VARANASI: Researchers already contributing papers to Banaras Hindu University's national seminar on history, memory and archives have a full-paper deadline of 12 October 2026, according to the Mahamana Archive's brochure. The two-day seminar is scheduled for 30 and 31 October at Bharat Adhyayan Kendra in the Malviya Heritage Complex.
The deadline needs to be read alongside two limits. The abstract submission date was 8 October, and the Google registration form linked in the brochure was no longer accepting responses when checked on 12 October. The full-paper date therefore should not be treated as an invitation for fresh registrations or late abstracts.
The official seminar brochure gives 12 October as the last date for full papers but does not specify a closing time. It would be unsafe to assume that submissions remain open until midnight. Papers will be selected for presentation rather than accepted automatically.
What existing contributors need to check
The brochure identifies historymemoryarchive26@gmail.com as the address for abstracts and full papers. That is the submission channel published by the organisers, separate from the registration form. Contributors should follow the instructions already communicated to them and distinguish confirmation of participation from selection of a paper for a technical session.
Registration is described as free in the brochure. However, that information does not override the current closed status of the linked form. The publicly available documents do not announce a reopening, an extension of the abstract deadline or a separate route through which new entrants can secure a place.
The event, titled History, Memory and Archives, is organised by the Mahamana Archive in collaboration with Bharat Adhyayan Kendra, BHU's Faculty of Social Sciences, the Indian Council of Historical Research in New Delhi and the university's Sponsored Research and Industrial Consultancy Cell. BHU's academic-events listing places the programme between 10 am and 5 pm on both days.
Professor Dhrub Kumar Singh, coordinator of the Mahamana Archive, is the convener. Professor Shardindu Kumar Tiwari, coordinator of Bharat Adhyayan Kendra, is the co-convener. The brochure proposes invited lectures alongside technical sessions where selected research papers will be presented and discussed.
University records as evidence for history
The seminar's focus extends beyond preserving an old document as an object. Its themes include the place of institutional and university archives in historical research, regional histories, manuscript traditions and the methods used to interpret archival sources. It also asks how digital technologies can improve preservation and access.
According to the brochure, the Mahamana Archive preserves material associated with Madan Mohan Malaviya as well as records of BHU's administrative, academic and cultural life. Those holdings support research into the university's development and its place in the freedom movement. The seminar is an academic discussion about such material, rather than an announcement that a new public digital collection has opened.
The listed speakers include Hanuman Prasad Shukla of Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya, Anamika Roy of the University of Allahabad, Jigar Mohammed of the University of Jammu and Adhya Bharti Saxena of the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. Their names appear in the brochure's invited-speaker programme; individual lecture titles and a session-by-session timetable are not supplied there.
The balance between access and preservation has a practical national example. The National Archives of India directs readers to its Abhilekh Patal portal for digitised material. Its research-room guidance says original records are not supplied for consultation when the corresponding microfilm or digital images are available. These are National Archives procedures, not rules newly imposed on BHU seminar participants.
For readers following documentary heritage in the city, earlier Dalimss News coverage examined preservation of rare research papers in Varanasi. The university's wider information-research activity also featured in a report on BHU library research recognised at a conference.
The immediate task for existing paper contributors is to complete the submission required for 12 October without assuming an unpublished time extension. For others interested in the subject, the confirmed dates remain 30 and 31 October, while any change in registration access or participation arrangements would require a further announcement from the organisers.
