I am creating this thread as a place to contribute and log information related to chanteys and sea songs related to things/people originating in the Indian Subcontinent. The simply reason is that I am fascinated by both India and maritime songs (as I hope some others are, too) and I thought it would be useful to collect references in one place. Since the information on this topic is relatively, I think the references can be fairly broad--even just mentions of India in sea songs.

I will start by mentioning a few sources of information and examples, though without yet going into the deep details of each.

--Stan Hugill's SHANTIES FROM THE SEVEN SEAS has two pieces that relate to things Indian. One is the chantey "Eki Dumah." It looks like a chantey of Guyana of Trinidad, with its bits of pidgin Hindi reflecting more the large Indian populations there (i.e. descendants of indentured laborers) rather than reflecting an "Indian chantey" per se. I'll say more about this one in the future.

--Whall (1910) included a "sing out" in Hindustani. (Hugill reprinted it, which is where I am getting it from.) Unfortunately, the lyrics have been mangled in heir transfer to non-Hindi speakers. I took a wild stab at rendering it, and guessing the true lyrics, HERE

--The Permathread on Merchant Navy Songs contains numerous songs of later days that have Indian words and references, being that the crews were often "Lascars" - seamen from points east of the Nile.

--Useful reference works include:

Roebuck's ENGLISH AND HINDUSTANEE NAVAL DICTIONARY (1813) which includes grammar and a glossary of the so-called "Lascari" language, a shipboard, pidgin Hindi.

The "HOBSON JOBSON" glossary (1903), which reflects terms that came out of the English interactions with India and other Asian societies. It's a great general reference for 19th century slang.

Leland's DICTIONARY OF SLANG, JARGON, AND CANT also conatins references, though it is a bit sketchy and speculative.

--Some chanteys that come to mind at this second, that just mention India are

"Ranzo Ray" - "...we're loaded down with curios from China and the Indias"
"Hieland Laddie" - "Was you ever in Bombay? Drinkin' coffee and bo-he"
"Can't You Dance the Polka" - "Shanghaied in San Francisco, we fetched up in Bombay"

--THE CLIPPER SHIP SHEILA by Captain Angel (1921) describes a voyage picking up "coolies" (indentured laborers) in India and transporting them to colonies in the Caribbean. There are a few India-related songs in it, and lots of common chanteys.

--Amitav Ghosh's recent novel SEA OF POPPIES is set in the 1830s, and revolves around an ex-slave ship that is being reused to transport "coolies" from locales along the Ganges to Mauritius. He uses the range of Hindi, Bengali, Bhojpuri, Lascari, Portuguese, Chinese Pidgin, Hobson-Jobson, and other sailors' slang in a Joyce-esque way. One finds in it all the terms for different parts and stations on a vessel, down to details of the shipboard Hindi terms for things like jib-boom, upper tops'l, etc. A great read.

Gibb