Choudhuri | 1

Purna Choudhuri

Proposal for PhD. Thesis Work

Probable Project Topic:

In search for an egalitarian society: The voice of the subaltern through the
discourse of the Bauls of Bengal.

Proposal background:
There have been few events in the nineteenth century Bengal that had
had a groundbreaking impact on contemporary structures of the Bengali
society, and the Baul movement was certainly one of the most prominent
amongst all. The Baul Sampraday, as we term it, is a syncretistic tradition
which draws its essential components from Tantric Buddhism (Sahajiya),
Vaishnavism, the sufi sects of Islam, and later, Hinduism. The Bauls, like the
members of many mystic traditions, denounce the constructs of caste and
social hierarchies in search for an egalitarian society, along with the disposal
of the existence of the Supreme Being outside the living body. Practising on
the doctrines of dehatattva (the doctrine of the body), they believe the body
to be the essential microcosm of the universe. However, they do differ from
other mystic clans and traditions with respect to certain rituals and sexual
rites.
Historically, the origin of the word Baul can be traced back to early
Bengali literary texts dating from the 15th century. However, their evolution
as a sect cannot be specified accurately. The Bauls have their roots in the
Kushtiya district of Bangladesh, formerly known as east as Bengal and

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Bhirbhum, circumventing the university town of Shantiniketan. Whatever

their roots be, the Bauls have been known to rebel against the doctrines of
caste, sect, divinity and beliefs in the search of the true inner self. Their
disregard for the existence of a concrete deity in the external world
manifests their revolutionary tenets of searching for the divine within
oneself: searching for the Moner Manush or the ideal being that resides
within oneself. Bauls generally reside either in secluded communities outside
the paraphernalia of the mainstream society or as nomads where they
compose and express themselves through songs addressed to the Moner
Manush.
Since they live as ascetics rebelling against the dominant ideologies of
the mainstream religious doctrines, they are often regarded as outcastes
residing at the margins of the societies. The Baul movement that initially
began as a form of resistance slowly emerged into a distinct ethnic minority
cult that underwent severe discrimination both by the dominant Hindu sects
and the Islam ones around the 17th century. However, with the assimilation of
their thoughts into the songs of Tagore, they gained prominence within the
Bengali bourgeoisie and slowly started to get recognized, if not accepted,
into the mainstream society.
The initial expression of the Baul movement itself had been that of a
denial towards the normative ideologies of the contemporary society, a
denial towards the recognition of the power of the state apparatuses of
religion and family, and this refusal, in turn, represented them as a minority
within the social fabric, making them prone to exploitation and lending them
a characteristic of subalternity; however, when we come towards the end of
this century, we see prominent figurehead Bauls getting absorbed in the
process of social recognition and assimilation that has led to a deviation of
the values, thoughts and essence of Baul music as a whole. The concepts
and ideologies that were the bedrock of the initial Baul movement were
transformed into something that could be manufactured and delivered with

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respect to the needs of the society and the market, if I am to use this term,
as a whole. My project aims to study the Baul movement and locate it within
the paradigms of subalternity, the representation and the construction of the
body through power and the feasibility of an egalitarian society aiming to
balance the dichotomies that exist within it (such as male/female, good/evil
etc.).
In order to enable me to explore the paradigm shift in the discourse of
Baul songs, I would like to explore the Baul songs of Din Bhabananda, Haure
Gosai and Din sharat, defining the fabric of the Baul cult during the mid 19 th
century, and contrast them with the contemporary works of Paaban das Baul
and Purna Das Baul. Both of these represent a singing tradition that is
specific to the contemporary socio-political fabric and offer an excellent
study of the same.

Research Question(s):

Where is the voice of the subaltern today and how do we trace it?
How do we define power relations in context of the subjectivity of the

body?
Where do we locate the politics of power operating amongst the
various fragmented communities of Baul today while locating them
within the mainstream bourgeoisie society?

Scope of the Project:

There have been prominent works conducted on the cults of Baul
communities on how they live, what they preach, what are their methods of
locating the body and searching for the divine through the utilization of the
same. Scholars have also worked on Baul music keeping Lalon fakhir as their
epicenter. But my research will try to assess these Bauls through the concept
of subalternity and their ability/ inability to speak. Further, I would try to

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examine the body as the site as well as the product or power relations
working in the society. This can be asserted in their reciprocation (here, it
can refer to both resistance and submission) to the power structure
operating thereby. My project also aims at assessing the ways in which their
voices of resistance have been transformed into products of commodity as a
by-synthesis of the operation of power.
As a part of my research work, I would like to draw my arguments from
Foucaults texts on discipline and norms and subjectivity of the body. In
the later part of my paper, I would try to relate this mechanism of moulding
the docile body of the subjects on the part of the state apparatuses so as to
enable it to perform certain actions and respond to certain events, resulting
as one of the most prominent reasons for subalternity and its ability/ inability
to speak. Through the assessment of the early Baul songs and the
contemporary ones, along with a historical scrutiny of the methods involved
in dehatattva, I would try to locate them with respect to the above texts
and probably succeed in delving deeper into the power-play of the body and
its discourse.

Research Methodology:
The

research

methodology

would

certainly

involve

thorough

examination of the evolution of the Bauls as a religious cult followed by its

assimilation into the mainstream society. Examining the songs, visiting the
local archives of Bengal and conversing directly with the practicing Bauls of
both West Bengal and Bangladesh would definitely shed some light on the
different modes of lifestyle, practices, ideologies that the Bauls have come to
inherit and practice. In order to achieve a complete view of the scenario, I
would like to have interview sessions with both the rural Bauls of former
Bengal as well as those who are currently assimilated into the mainsteam
entertainment discourse of the bourgeoisie society. Undertaking a thorough

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historical survey of the evolution of the Bauls from mere singing minstrels to
a segregate community with distinct ideologies is what will help me
identifying the politics of power operating on and within them.

P.T.O.
Select bibliography:

Bauls in Conversation cultivating oppositional psychology, Lisa L

Knight.
The music of the Bauls of Bengal, Capwell, Charles, Kent, Ohio: The

Kent State University Press, 1986.

Songs of Ecstacy: Mystics, Minstrels and Merchants in Colonial Bengal,
Hugh B. Urban, source: Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol.
123, no. 3 (Jul-Sep, 2003), pp. 493-519.