Samvaad: A Tribal Conclave

Samvaad is held each winter in Jamshedpur, Jharkhand. Initiated by the Tata Steel Foundation in 2014 on the birth anniversary of Birsa Munda — tribal freedom fighter and folk hero of the Munda people — it has grown into one of the largest platforms for indigenous dialogue in the country. Communities arrive from across India representing cultures, languages, and performance traditions that exist largely outside mainstream documentation.

The conclave brings together farmers, artists, activists, and forest community members under one roof — not to be observed, but to speak. Tribal art forms, endangered craft traditions, and community land rights sit alongside each other in the same programme. For many of the communities present, it is one of the few spaces where that conversation happens at scale.

This essay was photographed across the 2021 and 2022 editions. It is a record of faces and moments — made with the awareness that two visits to a gathering are not the same as understanding the people within it.