52nd All India Oriental Conference opens in Haridwar on October 29

The 52nd All India Oriental Conference, one of India's oldest gatherings of scholars of Sanskrit and classical Indian learning, opens at the University of Patanjali in Haridwar, Uttarakhand, on Thursday, October 29, 2026, and runs until Saturday, October 31, according to the conference's official website. Its theme is "Preserving Heritage, Inspiring the Future". Swami Ramdev and Acharya Balkrishna of the university have reviewed the final preparations, the organisers said. Scholars, teachers, researchers and students from India and abroad are expected; nearly 1,000 students had registered by the time registration closed.

"Oriental studies" is the older academic name for the study of Asian languages, texts and cultures. In India, the All India Oriental Conference has long been a leading meeting place for scholars who work on Sanskrit, Pali, Prakrit and other classical languages, on the Vedas and the schools of Indian philosophy, on inscriptions and manuscripts, and on ancient history. Its sessions are organised by subject, so a single conference gathers specialists who rarely sit in the same room: a grammarian, an epigraphist who reads old inscriptions, an archaeologist and a historian of science.

This year's session comes as the Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS) idea moves into mainstream education. The National Education Policy 2020 asks universities to include India's traditional knowledge in their courses, and many institutions are now designing such courses. A conference of this size is one place where the research that should support those courses is presented and argued over. The planned discussion among vice-chancellors on October 30, about how Sanskrit and traditional knowledge can be taught inside the modern system, speaks directly to that question.

Peer review matters here. Double-blind review, in which neither the author nor the reviewer knows the other's identity, is the standard way academic work is checked. Its use for papers at this session is a sign that the organisers want contributions judged on evidence and method. Readers should keep the line between the two clear: a paper that studies what an ancient text says is scholarship about a tradition, not proof that the text's claims are scientifically correct.

The host, the University of Patanjali, is linked to the Patanjali group led by Swami Ramdev and Acharya Balkrishna, who reviewed the preparations. Hosting the session of a national academic body gives the university a visible place in classical studies, and the papers and discussions it hosts will be judged, like those of any session, on their scholarly quality.

Short-term: Haridwar will host scholars from India and abroad and nearly 1,000 registered students over three days. Research papers, book launches and the vice-chancellors' discussion will be the main public outputs.

Long-term: Ideas and papers presented at the conference can feed into university syllabuses for Sanskrit and Indian Knowledge Systems, into manuscript research and into future collaborations between universities.

Who is affected: Students and teachers of Sanskrit, philosophy, history and archaeology; universities building IKS courses; researchers working with manuscripts; and readers interested in India's classical learning.

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