The Web of Deceit: Challenges to Hindu and Muslim ‘Orthodoxies’ by ‘Bāuls’ of Bengal

Abstract

Many so-called ‘Bāuls’ of Bengal identify themselves in opposition to more conventionally religious Hindus and Muslims. Specifically they identify themselves as being in ‘barttamān’, a category basically constructed in opposition to another: ‘anumān’. An ideal of self-dependence based on one's own knowledge (barttamān) is opposed to others’ knowledge or conjecture (anumān). The latter is epitomised by Hindu or Muslim ‘orthopraxy’ or ‘orthodoxy’, which is in turn legitimised by scripture and religious authorities (priest and mullah). Those inbarttamānemphasise the ‘substance’ or ‘thing’ rather than the ‘name’ (which is identified with scripture, mantra etc.); and ‘what is seen’ (that is, one's own experience) rather than ‘what is heard’ (literally ‘hearsay’). Scriptural authority and the practices legitimised by it are at times denounced as deception. In particular distinctions between person and person are said to be cultural and contingent rather than natural. Bāul reverence for the human being subverts both Hindu image worship and the transcendent God of orthodox Islam. It is argued that this radicalism may partly be accounted for in terms of the close association and mutual influence of Hindus and Muslims within the Bāul community.

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