This blog post is only one among hundreds of repeated false narratives of 'Copy & Paste' that contribute to False Narrative, wrong teachings, reductionism leading to a Cultural Genocide of Ancient Vaishnava Tantric Baul Culture and language.
Stop the intellectual Liquidation of this one and only lineage, stop the constant smear campaign, of an indigenous people, the authority lies with the Lineage Bauls, not with writers, scholars, fundraiser to save Muslim Fakir which are not Baul. documentaries and the saviors of Baul pretending they will be the ones who save the Bauls?
The authority does NOT lie with Baul singers, Baul artists (another name for fake Bauls), western Bauls or actors, they are destroying Baul with their wrong teachings, watering down and reductionism.
Songs of the Bauls: Voices from the Margins as Transformative Infrastructures by #UttaranDutta and #MohanJyotiDutta
Bauls are not out-caste, low-caste, no- caste, they reject caste even though they have one. Speculations and copy and paste what random scholars have written is NOT Baul.
Wandering random people are not Baul, just because someone says they are a Baul does not mean they are?
Baul is not Muslim aka Sai, Aul, Shah, dervish or fakir!, Bauls are not deviants, they are indigenous peoples going back to the times of Krishna/ Radha some 5 thousand years ago.
The authority is within the lineage, not outside by Baul singers who use Baul, or randoms who are suing Baul as a way to make money.
Baul is not an umbrella name for other poets as in Lalon Fakir (Shah) Monahar Kepa, Bhaba Pagala followed Baul but were NOT Baul, they never said they were Baul, there is more to Baul than poetry, there are specific sadhana's that none of these poets practiced! The proliferation of fake Baul lineages came about and was copied by this blog, now you will see many random people who are not Baul all saying and constructing lineages, some more than others, bizarre is all one can say?
Baul may sing the above poets songs due to the fact that Babu Kishan composed music to their lyrics. On the request Monahar Kepa and Bhaba Pagala they did not have a tune to their poetry, this should be the first sign they are not Baul. Today Baul is complete, who is writing Baul poetry today is not Baul? As Babu says loudly, there is no more Baul and because of all these false things said and written those people who use Baul are leading the destruction of Baul through their faking it, watering down, reductionism, in any other culture, this would be titled a cultural genocide. Baul does not need any fakes riding on this lineages coattails, the truth is coming out in a big way.
Monohar Baba and Baba Pagla had even said, to Babu Kishan we are not Bauls, but we follow Baul, they knew Nabani Das Khyapa Baul and would never compare themselves to Nabani, they knew who the Baul are, and they never said they were Baul. Stop using and speculating, stop using Baul.
Monohar Kepa and Baba Pagla were something, but they were not Baul, this is not to denigrate them, this lineage had respect for Monohar Khepa and Baba Pagla and this will be in Babu Kishan's 4th book on Baul.
Baul is not meant for savior fundraising so that you can collect your jack-pot from the United Nations or other sources for fake documentaries or saving the Bauls?
Cultural Genocide:
"Acts and measures undertaken to destroy any nation's or ethnic group's culture are called ‘cultural genocide’. The word ‘Genocide’, coined by Raphael Lemkin, does not only refer to the physical extermination of a national or religious group, but also to its national, spiritual and cultural destruction."
https://www.getty.edu/publications/occasional-papers-2/2/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_genocide
https://www.trtworld.com/magazine/explained-canada-s-cultural-genocide-of-indigenous-people-47835
For the Bauls this has happened over a century of writers, scholars, Vaishnava reformers who were English speakers, Christian educated" and random people who do not know anything about Baul, probably never met a real Baul?
However, they copy and paste wrong teachings, leading to reductionism by the uninitiated into Baul.
They are not from Lineage Baul but copy their songs (Baul poetry), Baul dress created by Babu Kishan (the patchwork Guduri), and their style, taking their names off and making up fake new lineages and stories about Baul.
People both men and women who randomize Baul (umbrella name ffor random people) and are try to collect people. Trying to fundraise to preserve Baul. When Baul is already preserved by Babu Kishan starting in the 1960's. People who make assumptions and speculate creating false narratives posing as Baul. They will be listed, in the new Book. A Baul always knows who wrote the poetry. This is a long critique.
In 2005, Unesco designated Baul Culture as:
"A Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity." However, in this article Baul is only talked about as the lowest of the low, deviant, degrades, low caste?? Boggles the mind!
An oral Sanskrit tradition, vernacular Birbhum Bengali.
Baul Songs and Baul Kirtan!
I am attaching the above link, because Baul was used by a Bangladeshi United Nations official, he collected 9 million to preserve Baul but disappeared. He wrote a paper saying Baul is a Persian word from Persian adding to the already fake lies that Bauls are Muslim? They are not Sai, Aul, Dervish, Shah or Fakir. They are so different, do not lump them together. New age Modern Vaishnava reformers who never met a Baul continued on with this from the late 1800's. I have qualified all and it will be in Babu Kishan's 4th book on Baul. If not for his family and Babu himself you would not even know about Baul. No Baul singers would have songs to sing and the actors would not be able to make up lineages.
https://indiafolkheritageofbengal.weebly.com
The Vaishnava Tantric Bauls of Birbhum worship all 3 (tri) they are trimurti. Dual and Non-dual, they are (unorthodox) inner Shakti worshiping tantric multitaskers. They are paradoxical meaning just when you think you understand the Bauls, you do not because although they are non-dual they are also, dual and you find a small temple, or a deity, you will find a Baul doing a Puja to Kali or Krishna, they are Shakta's and you could find Nabani at Tarapith. This is confusing for the uninitiated and scholars.
The Deities are inside the body, they are not temple builders, they do not preach, they teach. Baul does not collect devotee's, they are like birds, they are the inner bird people who do not like to walk, they like to fly. This lineage is Vaishnava Tantric Gosai.
Taking any point and beating it to death: using and promoting derogatory terms, misleading people as to what Baul is.
Uttaran Dutta ,* and Mohan Jyoti Dutta '' has in this paper created an anti Baul story by copy and paste of what other scholars have written wrong. You have scoured the internet to show Bauls need you, however, it is obvious you need Baul to fundraise for yourself. It appears you are setting yourself up as the savior of the poor degraded, deviant Bauls. This is not the first time, this has been done for decades?
This paper or article on academia.edu is anti Baul, anti indigenous, anti history, and completely wrong. repeating words such as deviant, degrades, low caste, low rungs of society hurts indigenous sentiments and Baul would say it hurts any cause Bauls have?
Where are the poets' names, how do we know who the poets are, you have posted random English translated poetry, what makes you qualified to distinguish whether this is Baul poetry or just a random poets poetry.
Those are not Baul poetry, they are Folk poets, where are their names?
What makes you qualified to talk about Baul, the internet?
You have NOT listed all your internet sources. Are we just to believe you? Are we to trust you know that you seriously know about Baul?
It is obvious you do not know Baul, do you have a Baul Guru, how do you know what is a Baul song and what is not?
Do you have a degree (which is useless because no scholar understands Baul they only speculate.
Do you compose Baul Music or Indian Music, are you a Sanskritist?
Were you born into a Baul family, is Baul your ancestry, have you lived for years with the Bauls? Are you from Birbhum?
Who are the poets, a Baul always knows who the poets are?
Bauls are an indigenous people of Birbhum, this is not the way to write about any indigenous Sanskrit tradition?
UNESCO the United Nations has designated Baul as:
"Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity". 2005
Of course you knew this, yet you repeat over and over they are deviant and use other words and copy and paste that is degrading. The oral part is Sanskrit by the way. The Bangladeshi official who orchestrated this took 9 million and disappeared. He used Baul, in his thesis he said Baul was from Persia? He created false fake narratives about Baul being Muslim? Is he your template and master hero of scamming and using Baul by creating false narratives?
You have contributed to the cultural genocide of Baul by taking away their own agency of telling people who they are, of letting a Baul teach humanity about Baul. You are contributing to false narratives of a Baul to describe themselves and write about their tradition through their eyes.
https://indiafolkheritageofbengal.weebly.com/cultural-misappropriation.html
Baul is extinct because of people like you, yes, you are muddying the waters on a topic you know nothing about, all you know is how to reduce Baul to the lowest common denominator, you are not a well wisher of Baul?
Who are you, you do not have a degree in Indian Music, how can you differentiate what is Baul and what is the Folk Music of Bengal. He is a Baul; his Guru is Nabani Das Khyapa Baul, the last living authentic Baul. Baul is extinct, what is your purpose?
Babu Kishan has categorized all the Folk Music of India for all the big recording companies in India, have you? Who is your Baul Guru, how are you qualified to write about Baul? What is your point, fundraising to be the savior of the Bauls, too late, it has all been done by other users of Baul for decades.
Baul are not beggars, they are NOT low caste, they are Gosai aka Gosain or Goswami." However, these leftist fundraisers are beggars, using Baul misleading people, scamming an organization, so that they can have a good life. This is NOT innocent?
The real authentic Indian Bauls of this one and only lineage are the heritage of India and the World.
That is why Rabindranath Tagore, Swami Vivekananda, Ramakrishna, Nitaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Nehru and other eminent people of India and the world including Allen Ginsberg were all inspired by the one and only Nabani Das Khyapa Baul the one and only Baul pioneer, Baul Guru and Baul poet on earth.
Tagore only met and was initiated into Baul by Nabani Das Khyapa Baul. I will supply a list of other prominent people who only came to Shantiniketan to visit with Nabani including all Guru's, Vaishnava, Tantrics, poets, authors, musicians, of the time.
The unorthodox part of the Bauls is Tantra, Shakti Sadhana, Bauls always worship Radha first.
Outsiders attached themselves to Baul because Nabani Das Khyapa Baul, Purna Das Baul and Babu Kishan made Baul famous. Many poor wandering people learned the songs of this lineage, copied, took the names of this lineage off and said they are Baul by singing the songs of this lineage and copying everything from this lineage but making up fake lineages?
"Songs of the Bauls: Voices from the Margins as Transformative Infrastructures by #UttaranDutta and #MohanJyotiDutta
This critique is from this copy and paste article. It is nothing new and very common to create an article such as this to fundraise, BabuKishan.org has seen this since the 1960's. The goal is to scam the Bauls through fundraising because most people do not have a clue, a scholar must know, they do not.
This is not an innocent article or written just because they love the Bauls. Babu Kishan has seen this style of low life copy and paste to create a narrative to get funding for their own pockets?
This is the typical leftist communist fundraising game??
Are they from Birbhum, have they met Nabani Das Khyapa Baul, Purna Das Baul or Babu Kishan, NO you have not! They are lineage Bauls and the only reason you would even know or hear about Baul.
All scholars are wrong, they only speculate which is hurtful to an extinct specific people, it actual has led and leads to a cultural genocide. The more they write, teaching wrong teachings, the more other scholars copy and paste, and others copy and paste, wrong teachings, yes this furthers a true cultural genocide.
This is what scholars ( or people who want to fundraise off the backs of the Bauls)write, it is copied and pasted from one scholar to another. This type of copy and paste narrative has been done before by many outsiders who want to fundraise to get money to help the poor Bauls only to take what they get to make money for themselves, this has been happening for decades. Any scholar who creates a narrative and then fundraises creates a foundation is using Baul.
Wrong -
"socio-economically and politically-religiously marginalized cultural populations from rural Bengal (both from eastern and north-eastern, India and from Bangladesh)." Carol Solomon University of Washington Seattle.
Babu Kishan's friends, he knew Carol Solomon for decades in Bengal and in the USA.
Bauls were never in Bangladesh and Bauls are not Muslim or Muslim Sufi, those are fake Bauls, they are Fakir Sai Dervish Shah and they are NOT Baul, never ever. But this is copied and pasted over and over?
Bauls were never in that part of Bengal, this is used by Bangladeshis who are Muslim to fundraise huge sums of money. Because this fundraising has been very lucrative and successful by Bangladesh.
Everybody had already written about the Bauls of Bengal and the University of Washington would only fund a new topic. Therefore, Carol Solomon wrote about Lalon Fakir, saying he was a Baul from Bangladesh. Babu Kishan knows because he signed papers as an authority for her University, as an authority to help with fundraising for the Bauls of Bengal. However, when he met her in 2008 she had changed the area of study to be Lalon Fakir and called him a Baul from Bangladesh. There are no Bauls in Bangladesh, shocking?
Boggles the mind. Sorry to say and Carol RIP but you used Baul.
"Bauls, the wandering minstrels, are a cultural population from socio-economically and politico- religiously marginalized sections of rural Bengal (both from eastern and north-eastern India and from Bangladesh) (Salomon 1995)."
Carol Solomon, Babu used to teach Bengali and about Baul to her and was a good friend. This is the problem with all the scholars who write and make a career off the Bauls, they are taught one thing and change the narrative to fit copy and paste of wrong teachings of other scholars.
They never write what they are told, they have to make it up, it is about their career only, about their work and making money and fundraising from Universities, not caring about the indigenous people they write about, never giving anything back.
Wrong -
"Bauls identify themselves as outcasts of any organized religion and the established caste system in South Asia, constituting the margins of the global South (Akter et al. 2017)."
Believe it or not, Bauls do have their very own caste, they are Sanskritist, they are Gosia.
This is part of a longer discourse which will qualify all who have written about Baul. It will take some time but it is necessary because no one knows what Baul is, scholars and others randomly make it up or copy and paste false statements to build a professorship career, misleading students and writers of Baul.
It is ridiculous that a culture, a people of a particular culture is not heard?
How many people, scholars and outsiders uninitiated in Baul give false narratives, wrong teachings and sing songs that are not even Baul trying to represent Baul through acting and lying?
Many want to be Baba or Maa and collect devotee's.
Bauls do not collect devotee's, the whole thing about Baul is to perfect your humanity first. If you are a liar or cheat you are not a Baul.
Another word I do not like to describe Bauls is itinerant, they all use this word to describe Baul. Bauls wandered from village to village in Birbhum because they were the original Hare Krishna singers and dancers as their wake up call, to call the villagers together as they would sing and teach discourses on how to live a Yogic Tantric Vaishnava life, they were Gurus, not random wandering people.
They had a method to their madness and what they collected they cooked for all the villagers not just for themselves, it was for everybody.
Itinerant means,
peripatetic, wandering, wayfaring, roving, roaming, rambling, touring
nomadic, gypsy, migrant, migratory, ambulatory, vagrant, vagabond
homeless, of no fixed address/abode, displaced, footloose,
rootless ( Bauls have the biggest roots??? Bauls are not rootless)
drifting, unsettled
restless, jet-setting, or refugee's ??
Bauls are not gypsies, wayfaring, migrants, homeless, unsettled? Use another word and learn about the meaning of Baul?
You scholars and writers of Baul are itinerant, Beggars, low caste, no caste, degraded for creating a cultural genocide?
Bauls had a clear purpose and method to their madness, the original Hare Krishna singers and dances, they lived in Akhara's, they had homes, farms, cows. How does one become a Sanskritist? You learned it for decades in akhara (Baul ashram), you didn't just wander with no cause.
Although many refugees from Bangladesh who were poor latched onto Baul, singing Purna Das Baul songs that were recorded on the radio, selling tantric sex in Shantiniketan to foreigners, posing smoking ganja, trying to be Purna Das Baul or Nabani Das Khyapa Baul.
The correct term is Sadhu!
Baul is sadhu Sanga and there are Baul songs about this.
Do you describe Sadhus at the above, I would think not.
The term is Sadhika for female and Sadhaka for male.
What a mess.
Bauls had a definite method and reason they did not just wander aimlessly and they are not beggars!
Beggars for God only.
Wrong:
"The Bauls1 represent a polymorphic spiritual tradition, which historically was influenced by three religious praxis—Sahajiya (Bajrayana Buddhism), Bhakti (Hindu Vaishnavism, oftentimes embodied in the Tantric tradition), and The Bauls1 represent a polymorphic spiritual tradition, which historically was influenced by three religious praxis—Sahajiya (Bajrayana Buddhism), Bhakti (Hindu Vaishnavism, oftentimes embodied in the Tantric tradition), and Sufi/Dervish mysticism (Islamic Marifat), and perform their spirituality through songs as they travel around (Lorea 2017; Mondal 2013)., and perform their spirituality through songs as they travel around (Lorea 2017; Mondal 2013)."
Not influenced by Sufi/Dervish mysticism (Islamic Marifat), Bauls have always been Bhakti Hindu Vaishnavism, Sahaja is Hindu Krishna Sahaja, you are writing (copying and pasting about Baul. Why are you giving this false narrative of copy and paste of wrong false scholarly copy and paste? A vicious circle creating a Cultural Genocide?
(Islamic Marifat) what I showed Babu Kishan , he said, you are out of your mind, you copied this from somewhere and it is wrong. NO and where did you get that from, who told you is not a Baul and is wrong.
You do not know anything and you can stop posting pictures of Nabani and going to the ancestral home, paying a few rupees, stealing their songs, paying a few rupees is theft and a huge lack of respect, taking advantage of a family that could use the money.
Then you set up a foundation, using Baul, you are not innocent, this a cultural theft and taking advantage of this lineage. Those songs do not belong to you, your papers have already proved wrong, you are creating false narratives for your own career? A do gooder, creating all sorts of Karma for yourself. I suggest you study your own family lineage in Europe?
Babu Kishan has already recorded and preserved all those songs. Stop using the Bauls and saying Bhaba Pagla was a Baul, and Baul even followed him. Bhaba Pagla is not a Baul, he is a follower of Baul, Babu Kishan used to composed music for his poetry, he didn’t have music for his poetry, these were sung by Purna Das Baul that is why Bauls sing Bhaba Pagla songs.
You do not know what you are talking about. I am going to do a full critique on (Lorea) writings?
Bauls are Hindu Sahajaya, Krishna was the biggest Sahaja, who told you Buddhist Sahaja? Oh yes, someone wrote it and this is copied and pasted over and over,WRONG!
You probably do not understand what I am talking about, why are you adding to this cultural genocide and writing Bauls are cross dressers, creating a sensation so that others will read your papers. I will critique those too.
You are completely wrong. Krishna is the biggest Sahaja, Krishna was on earth 5000 years ago way before Buddhism. When someone says, the Sahaja of the Bauls comes from Buddhism is completely wrong and the uneducated untrained by a Baul Guru is creating a cultural genocide. Babu Kishan is the eldest grandson of Nabani Das Khyapa Baul, Nabani raised Babu; he is the only one who has taken Nabani as his Guru, Lakshman Das Baul and his children did not.
People spreading Bauls are Buddhist Sahaja including people who follow Baul are completely wrong. Seriously this is copied and pasted, it is not accurate,
Wrong: repeated Sufi/Dervish mysticism (Islamic Marifat), and perform their spirituality through songs as they travel around (Lorea 2017; Mondal 2013).
I mean polymorphic, use correct language pertaining to an Indian ancient lineage, have some respect.
Let's look at this definition: Polymorphism, as related to genomics, refers to the presence of two or more variant forms of a specific DNA sequence that can occur among different individuals or populations??
You are two or more variants. Is it wrong and nasty to call any indigenous people a variant, there is an appropriate term but I am not going to teach you, only pull apart a lay bare all the wrong teachings??
Wrong:
"Bauls identify themselves as outcasts of any organized religion and the established caste system in South Asia, constituting the margins of the global South (Akter et al. 2017)."
What, whoever writes this is a marginal human? They should talk about their own family this way, was Babu Kishan interviewed? NO and this is pure speculation. Bauls are not monkeys in a zoo, are you ancestors, researching your own family lineage?
Correct but this is not the only thing that had brought Baul to extinction so has the scholars who have not a clue and write things that are not true, they others copy and paste, the fake Bauls do not know anything and then they parrot wrong teaching and make it up, the fake it til you make it
"The proliferation of fake Bauls (with no spiritual and/or philosophical training or initiation) and urban folk-performers (from sophisticated upper class) and their commercialization of Baul songs threaten the survival of rural Bauls at the margins (Knight 2010).
Those are not Bauls, Baul is extinct, those are people who are random and beg using the singing of Baul songs, they in actual fact are not Bauls, who write this are trying to fundraise for themselves by using the Bauls. This has been going on for decades.
"As the overall socio-economic situation of lower-caste people (almost all the Bauls belong to lower-castes) of remote rural Bengal is mostly impoverished (e.g., 49% indigenous population and 21% dalit population in West Bengal, India live below poverty line (World Bank 2017)), previous research assumed and/or cursorily mentioned that socio-cultural and political situations of Bauls are a matter of concern."
NOT TRUE making it up to collect funding they say for the Bauls but they are only creating a narrative and will take the money raised through boo hoo and keep it for themselves, cheaters.
Wrong :
"This paper seeks to (a) document the discourses of the Bauls whose voices and narratives are continually marginalized and de-legitimized; and
(b) foreground the agency of the Bauls on how they (i) address conditions of marginalization;
(ii) communicate their commitment and actions towards raising consciousness; and
Religions 2019, 10, 335 3 of 19"
(iii) promote humanistic values. In doing so, it puts forth the concept of voice as anchor to emancipatory imaginings in bringing about transformation."
You are so obvious, trying to fundraise for yourself, another hopeful jackpot from using Baul.
Bauls do not need you to promote humanistic values, they need to teach you how to be human. Copying and pasting everything you possibly find that has been written bad about Baul is not going to promote them it is just leading to a further cultural genocide created by people like you, no connection to Baul, only a internet connection??
Since a Bangladeshi official took and ran away with $9 million to preserve Baul from the United Nations saying Baul is from Persia and he took the money for himself. Others are probably trying these people too. They write a copy paste patchwork of boo hoo, we will be the saviors and they never met an authentic Baul?
There is an Indian Musician who has created a Baul trailer, to collect money from the United Nations. He has taken pictures of people who are not Bauls, sitting around smoking ganja. Seriously, that is the oldest trick used by many, today, Grandma smokes ganja as medicine. It is either smoking ganja or tantric sex. Stop using Baul, go and find your family lineage and work on showing your ancestors sitting around smoking ganja? You met BabuKishan.org in Canada and not a clue who he is? Bizarre!
Wrong:
"The meaning and origin of the word ‘Baul’ is debated and can be traced back to a few possible sources. They are (a) a Sanskrit word ‘vyakula’ (impatient eagerness for god); (b) another Sanskrit word ‘vatula’(the inner flow of energy affected by wind, or madman (derived from Hindi ‘baur’); (c) ‘awliya’,an Arabic term, which refers to “holy man” or “saint”; and (d) the sahajiya Buddhist word ‘bajrakul’ gradually became ‘bajul’ and then ‘Baul’ (Mondal 2015; Salomon 1995)."
Wrong, this is so wrong, RIP Carol too bad Babu Kishan didn't know what wrong teachings you peddled, and he gave you so much, even teaching you Bengali?
This is very personal because Carol Solomon was a decades long friend of Babu Kishan's. All completely wrong. Why did Carol write this after Babu taught her? He even did master classes at Washington University and stayed at her house. I met Carol in 2008. But yet everybody copies and pastes, the correct description is on the lineageBaul.blogspot.com blog
Wrong:
"Madhukari (subsisting on alms from begging and refusing anything surplus) is an important traditional aspect of Baul tradition, although many contemporary Bauls have alternative professions as a source of income (Krakauer 2016)."
Are all the Deities in temples, churches and Mosques begging for flowers and fruit, whoever wrote the above does not make any sense. Makes no sense?
Madhukari is not arriving in a village and having people touch your feet, a total misuse of the term? It is not knocking on doors, they never knocked on doors. The arrived in a village, announced they were there and sang and taught people. The Guru came to you. No begging.
There is much misleading through video's going on. This is mere self promotion, a Baul singer, acting posing their desire to be another Ammachi, come and join us? Baul never says to anybody come and join us, Baul does not collect people, they come and go without leaving anything, they leave only teachings.
Madhukari is dakshina, they put all the food together that is offered and have a feast feeding the villagers.
It gets worse as you go through this article. Wrong copy and paste?
Madhukari is not begging and Bauls do not beg for alms. Baul is extinct so yes of course someone from Baul needs a job, Bauls have not gone around traveling their traditional way for decades.
Nabani was the first Baul to sing on a stage and that was as a freedom fighter to draw crowds for Nehru. Before Nabani no Baul ever sang on any stage. They all copy Nabani, right down to Ektara, Baya (drum around the waist) and Nupoor (ankle Bells) this is only Nabani style. Yet you will see people copying and making up lineages. This is toxic and thinking no one will know, because Babu's guru is Nabani and he has preserved this lineage since the early 60's and he is the eldest authentic Baul from this lineage, he knows.
The only Pioneering Bauls;
Purna Das Baul is the 2nd Baul to travel all around India singing on stages for Indira Gandhi with his eldest son Babu Kishan then for Rajiv Gandhi before them no Bauls sang on stages or traveled the world. Purna Das Baul then Manju Dasi along with Babu Kishan are the first Bauls to travel around India singing on stages and then around the world.
They are the pioneers and other random people followed them, following their style, singing their songs, dressing as them and even visiting all the people and places they would go and using their stories, making Baul random.
The fake Bauls randomly say Baul associate with Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, George Harrison, Rabindranath Tagore, Allen Ginsberg, no random Bauls did not. They have had no association at all PERIOD. But they use and make like they are the ones, it has become toxic.
Random Bauls use Rabindranath Tagore only Nabani is associated with Tagore.
Wrong:
"Historically, the colonial oppression and politics (of exclusion) of Brahminical, upper-caste Hindu and Islamic society created massive socio-political and economic uncertainty in the lives of the people of lower strata of society, which eventually gave birth to many “deviant sects” like the Bauls (Urban 2001)."
Colonial oppressed? All of India was colonial oppressed, have you not read history, do you know about the famine in Bengal created by the food diversions to Europe leaving all Bengalis to suffer in the 1940's during WW2?
Are you kidding me, deviant sects such as the Bauls, disgusting and truly nasty. What a mumbo jumbo load of ignorance. A Baul is not a deviant, what is your purpose to post such horrific wording, are you the savior of Baul?
What a statement, do you even know who the Bauls are? They are not low caste, they are not any of the words you use. Seriously I would think you have an agenda of further cultural genocide, or you want to be the saviour of the Bauls, but first you need funding?
They are a thousands of years old Vaishnava lineage most recently of Nityananda of Ekachakra Bengal (1500), nobody would know about Baul without this lineage. What a huge insult. I suggest that you study and write about your family and stay out of other people's families??
Wrong:
"In the early nineteenth century, many such non-conformist and rebellious sects like Aul, Baul, Sain, Fakir, Nera-Neri, Sabebdhani, Kartabhaja, and Kishoribhaja proliferated throughout Bengal (Urban 2001).
Hugh Urban these are not associated with Baul? There is a long history of lumping together with Baul or creating and saying, Baul is an umbrella term for a group of wandering people. Please do not lump Baul with other groups, Bauls have a huge history and are not associated with any Muslim group or other groups.
Baul was around way before this time and before the groups you associate Baul with. Yes, Baul is rebellious and once you see Babu Kishan start, you will understand how rebellious they really are? Bauls always have been, they are Tantrics. Baul is Vaishnava Tantric "Chandra Das Gosia Baul" and they were highly respected except by these modern writers and so called scholars. Guru's, people came from all over India and the world. Do not lump Baul together with other groups.
Wrong and degrading:
"These ‘lower’ class (and caste) heterodox, “deviant sects” essentially questioned and communicatively challenged the colonial and Brahmanical rule, as well as religious dominance thorough their esoteric, subvert and critical, yet (often) coded, discourses (Mahbub-ul-Alam et al. 2014)."
Copy and paste? Repeating, repeating wrong teachings. All in the name of fundraising for themselves, a scheme to collect funds for the poor degrades poor suffering deviant Bauls?
Wrong:
"Baul tradition does not recognize any worship of (images of) deities, mosques, temples, religious symbols or sacred places as a part of their ideology. "
Oh yes they do, what a bold faced lie and shows it is just another copy and paste? This absolutely can be proven that Bauls worship everything, nature, they have symbols for sure, they have manuscripts. Bauls are dual and non dual in their worship, they do have deities, although many times these deities are installed in the human bodies. Baul is paradoxical, dual form and non dual no form, they are both.
"Bauls not only deny the importance of external religious practices or rituals, they strongly criticize the ‘caste system’ (the songs of Lalon Fakir, as well as many past and contemporary Bauls, addressed the issue of caste), and other forms of social inequality and injustice (Sengupta 2015)."
Baul does not deny anything, they are humbler than a blade of grass, they are a caste but do not believe in holding caste over people's heads.
Lalon Fakir is NOT a Baul he is a Poet, it was Babu Kishan who first recorded Lalon poetry in Calcutta in the 1970's, Lalon is a Fakir or Shah he is not a Baul, there is a long story of where this came from.
This is the biggest wrong teaching and copy and paste. Lalon a great poet. It is because of Babu Kishan that Bauls sings his poetry because he put music to it as a prolific music composer for his father who sang Lalon songs and then others assumed Lalon was a Baul, no.
Same with Monar Khepa and Bhaba Pagla, they are poets who hung out with Purna Das Baul to bring them to the limelight as he was so famous. Even as a kid Babu Kishan used to compose music for their words when he was little, he was awarded the youngest Music Composer in Bengal and composed 80% of Purna Das Baul's famous music. Tunes and music that all random Bauls sing but never give credit?
It is assumed that just because a Baul sings a Lalon song that he is a Baul or a Bhaba Pagla or Manohar Khepa song, Babu Kishan would know he knew them personally and they used to stay at his home, he is the one who fed them and made up their room, they are his stories to tell, they are not Baul, they followers Baul.
They were always at their home in Calcutta as were many politicians, actors, singers, Indian classical famed musicians, poets, authors and scholars. Even in the village of Birbhum all famed people sought out Nabani and Brajabala Dasi,
Bauls hang out with talent, at this particular time, many knew Nabani, he was a major intellect and adept Tantric Baul, an Avadhut Baul Saint all the top people of India would visit their home in Birbhum, all Guru's sadhus, Tantrics, Nabani was not regular and it is not your story to tell or name drop. Rabindranath Tagore sought out Nabani and kept him close, Tagore was initiated into Baul by Nabani, Tagore tried to keep him tied to him, Nabani never tied himself to anyone. Do you think Tagore and all the top people and Guru's were out of their mind? Why did Nehru keep Nabani close?
Western Bauls write about Baul denigrating Nabani making him out to be a stupid person. Are they oral Sanskritist ignorant, Nabani was an adept in Ayurveda too, he was an adept Tantric Yogi?
You are repeating the lowest common denominator, this is not your family is it. These are real people, not just random people. Baul is not random, go and write about your topic or your own family. You are not qualified to write about Baul?
Baul followers sing their songs because Purna das Baul sang them and made them famous and other Baul singers or followers copy everything Purna Das Baul did?
There is a distinction, a Baul follower is not a Baul and neither is a Baul singer? They are followers and singers trying to make a living off of Baul, they do not have anything else, Baul has never said anything about this because they are seated in their sadhana. It has gotten out of hand and with the extinction and lack of authentic secret teachings, all of these writers have had a free for all. The reductionism and watering down of Baul should be a crime labeled cultural genocide.
New Baul singers are not adepts or sadhaka's they sing Baul because what else are they going to do? They think if I copy, create a new narrative, take the names of this lineage off, never say who the poets are, I will be famous, that is their goal, then they start fundraising to preserve Baul which is already preserved and recorded by Babu Kishan decades ago, starting in the 1960's at the request of his Guru Nabani Das Khyapa Baul?
I have 15 more pages of critique, please excuse any typos.
"Academics such as Dr. Shaktinath Jha played an important role by organizing Bauls and Fakirs in their struggle for recognition and existence."
Do not know him, never heard of him. Baul is not Fakir, they are not the same. How about giving credit to the actual Bauls that did the work? Where do you get this stuff?
The Bauls you are talking about already were organized for thousands of years, they were organized in Akhara's there used to be 22 years ago and are none now, only fake ones, again trying to fundraise to preserve Baul but copies everything from this lineage without giving credit, only an unethical fake dramatic person does this.
Bauls again are not fakir and they are not random wandering people. Probably using this above to prove you too, deserve money to help the Bauls?
True to only a few points but lacks certain understandings:
"Such emerging tendencies are antithetical as well as detrimental for Baul ideology, and their conventional spiritual praxis, which ultimately reduces Baul songs to a form of commodity and a means of profit making. As a consequence, aspiring musicians, without any training or initiation in Baul tradition, are singing Baul songs as an attractive source of income; by creating competitions, such professional fake Bauls are making the survival of the Bauls even more difficult (Hanssen 2018)."
Ok the crux of this paper a plea for fundraising:
Embracing a critical communicative lens, this article argues in favor of foregrounding the voices and cultural expressions of the marginalized folk-tradition to bring about social justice, equity and transformation.
A critical cultural communicative lens essentially questions the hegemonic portrayal of underrepresented culture and/or cultural expression as inferior, “deviant” and inappropriate, and thereby communicatively engages at the lower socio-cultural strata to recover the voices of the marginalized (Dutta 2015; Shome and Hegde 2002).
Oh Good Lord, No what are you trying to do? Deviant inappropriate voices of marginalized people. Listen up Baul is extinct, you are trying to fundraise and use the Bauls, you are the ones marginalizing them, using them to get money to fundraise for yourself.
Baul has been preserved by Babu Kishan. Baul does not need you to further create a cultural genocide. Baul does not need saviors.
"Such discourses (often the voices of dissent) question the dominant agendas and oppressive practices, and the hegemonic construction of the marginalized as devoid of agency (Reed 2005).
Devoid of Agency so that you can fundraise for them, those stupid low caste lower socio-cultural strata, those marginalized pathetic people. I'll tell you what, stay away from the Bauls, they do not need your copy and paste or your interference. You already have done enough damage and know nothing, a copy and paste article of random scholars who have never met a Baul, you are seriously using Baul.
"Scholars have noted that the voices and agency from the margins, and even the indirect or passive defiance, are the ‘stubborn bedrock’ of nonconformities and skepticism, and also the key organizing force to imagining social transformation (Chaturvedi 2007; Scott 1990). Harter et al. (2009) noted that, in marginalized contexts, artistic performances can serve as useful tools to question dominant discourses and oppressions, and to create transformative possibilities."
Do not talk about other people, living people as the margins, another copy and paste out of context trying to construct, that you need money to do this job, to be the savior of the Bauls. Baul is already preserved by Babu Kishan, Baul is extinct, you are seriously so obvious in your picking of the lowest of the low and no context of what Baul is, you do not even know, went from scholar to scholar to copy and paste a paper, an article to collect donation or funding. It is so obvious and shameful.
"We conducted an extensive web search and literature review to search for Baul- and Fakir-related resources. For Baul and Fakir discourses, several media files (various formats of media file, including audio and audio-video formats) were searched through internet search engines, video hosting platforms (e.g., YouTube, Vimeo) and web-archives.
Key words used in the search included Baul, Fakir, Baul Gaan, Fakiri Gaan, Folk songs of Bengal etc.
After a comprehensive search of online resources, we located approximately 2000 Baul songs, documentaries, movies and interviews, and categorized them into two main categories—Devotional songs, and Songs with a material connotation. For this study, we only considered the discourses (including songs) which were about human suffering, contemporary issues, oppression and caste-based discriminations. After careful listening and/or watching, approximately
Religions 2019, 10, 335 5 of 19
75 songs, interviews and documentaries were selected for content analysis for this paper. Baul songs, as noted by scholars (e.g., Kuckertz 1975), are performed differently in different parts of Bengal; in terms of musical sounds, some of the prominent styles are Bhatiyali (eastern Bengal), Jhumur (western Bengal), and Bhawaiya (northern Bengal).
First of all who are you and what is your relationship with Baul, are you trying to set up something new? Which Bauls are you talking about, which Bauls did you talk to? Secondly Those are Folk traditions, Baul is a spiritual tradition, Baul songs are NOT folk songs.
What degree do you have in Indian folk music or India Music?
Do you have a Masters degree or PHD in Indian Folk or Baul tradition, to understand Baul you have to know Indian music? Are you from Baul?
Have you done Baul sadhna practices?
Are you a Baul?
Have you lived with the Bauls, not the Baul singers and followers of today, they follow Baul and are as lost as you are?
Nabani and Brajabala Dasi are the last of the living authentic Baul, did you meet them?
Copy and Paste is not an authority, neither is Western Scholarship!
What gives you the authority to determine Baul songs? All Baul documentaries are wrong. It sounds like you are using Baul just for enjoyment of your own life. Have you studied under a Baul?
What makes you an authority? You are wrong and not at all qualified to determine anything about Baul but reading all wrong papers on Baul by scholars who have just used Baul for their own career, for a job
You are not qualified, have you lived in a Baul ashram akhara for 12 years, this is all copy and paste. How dare you use Baul?
Fakir has nothing to do with Baul, Folk Music is not Baul, here you are admitting you have gathered all from Youtube and papers?
You are not qualified, do you know the Vedas, Upanishads, Tantra's, who did you study under?
It looks like you are doing marketing, gathering and now want to sell and fundraise what you have gathered from the internet.
Who is your Baul Guru, this is insane a marketing person marketing Baul, fundraising using a tradition, you are part of this cultural genocide. You are the problem.
I am only on page 5 of 19 this is a huge travesty and cultural genocide from a person or persons who know nothing about Baul other than internet copy and paste.
Who are the poets of the songs, you have to know the poets, not some songs translated into English and copied from a scholar because those songs are always mistranslated because of the lack of Bengali understanding by the English speakers? A Baul always knows who the poets are, here you have fallen greatly.
Your songs posted are not Baul songs, the Bauls you mentioned are not Bauls they are random people who are using Baul.
"In a similar tone, Baul Shah Abdul Karim of Bangladesh shared in one of his interviews, “People (Sharia followers) threatened that as I sing songs, they said that they will not bury my body in my religious custom.” He then commented, “I committed many mistakes.
We all make mistakes in every step of the way. But, my singing was not a mistake. I had never thought it was a mistake. It is my songs that brought me closer to the people’s heart. It is my songs that created a consciousness within my being.” Such expression of commitment and non-conformity is also reflected in the words of the younger Bauls; they refuse to submit to the mainstream doctrines and/or impositions; Bedana Fakir, a woman singer from Nadia, West Bengal answered"
Baul Shah Abul Karim is not a Baul, he is a Shah using Baul or following Baul. Bendana Fakir is not a Baul. He is a folk singer but how would you know, he was a simple regular writer and folk singer? This family knew him, did you?
Sharma is not a Baul?
Das Baul and Dasi are Baul!
Baul and Shah, Aul, Sai, Dervesh and Fakir are like water and oil.
A Baul would always pay respect to anybody who follows Baul,but that does not make one a Baul.
Who was this person's Guru, I think before you mention the name of a so-called Baul you must print who their Guru is, that is the way of Baul? A Baul always has a Baul Guru not a random Guru?
Baul is always Das Baul and Dasi?
Wrong:
For instance, following the practice of Madhukari (ritualistic begging), they go door-to-door to reach their followers and make regular contacts with followers in local communities; the process is an important one for both their spiritual and physical sustenance, anchoring spiritual bonds in community ties.
During Madhukari, they perform publicly, and accept any offerings as per the ability and/or choice of their admirers; this practice helps them to reduce their ego. One of the Baul practitioners explained, “One of the daily routines of the Bauls is to go around the village, waking up the villagers by singing. In exchange the villagers used to give the Baul money or grain.” Apart from everyday Madhukari, Bauls organize spiritual events and gatherings in their ashrams/akharas with financial support of followers and well-wishers.
No! Baul do not, it is not begging, it never was, you are disrespecting Baul sentiment by reprinting these things.
Baul never ever went door to door, they went village to village singing the Hare Krishna mantra as the wake up call, people came and gathered around them to listen to their spiritual Vaishnava song and Kirtan. You do know Baul is Kirtan anga, right? Nobody in this world would know about Baul if not for this lineage? The authority is in the lineage not with random scholars or misleading fake scholars of Baul such as yourself?
"Scholars such as Openshaw (2002) notes that Bauls are oftentimes portrayed by the hegemon as deprived of agency. ??
Harter et al. (2009) argue that for marginalized artists like Bauls, who were excluded from the mainstream socio-political space, aesthetic performances serve as their alternate avenues to reach wider audiences. ??
Bhattacharya (1969) stated that, “socially the Baul tradition can be interpreted as a series of rebellions by isolated individualists against the caste and class system” (p. 30).
In many ways, Bauls are the ‘stubborn bedrock’ (Scott 1990, p. 273), who perform mundane and/or quotidian agentic acts to ensure a long term survival, as opposed to directly winning some ‘set-piece battles’ (e.g., against oppressions or intolerance) (Scott 1990).
This paper argues that it is the ceaseless agentic efforts and abilities of the Bauls and Fakirs, which are the foundations of their consistent struggle against contextual odds and adversities."
Scholars are not authority on Baul, this copy and paste is wrong, one after the other, this is disjointed and what are you trying to prove, the same repeat over and over. Copy and paste repeat copy and paste?
Wrong:
"Scholars such as Openshaw (2002) notes that Bauls are oftentimes portrayed by the hegemon as deprived of agency.
Random wandering peoples who attached themselves to Baul, who used Baul to beg were deprived of agency because they did not do Sadhana and they were not Bauls, just because a random person told you they were Baul does not mean they were. A leather tanner is never a Baul? Just because you pay someone a few rupees and they tell you they are Baul does not mean they were.
Baul is not learned from the internet or from scholars, they have had a huge hand in the destruction and reductionism of Baul, shameful indeed, making a career for yourself by tearing down, misleading.
Babu Kishan has known all the scholars and they have misled people for decades and you are misleading people because your paper is an incomplete copy and paste.
Baul is not Fakir, all you are doing is contributing to the cultural genocide of Baul, Baul is not Aul Sai Dervish Shah Fakir, Baul is NOT Muslim or Buddhist.
You need to be more educated about Baul by an authentic Baul Guru.
Stop misleading people!
Babu Kishan
BabuKishan.org
BA Indian Philosophy
MA Indian Music
12 years Ramakrishna Mission
40 Years Indian Music Composer (Bollywood), Filmaker
Eldest Lineage Baul of his generation, raised in Suri Birbhum with his Grandparents Nabani Das Khyapa Baul and Brajabala Dasi
No one ever knew about Baul if not for this lineage, all copied them, followed them.
