Our Baul Heritage Project is run by Sadar Uddin, our Community
Partnerships and Investment Manager at Manningham Housing
Association in conjunction with tenants.
Through conversations, Sadar discovered tenants had been drawing on
Baul Folk Music and other South Asian cultural and musical heritage
write poems and songs about their culture and life in the UK. The Baul
were originally mystic minstrels who travelled through Bangladesh and
West Bengal.
The tenants felt that this heritage needed to be preserved for the
future generations in Bradford and all over the UK. Thus, the Project
turned the songs into sheet music and produced a book called ‘Baul
and Mystic Songs of South Asian Heritage’ (subtitled ‘Celebrating UK
City of Culture Bradford 2025’).
This includes songs and poems selected by a writer’s panel, written
in Urdu, Bengali and English, as well as artwork and calligraphy by
tenants. It comes in two volumes and the 500 copies are free and will
be shared with schools, colleges, and community venues.
Thanks to RM Research for the Case Study commissioned by LEAP
Click here to read about Case Studies short Our Baul Heritage Project