Year in India: An Overview

HUF’s Year in India is based in Lucknow, capital of the state of Uttar Pradesh.  Lucknow is celebrated as a major center of Urdu, deeply imbued with the refined courtly culture of its heyday during the late-Mughal nawabi period. From Lucknow, HUF students make visits to other key cultural centers such as Jaipur, Rajasthan.

HUF’s Year in India is based in Lucknow, a celebrated center of Urdu language and culture. From Lucknow, HUF students make visits to other key cultural centers such as Jaipur, Rajasthan.

The Year in India is a crucial and exciting component of HUF’s primary mission of bringing students to professional competence. It is the heart of the HUF program and is compulsory for all HUF students.

The Year in India offers a unique opportunity to become ‘immersed’ in Hindi and Urdu in academic, professional, cultural and domestic contexts, and complements Flagship courses already completed on the Austin campus. The organization of HUF’s India curriculum mirrors the sibling relationship between Hindi and Urdu, with specific training in technical aspects of both, but also with daily exposure to the public use of the common language that some speakers will define as Hindi and others as Urdu! In addition to language courses taken for UT credit, students are tutored by professors from Indian universities in courses that count towards their major.

HUF’s Year in India is a collaboration between UT and the American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS), which is a consortium of American Universities that has offered language programs in India since the 1960s. Students receive language training from experienced AIIS teachers while enjoying the benefits derived from AIIS’s many years of organizing ‘study abroad’ programs for American students. A HUF program coordinator is onsite in India to assist students and to facilitate their academic and cultural activities, working closely with the HUF team in Austin. The AIIS offices, HUF, and UT-Austin’s International Office provide a network of organizational support.

The Year in India is a unique experience which immerses HUF scholars in the fascinating historical and cultural contexts of the Hindi-Urdu tradition.

Slideshow: The Year in India is a unique experience which immerses HUF scholars in the fascinating historical and cultural contexts of the Hindi-Urdu tradition. Click on the image above to view more pictures of the Year in India

The Year in India is based at the AIIS center for Urdu and Hindi in Lucknow. As the capital city of Uttar Pradesh (a state whose population of over 170 million dwarfs all but five or six countries in the world), Lucknow has a diverse and vibrant culture offering excellent opportunities for students to engage with the living language. Students also spend time visiting other cities within the Hindi and Urdu region; in particular the AIIS center in Jaipur, Rajasthan, complements the Lucknow experience with a very different cultural and regional flavor. While focusing on standard Hindi and Urdu, students will encounter some regional dialects of both, giving an appreciation of the multifaceted character of the linguistic culture of Northern India.