This past spring, Professor Heidi Pauwels joined UW Librarians Verletta Kern and Dylan Burns and graduate and undergraduate students to launch the Hindi Song Book, the first installment in an open access Manifold-created journal in collaboration with UW Libraries. The group set out with the simple goal of sharing the work -- and the fun -- of taking Hindi songs seriously.
While many people have a general sense of what Hindi songs are about, especially when performed with gestures and mime, it is not always easy to know precisely what is meant. Popular songs tend to be in registers different from standard modern Hindi, whether older or regionally diverse ones, which makes them harder to access for the average Hindi speaker. On top of that, songs in movies are often not subtitled, leaving room for misunderstandings. And yet there is so much to be gained by listening carefully. Besides acknowledging artists and working on a more precise understanding, the Hindi Song Books project also aims for a better appreciation of the aesthetics and rhetorics behind the lyricists’ craft.
The project originated in the class leadership and final presentations of students in three of Prof. Pauwels's Winter 2025 courses: HINDI 317: Hindi Popular Songs; HINDI 494: The Ramayana in Historical Perspective; and HINDI 502: Readings in Classical Hindi Literature: The Avadhi Ramayana. All three classes centered on the Ramayana, and several students voluntarily committed to convert their class projects into teaching material for their peers. The song book is intended as the first installment in a series on which to build in future years.
Browse the Hindi Song Book here: https://uw.manifoldapp.org/journals/hindi-song-book.
Adapted from a news item shared by the Jackson School of International Studies South Asia Center.