by 14th January.
- Paper length: 3000-5000 words
WORKSHOP ON THE 7th FEBRUARY 2026
Understanding Environmental Shifts and Cultural Impact through Oral History
Workshop in collaboration with Godrej Enterprises Archives
This workshop introduces oral history as a narrative method to understand environmental change and its cultural impact. Through lived experiences and community narratives, participants will explore connections between climate shifts, traditional knowledge, livelihoods, and everyday life. The workshop builds skills in oral history and map-making, and examines the environmental dimensions of social and political movements.
Only for the conference participants. Conference Registration is a must to apply for the workshop. Limited seats only.
Participants will be selected based on form responses. Selected candidates will receive confirmation and further details.