Seeking Bauls of Bengal.

• Author: Salomon, Carol
• Position: Book review

Seeking Bauls of Bengal. By JEANNE OPENSHAW. University of Cambridge Oriental Publications, vol. 60. Cambridge: CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2002. Pp. xii + 288, illus.

Bauls are idealized as emblems of Bengali folk culture. In popular imagination in West Bengal and Bangladesh they are lone wandering minstrels, free of the strictures of society, who express their religious beliefs in folk songs. They are known for their condemnation of the caste system and are celebrated as symbols of Hindu-Muslim harmony. While on the one hand they are exoticized and romanticized, on the other they are demonized, sometimes for the very same qualities for which they are admired, i.e., their lack of respect for boundaries of caste and religion. They have also been condemned for their sexual and scatological practices, when these have become known.

The present anthropological study is a revision of part of Jeanne Openshaw's doctoral thesis submitted to the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London in 1993; the section containing the autobiography of the Hindu Baul composer Raj Khyapa is included in another book to be published at a later date. The book is based on fieldwork over a period of seven years from 1983 to 1990 conducted in West Bengal, largely with Hindu Bauls both male and female, although Openshaw interviewed Muslim Bauls as well. Openshaw carried out her research primarily in the Rarh area in the southwest of the state among Bauls who are Jat Vaishnavas (Vaishnavas by caste) and in the Bagri area in Nadia and Murshidabad districts, where she studied the lineage of Raj Khyapa (1869-1946/7). The main focus of her research is "Raj's people" (rajer lok), as they call themselves, through whom Openshaw had access to unique material. She not only interviewed Raj Khyapa's followers, including a couple of his direct disciples who had firsthand knowledge of him, but also had access to autograph manuscripts of his writings comprising almost two hundred songs, an autobiography, treatises on theory and esoteric practice, and an account book. To my knowledge, these are the first manuscripts written in the hand of the Baul who composed them and the first autobiographical account of a Baul poet's life, since Bauls do not reveal the details of their lives before initiation. Even authentic biographies of Baul gurus by their disciples are unknown. (1)

This pathbreaking book debunks stereotypes which, although not totally false, give distorted pictures of Bauls. It also points out fallacies in previous scholarship on Bauls and aims to present them in their own image. The picture that emerges is much more complex and nuanced than in earlier studies. These studies, Openshaw argues, reify and essentialize Bauls, wrongly depicting them as comprising a more or less unified and homogeneous group. While maintaining that there is a core of characteristics that constitute Baul or bartaman-panthi (see below) identity, Openshaw does not draw artificial lines around Bauls. Rather, she emphasizes their radicalism, diversity and creativity, their ability constantly to absorb new ideas and come up with new interpretations. Previous studies were often based on collections of Baul songs by many different poets, decontextualized and interpreted according to the scholar's preconceptions. Openshaw focuses on Raj Khyapa's lineage in order to present a detailed, contextual study, instead of an overgeneralized one relying mainly on a disparate collection of songs. Previous studies were also often based on material collected only from male Baul musicians. In order to correct this bias, Openshaw centers her study on "Raj's people," who are initiates but who do not earn their livelihood from singing, and she interviewed both male and female practitioners. She also concentrates on this group because it stresses elements not emphasized in earlier studies, among which is its high valuation of women.

The book is divided into five parts ("Background: Literature on Bauls and Baul Songs," "In Search of Bauls," "Received Classifications," "Reworking the Classifications," and "Practice [sadhana] and Talking about Practice [hari-katha]") consisting of two chapters each, plus an introduction and conclusion. The following summary cannot do justice to the richness of the material in the book and the complexity of its arguments.

Chapters one and two are devoted to secondary works on Bauls, including official colonial sources and Bengali scholarly and literary texts. In chapter one, "What's in a Name? The Advent of 'the Baul'," Openshaw traces the changes that the image of Bauls underwent from the nineteenth century down to the present, placing these changes in the context of the historical, political, religious...