The Ministry of Tribal Affairs is organizing a three-day National Conclave on Tribal Languages & Museums from August 24-26, 2026, in Mysuru, Karnataka. This event represents the first national dialogue platform combining discussions on tribal language documentation, preservation, and revitalization with parallel tracks on strengthening Tribal Museums and Tribal Freedom Fighter Museums across India. The conclave advances the Prime Minister's Viksit Bharat @2047 roadmap, focusing on reviving traditional knowledge systems and ensuring inclusive development.
The event will be inaugurated by Shri Durgadas Uikey, Union Minister of State for Tribal Affairs, with participation from Sri Raghumurthy (Karnataka Tribal Welfare Minister), Shri Anant Prakash Pandey (Joint Secretary, Ministry of Tribal Affairs), Smt. Kanagavalli (Karnataka Tribal Welfare Secretary), and Prof. Basavaraja Kodagunti (Director, Central Institute of Indian Languages). The inaugural session will feature the release of Karnataka Primers in tribal languages, signing of an MoU between the Ministry of Tribal Affairs and CIIL, launch of a Chatbot platform, and major updates to the Adi Vaani platform including a new iOS application and the addition of five new languages with multiple new features.
Day one proceedings include panel discussions on tribal-language documentation status, community-led revitalization models, language technology (ASR, text-to-speech, machine translation, corpus building, data-protection, and commercialization concerns), and multilingual education. Tribal Research Institutes from across the country will present their language-preservation initiatives.
Day two begins with a panel on tribal community priorities for language revitalization featuring grassroots and community-linguist speakers, followed by drafting and adoption of a possible Declaration on Tribal Languages. The museums track will cover sessions on authentic representation of tribal freedom narratives, museums as living institutions of memory and identity, museum planning processes from building to exhibition, contemporary display techniques including AR/VR and interactive kiosks, and community participation in museum-making drawing on experiences from institutions like the Tribal Museum in Bhopal.
The Ministry has sanctioned 11 Tribal Freedom Fighter Museums across 10 states, with four already inaugurated. The conclave will deliberate a common vision for these museums as vibrant institutions of contemporary curation, storytelling, and community-rooted heritage representation. Participants include senior officials from the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, State Tribal Welfare Departments, TRIs, implementing agencies, tribal linguistic experts, museum professionals, curators, conservation and technology experts, historians, anthropologists, tribal community representatives, and traditional knowledge holders from across the country.
Expected outcomes include a consolidated national picture of tribal-language documentation, a shortlist of community-led revitalization models for scaling, a working approach to multilingual education in tribal schools, adoption of the Declaration on Tribal Languages, and a shared national vision for Tribal Museums and TFFMs strengthening research, curation, conservation, and community participation.