Call For Papers

Take a Deep Dive into Your Own Family/Village/Town/City Itihāsa

This essay competition is open to students, teachers, scholars, and other interested participants (including those without academic degrees), to engage in a deep dive into your own unique history.

No age or educational qualification bar.

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This is planned as an annual competition.

Entries maybe sent in any of the 22 scheduled languages of India.

Prizes range from Rs 11,000 to Rs 101,000

Deadline for submissions: July 30, 2026

This essay competition is open to:

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 or Pandas of Haridwar that have maintained the age-old tradition of recording jati puranas and/or records of their jajmans over generations.

The final submission must be at least 5,000 words. However, there is no upper limit of words.
We would welcome even book length manuscripts.

We expect the essays to be research based under the following three categories:

Category One : For this contestants need to send essays based mainly on the personal knowledge and experience of the contestant’s family, village, town or city through direct experience or oral accounts by family or community elders. In this category, the contestant need not have access to ancestral history spreading over centuries, archival records or official documents. But we expect substantial information about at least two previous generations—that is parents and grandparents on both sides.

Prizes for Category One essays that provide information about at least two previous generations—that is, parents and grandparents on both sides.

Exceptional Essay Rs. 51,000;
First Prize Rs. 25,000;
Second Prize Rs. 15,000,
Third Prize Rs. 11,000.

(For more details click here)

Category Two: In this category we are inviting essays that provide the participant’s family history of at least FIVE generations, preferably more. Under this category, we expect the essays to make extensive use of vanshaavalis kept within the family or by specialized upjaatis who used to maintain such records, as well as documents kept by the family, archival research, government records such as District Gazetteers, ASI’s People of India project report, etc, etc.
The essay may include not just the history of your family but also intertwine it with the history of the village or the town in which the family was located, and important changes witnessed during the last three-four generations.

Prizes for Category-Two essays:

Exceptional Essay Rs 101,000;
First Prize Rs 51,000;
Second Prize Rs 25,000,
Third Prize Rs 15,000.

(For more details click here)

Category Three: This category has been added at the request of those who wish to contribute to this project by submitting their family histories and even getting them published. But they are not interested in competing for prizes. They can submit essays under either of the two above-mentioned categories. Or combine the two categories into one comprehensive essay. ( For more details click here)

What We Expect from Each Essay:

The sources of information must be verifiable;

If the contestant is referring to official or historical records, the contest must provide photographic evidence of their existence;

In case of oral histories, please make sure to video or audio record each interview, along with photographs. It is important to provide verifiable information about the persons interviewed.

We will accept only online submissions in PDF format with a file name in the format as follows: Full-Name-Title-of-The-Essay.pdf.
(Ex: aditya-k-from-the-mountains-to-the-plains.pdf) 

Timeline for the Vaarshik Pratiyogita, 2025-2026:

Sept 20, 2025: Launch date at Miranda House;
July 30, 2026: Final date for submitting the essays.
August 30, 2026: Decision of the judges regarding prize winning essays.
September last week: Award Function at Miranda House.

Participants do not need to wait for the last date. You can send essays anytime between the launch date and the last date for submissions.  Those whose essays reach us well in advance of the final deadline may receive feedback for improvement, if required.

Pratiyogita Entries may be sent in all the 22 scheduled languages of India.

Participants are welcome to send their essays in ANY of the 22 scheduled languages of India– namely, Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Odia (Oriya), Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu.
But please  note that judges will be assessing the entries based on AI generated translations  in languages other than Hindi and English. Therefore, we urge you to send your own AI generated translation so that you can assess for yourself whether AI has delivered a reliable translation. The essays short-listed by the judges as being among the top 21 for the competition, will be sent to experts in that particular language for the final assessment.

Category One

Prizes under Category One:

Exceptional Essay: Rs 51,000;
First Prize: Rs 25,000;
Second Prize: Rs 15,000,
Third Prize: 11,000.

Under this category we expect essays to be based mainly on the knowledge garnered by the contestant’s from his/her family, community, village, town or city elders by way of oral accounts, plus official documents, if any. In this category, the contestant need not have access to ancestral history spreading over centuries, archival records or official documents. But we expect substantial information about at least two previous generations—that is parents and grandparents on both sides.

This may include history of one’s family, the village or town the family was situated in, important changes witnessed during the last three-four generations.

The occupational changes witnessed by the family( For instance, is the family still following the occupation/profession of the ancestors? Or has the family abandoned traditionally inherited occupations, such as sonar, lohar, kumhaar, teli, bunkar, fishing, animal husbandry, sheep farming, Brahmin pandatai, etc.

Are some members of the extended family still in traditional occupations? Has the change-over to new occupations brought prosperity?

Is close bonding and bhaichara still alive between members of the extended family/biradari?

If the family has had to migrate to other cities or states, did they follow the footsteps of their caste brethren?

Have some of your relatives migrated abroad? If so what kind of jobs took them out of the country?

Have the NRI relatives kept in close touch with their Indian relatives or are they now remote and distant?

What was the self-identification of the family a couple of centuries ago?

What is the official designated category for your family now? Example, SC/ST/OBC/MBC/EBC etc.;

Is it still a joint family? If so what holds it together? How many generations live in the same house today? Is it joint by consensus or circumstantial compulsion?

If it is a nuclear family today, when and under what circumstances did it split and move into nuclear family model?

Category Two

Prizes under this category:

Exceptional Essay: Rs. 101,000;
First Prize: Rs 51,000;
Second Prize: Rs 25,000;
Third Prize: Rs 15,000

Essays that provide the history of at least FIVE generations, preferably more, of the family history of the participant.

Under this category, we expect the essays to make extensive use of vanshaavalis kept within the family or by upjaatis who maintained such records, documents kept by the family, archival research, government records such as District Gazetteers, ASI’s People of India project report, etc, etc.

The essay may include not just the history of your family but also intertwine it with the history of the village or the town in which the family was located, and important changes witnessed during the last three-four generations.

Has the family spread out from its original village district or does it still maintain roots in the native village or town:

The occupational changes witnessed by the family. For instance, is the family still following the occupation/profession of the ancestors? Or has the family abandoned traditionally inherited occupations, such as fishery, sonar, lohar, kumhaar, teli, bunkar, tarkhaan, murtikaar, pashu paalan, pujari, vaidya, Jyotishcharya, etc. etc.

Are some members of the extended family still in traditional occupations? Has the change-over to new occupations brought prosperity?

What was the self-identification of the family till a couple of centuries ago?

What is the official designated category for your family now? Example, SC/ST/OBC/MBC/EBC etc.;

Is it still a joint family? If so what holds it together? How many generations today live in the same house? Is it joint by consensus or circumstantial compulsion?

Is there close bonding and bhaichara still alive between the extended biradari?

If the family has had to migrate to other cities or states, did they follow the footsteps of their caste brethren?

Have some of your relatives migrated abroad? If so what kind of jobs took them out of the country?

Have the NRI relatives kept in close touch with their Indian relatives or are they now remote and distant?

If it is today a nuclear family, when and what circumstances did it split and move into nuclear family model?

Category Three

This category has been added at the request of those who wish to contribute to this project by submitting their family histories and even getting them published. But they are not interested in competing for prizes. They can submit essays under either of the two above-mentioned categories. Or combine the two categories into one comprehensive essay.

The non-competing essays of may be published on our website if they provide valuable information and insights. We will not wait for the yearly cycle to end. Their essays may well provide guidance for those who are attempting something like this for the first time.