A VENTURE, NOBLE AND NOTEWORTHY

▪ In 2014, All India Radio began recording folk and tribal songs across the country. It targets 9 lakh songs in 6000 castes, classes and tribes in 16,500 languages. 20,000 songs are now complete.

▪ The work is undertaken by programme executives at their own initiative in 214 AIR stations.

▪ There is no additional budget or resources set aside for the project. A three-member team in Delhi co-ordinates the all-India project.

▪ Songs are collected in four sections: songs of rituals, pertaining to family life, ‘other’ songs (of mountains, rivers, work, war, work etc), nomadic songs, and Indian songs that have migrated overseas. All songs are classified under 22 categories.

▪ AIR’s authentication process is rigorous: songs are certified by three community members, then reviewed by a state panel including cultural experts, professors and anthropologists, and is backed up by translations and notifications of the lyrics and music.

▪ The Sahitya Akademi will be printing the first selection of music and has also suggested that its members could undertake the translation work in the project.

▪ Working without advanced technology, AIR is saving everything as basic mp3 files so they may be digitised to whatever technology may be used at any point.

▪ Currently, the project is not for broadcast, but merely for research and documentation. It is the largest government-backed research project of its kind.

▪ All lead musicians recorded in the project are paid an honorarium.