Historians face the daunting task of weaving narratives from scattered fragments, crumbling ruins, dusty archives and bulky manuscripts. Does their craft make them storytellers?

The sources they consult—be they archival or oral—often contain narratives of their own, refracted through the motivations of their authors. As Hannah Arendt noted, the ability to tell stories is how we become historical. It is perhaps time, then, to reimagine the traditional dichotomy between literature and history, or art and science and to question the empire of history.

Traditional history textbooks often present a sterile chronicle of events—a dry, factual record that flattens human civilization into a single authoritative narrative. In contrast, literature provides a deeply personal, immersive perspective on the past, capturing the values, ideas, struggles and transformations of societies. Stories create spaces that have possibilities of sanctifying the truth of experience.

This conference seeks to explore a crucial question: Can literature serve as a legitimate and effective source for teaching history? If so, how should it be approached and what are its advantages and limitations?

By bringing together educators, historians, writers and literary scholars, this conference will ask: Why is narrative crucial to history? And how can literature be used in the classroom to teach histories that humanize?

Speakers and Facilitators: Ashok Vajpeyi, Anubhuti Maurya, Apoorvanand, Kanad Sinha, Bharati Jagannathan, Parvati Sharma, Shahrukh Alam, Komita Dhanda, Shikha Sen, Sunita Biswas

Register Here: https://tinyurl.com/tn87dkpp

CONFERENCE SCHEDULE

Day 1

17 November 2025

Registration

Opening Address

Shashi Banerjee, Director – Principal, VidyaGyan School, Bulandshahr

Introducing History for Peace

Meena Megha Malhotra

Keynote Address: Ashok Vajpeyi

Ashok Vajpeyi is a noted Hindi poet, critic, essayist and translator, and a dynamic presence in the Indian cultural scene. Writer, cultural activist and ex-civil servant, he has played a vital role in building numerous arts institutions. He is the author of thirty-eight books of poetry and criticism in Hindi and the founder/editor of eight journals in Hindi and English. His poems have been translated into several Indian languages, as well as French, Spanish, German, Polish, Russian, Hungarian, Norwegian and Arabic. He is the recipient of the Sahitya Akademi Award (1994) for his book Kahin Nahin Vahin, the Agyeya Rashtriya Samman (1997) for his contribution to Hindi literature, the Officer’s Cross of Merit (2004) from the Republic of Poland, and the Officier de L’Ordre des Art et des Lettres (2005) from the Republic of France, among others.

A Storied Past: Literature and History in Abul Fazl’s Akbarnama

Anubhuti Maurya

The historian, and I use the term in the modern sense, is distinguished from other story tellers by their archives. A storyteller can imagine, speculate and narrate. But a historian’s flights are within the worlds of their archival evidence. How then do the historians think about literature and its relationship to history and history writing?

In this presentation, I will explore this question through a study of Abul Fazl’s Akbarnama (1602).  A history of Akbar’s reign and the Mughal empire, Fazl uses many different kinds of material in making his text. I will explore the relationship of the chronicle with literary forms like Persian poetry and regional histories. Through this discussion, I try to look at my own archive creatively and think of new ways of establishing a relationship between history writing, teaching and literature.  

Anubhuti Maurya is a historian of medieval and early modern South Asia. Her research interests include political history of imperial and regional formations, cities in early modern south Asia, Persianate narrative traditions and spatial practices of the Mughal empire. Currently, she is working on completing her monograph on Kashmir in sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when the region was under Mughal rule.

11.45 a.m. – 12.15 p.m.

कथाएँ तो बसती हैं जन-जन में…

Performative Readings – Komita Dhanda

Why do certain tales endure while others disappear? Why do we keep returning to the same stories, and what changes when we tell them anew? How does retelling help in challenging the status quo?

From myths to contemporary retellings, people continually create and recreate stories, not just to entertain, but to understand their world, their values, and themselves. In performance and theatre, stories are given new life through voice, movement, and interpretation. It allows forgotten narratives to resurface and familiar ones to be challenged, reimagined, and made relevant for our times. This dramatic reading session seeks to become a space where specific familiar (unfamiliar) stories intersect with contemporary questions - where memory, and identity are constantly redefined.

Komita Dhanda is an actor, director, writer, and organiser who has been associated with the Delhi-based theatre collective Jana Natya Manch since 2004. She is also a scholar in Theatre and Performance Studies and has recently submitted her Ph.D. at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Komita has taught for several years at Lady Irwin College, University of Delhi, and has also worked on the Delhi Oral History Project at Ambedkar University Delhi.  

The Historian and the Story-teller: Literature and History in Early India

Kanad Sinha

What is the relationship between literature and History? It is undeniable that the discipline of History had started its journey as a literary exercise. Despite attempts to represent History as a science, it has been demonstrated repeatedly that narrative-building is extremely crucial in history-writing. In fact, scholars like W.B. Gallie and Hayden White have tried to equate the crafts of the historian and the story-teller. However, history writing is not mere story-telling. It has its own methodology which the professional historian must adhere to. That methodology teaches one to reconstruct the past with the help of available sources – and literature is an important category of source. How does the historian make sense of literature, especially the literature that claims to tell about the past? Does reading such literature sensitively help us to understand alternative ideas of historical consciousness which, once, was considered absent in context of ancient India? How can we recognise and interpret the historical assumptions embedded in early Indian literary texts, especially those which grew over many centuries, initially as oral traditions and eventually in canonized written forms? What does a historian do with a story that appears in various traditions in different forms? The lecture will address all these issues, focusing on various kinds of literature from ancient India, including Vedic literature, Buddhist texts, the Mahābhārata, and the Rāmakathā tradition.

Kanad Sinha is Assistant Professor of Ancient Indian and World History in The Sanskrit College and University, Kolkata. He read History at Presidency College, Kolkata, and Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and previously taught at various institutions including the St. Stephen’s College, Delhi and Udaynarayanpur Madhabilata Mahavidyalaya. His research interests include early Indian textual and intellectual traditions with focus on the itihasa-purana tradition, social and cultural history of early Indian cities, and the political ideas and institutions of early India. In 2016 and 2017, he received the Vijay Kumar Thakur Memorial Prize awarded by the Indian History Congress. He co-edited the anthology State, Power and Legitimacy: The Gupta Kingdom (New Delhi: Primus, 2018) with Kunal Chakrabarti. His monograph From Dāśarājn͂a to Kurukṣetra: Making of a Historical Tradition (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2021) has received the Karwaan Book Prize in 2022. He also contributes frequently to various Bengali and English dailies – including Anandabazar Patrika, The Telegraph, and Ei Samay, and writes literary as well as academic pieces for vernacular magazines. His Bengali essays have been published in the two volumes Valmiki, Vyasa, o Amra: Itihas-puran Bishayak Chhati Prabandha (Kolkata: Ektara, 2024) and India Banam Bharat Ebang Anyanya Prabandha: Itihascharcha o Itihas-tarjay Prak-oupanibeshik Bharat (Kolkata: Panchalika, 2024). He also has a collection of Bengali poems named Kenona Kuasha Aj Pratyeker Mane (Kolkata: Panchalika, 2023).

Parallel Workshops

[FOR TEACHERS]

[GROUP A]

Between Imagination and Evidence: Exploring the boundaries of myth and history

Shikha Sen

Mythology and history are two powerful forms of storytelling that shape how cultures understand their past and define their identities. While mythology thrives on imagination and symbolism, history depends on evidence, chronology, and critical inquiry. The two often overlap, but when imagination is mistaken for evidence, myths risk being treated as history. This workshop will engage participants with the theme ‘There is history in mythology, but mythology in itself is not history.’ Through examples ranging from the magical world of Harry Potter to the epic Ramayana, we will explore how fictional or mythical narratives, if accepted uncritically, can be mistaken for historical fact. Discussions and interactive sessions will highlight why critical thinking is essential in classrooms and society today, especially in an era dominated by information overload.

For the past eight years, Shikha Sen has been teaching Individuals & Societies (I&S) in MYP 1–3 and History in MYP 4–5. At her school, the I&S curriculum for younger learners has been innovatively curated by her to align with the IB philosophy of nurturing critical appreciation, empathy and global-mindedness. Shikha’s commitment to critical thinking in the social sciences began during her study of History at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and her work with Eklavya in Hoshangabad, Madhya Pradesh, where she contributed to their project on local history. She later volunteered as a social sciences teacher at Mirambika, a non-formal school in Delhi, where she began developing the kernel of the syllabus she now teaches — further refined over the years in collaboration with her colleagues. Alongside her teaching career, Shikha has also worked extensively as a documentary film editor, a role that exposed her to a wide range of social realities and deepened her understanding of the challenges faced by everyday people in India.

[GROUP B]

Telling tales: exploring some moments in Mughal history through ‘bias’

Parvati Sharma

It has become very common, in the recent past, to accuse writers, historians, and even whole schools of history of ‘bias’. Such bias is considered a kind of sin, a failing or corruption that blocks our access to the ‘truth’. But are bias and truth really so clearly defined or, indeed, so incompatible?

In this workshop, we will examine some incidents and perceptions from the time of the early Mughal emperors, as recorded by different historians, and try to piece together what ‘really’ happened. Through these exercises, we will explore different kinds of bias (not only of writers and historians, but also of eras, nation states and even ourselves, as readers) and discuss the possibilities and pitfalls of interpretation. 

Parvati Sharma has written two historical biographies, Jahangir: An Intimate Portrait of a Great Mughal and Akbar of Hindustan. She has also written history for children, The Story of Babur and Rattu & Poorie’s Adventures in History: 1857. Her debut was a collection of short stories called The Dead Camel and Other Stories of Love, followed by a novella, Close to Home. Parvati writes on books and history for various publications, and has been a jurist on several awards, including the JCB Prize for Literature 2019; the Rainbow Awards 2023 and 2024; the AutHer Awards by JK Paper and The Times of India 2024; and the Crossword Book Award 2024. She was invited to be a writer-in-residence at the Maison des Ecrivains Etrangers et Traducteurs (Institute for Foreign Writers and Translators) in Saint-Nazaire, France, in 2021.

Parvati lives in New Delhi, where she has studied English literature and Indian history, and worked as a travel writer, editor and journalist.

[FOR STUDENTS]

[GROUP A]

Tails within Tales

Bharati Jagannathan & Kanad Sinha

Literature reflects the social and cultural milieu from which it springs, so literary texts from the past, therefore, become windows into that world. And yet, one cannot read a literary text like a history textbook—for literature, by its very definition, also involves imagination and creativity. Myths, similarly, encode a variety of historical information. In the course of this workshop, we will try and look at early Indian myths and literary texts to see how they blend history and creativity, and how historians extract historical information from such materials.

Bharati Jagannathan teaches History at Miranda House, Delhi University. Her monograph, Approaching the Divine: The Integration of Ālvār Bhakti in Śrīvaiṣṇavism, was published by Primus Books, New Delhi, in 2015. She has co-edited Of Thieves and Therīs, Potters and Pativratās: Essays on Early Indian Social History for Kumkum Roy, with Uma Chakravarti, Naina Dayal and Snigdha Singh, and is the author of five picture books, four short historical fiction books and one novella for children, A Week Along the Ganga, which was selected for the Tata Trust’s Parag Honour List 2020. Besides a collection of short stories, A Spoonful of Curds, published by Harper Collins in 2020, she has to her credit numerous articles, book reviews, short stories and poetry in journals and edited volumes. She enjoys reading, writing, and narrating stories—particularly from the epic Ramayana, watching birds and trees. 

Kanad Sinha is Assistant Professor of Ancient Indian and World History in The Sanskrit College and University, Kolkata. He read History at Presidency College, Kolkata, and Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and previously taught at various institutions including the St. Stephen’s College, Delhi and Udaynarayanpur Madhabilata Mahavidyalaya. His research interests include early Indian textual and intellectual traditions with focus on the itihasa-purana tradition, social and cultural history of early Indian cities, and the political ideas and institutions of early India. In 2016 and 2017, he received the Vijay Kumar Thakur Memorial Prize awarded by the Indian History Congress. He co-edited the anthology State, Power and Legitimacy: The Gupta Kingdom (New Delhi: Primus, 2018) with Kunal Chakrabarti. His monograph From Dāśarājn͂a to Kurukṣetra: Making of a Historical Tradition (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2021) has received the Karwaan Book Prize in 2022. He also contributes frequently to various Bengali and English dailies – including Anandabazar Patrika, The Telegraph, and Ei Samay, and writes literary as well as academic pieces for vernacular magazines. His Bengali essays have been published in the two volumes Valmiki, Vyasa, o Amra: Itihas-puran Bishayak Chhati Prabandha (Kolkata: Ektara, 2024) and India Banam Bharat Ebang Anyanya Prabandha: Itihascharcha o Itihas-tarjay Prak-oupanibeshik Bharat (Kolkata: Panchalika, 2024). He also has a collection of Bengali poems named Kenona Kuasha Aj Pratyeker Mane (Kolkata: Panchalika, 2023).

[GROUP B]

History Dressed as a Folk Tale

Sunita Biswas

The appeal of folk tales is universal and timeless. They stimulate the imagination and delve into fantasy while featuring everyday people with relatable emotions, flaws and problems.  They transcend generations and geographical boundaries and cut across history and literature with easy fluidity, acting as windows into entire civilisations. And above all they are entertaining. All of which explains why they have been around for literally ages.

The aim of this workshop will be to understand how folk tales provide insights into history through the values and beliefs of past societies. Using a selection of stories that the students have grown up with, there will be an exploration of the medieval times. Through group activities and discussions, the students will compare these stories with traditional historical accounts to see what kind of an understanding of the past each provides. At the same time, they will make critical decisions regarding the historicity of these stories and to what extent they can be considered to be historical sources.

Sunita Biswas taught history at the middle and senior levels at Modern High School for Girls, Kolkata. For more than 30 years her aim has remained to share with her students her passion for the subject. She has taught different curricula across different schools. In the classroom she has always tried to instil a questioning, critical interest that goes beyond the textbook and the curriculum, and that stretches far beyond school. For this she encourages her students to delve into songs, pictures—still and moving— posters and advertisements, among other sources. She likes to use a multi-disciplinary approach, encouraging students to join the dots and use lateral thinking to engage with History.

Sunita is a Senior Programme Officer at History for Peace. 

Day 2

18 November 2025

The Past we Choose to Carry: The Future We Shape

Apoorvanand

Human beings may be described as storytelling animals. They are also historical beings. We carry the unique capacity to imagine ourselves across time — to sense both the past and the future. In this temporal awareness, we see ourselves as children of the past: shaped by it, accountable to it, and compelled to remember it.

This sense of responsibility towards the past is never neutral. It is mediated by the values through which we live and the visions of the future we seek. The stories we tell are, therefore, not merely recollections but interventions — ways of orienting ourselves towards what lies ahead.

A society, in this sense, reveals itself in the stories it preserves and the histories it chooses to be heir to. To reflect critically on these choices is to ask what kind of community we are, and what kind of future we wish to imagine.

Apoorvanand is a professor of Hindi at the University of Delhi where he has been instrumental in redesigning the department’s academic program. He has worked on the development of Marxist Aesthetics in Hindi Literature. He was part of the core group that designed the National Curriculum Framework for School Education in 2005 and was a member of the national Focus Group on Teaching of Indian Languages formed by the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT). He has worked with the advisory committee on the Renovation and Rejuvenation of Higher Education in India under the chairmanship of Yash Pal. Created by the government of India in 2008, the committee crafted a new vision plan for the higher education sector in India.

Apoorvanand has also published two books of essays in literary criticism: Sundar ka Swapna and Sahitya ka Ekant. His critical essays have appeared in all major Hindi journals. Apart from his academic and literary writings, he also contributes columns in Indian newspapers and magazines on the issues of education, culture, communalism, violence and human rights.

Two Talks and a Conversation

Shahrukh Alam and Parvati Sharma

The story of a trial: The 1857 Uprising and the trial of Bahadur Shah Zafar In 1857, the Meerut mutiny sparked India’s first war of independence. It ended with the trial of Bahadur Shah Zafar. The court found him guilty and banished him. But how did it do so? What were the accusations, what was the evidence and what was the case of the defence? How are laws made? There is always a story behind them. This session will look at some of the stories behind our criminal laws, and the ways in which crime was (and is) investigated in India.

Shahrukh Alam is a constitutional lawyer, a human rights activist and an advocate at the Indian Supreme Court. Alam is also a scholar of Sociology and works within the disciplinary field of Law and Society. Alam’s litigation practice defends Indian ‘prisoners of conscience’ or political prisoners who are arrested on unconstitutional charges. Alam is a graduate of the National Law School of India University in Bangalore and holds an LLM degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Alam's political commentary has appeared in The Wire, The Leaflet, LiveLaw and The Indian Express among others. Alam has also spoken extensively on civil rights in India at national and international fora including the Internet Freedom Foundation and American Society of International Law annual conference 2023.

Stay calm and trust nobody: how I learned from bias in history 

History is what happened in the past. But the past is long gone, none of us have seen it, so how do we know what happened in it? Often, it is because people wrote about it or made drawings of it or took photographs of it as it was happening. These are called historical records. Sometimes, there are many historical records for the same thing, and sometimes these records don't match. They can contradict each other, they can be inaccurate, they can be biased. But does that mean they cannot help us understand what actually happened?

Parvati Sharma has written two historical biographies, Jahangir: An Intimate Portrait of a Great Mughal and Akbar of Hindustan. She has also written history for children, The Story of Babur and Rattu & Poorie’s Adventures in History: 1857. Her debut was a collection of short stories called The Dead Camel and Other Stories of Love, followed by a novella, Close to Home. Parvati writes on books and history for various publications, and has been a jurist on several awards, including the JCB Prize for Literature 2019; the Rainbow Awards 2023 and 2024; the AutHer Awards by JK Paper and The Times of India 2024; and the Crossword Book Award 2024. She was invited to be a writer-in-residence at the Maison des Ecrivains Etrangers et Traducteurs (Institute for Foreign Writers and Translators) in Saint-Nazaire, France, in 2021.

Parvati lives in New Delhi, where she has studied English literature and Indian history, and worked as a travel writer, editor and journalist.

Parallel Workshops

[FOR TEACHERS]

[GROUP B]

Between Imagination and Evidence: Exploring the boundaries of myth and history

Shikha Sen

[GROUP A]

Telling tales: exploring some moments in Mughal history through ‘bias’

Parvati Sharma

[FOR STUDENTS]

[GROUP B]

Exploring Multiple Readings of the Ramayana

Kanad Sinha & Bharati Jagannathan

[GROUP A]

History dressed as a folk tale

Sunita Biswas

Concluding Remarks