Rabindranath Tagore and the Bauls: Representation and Performance of Bauls as Socio-political Actors

Publication Date

4-1-2017

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Indian Theatre Journal

Volume

1

Issue

1

DOI

10.1386/itj.1.1.67_1

First Page

67

Last Page

81

Abstract

This article reveals the relationship between Rabindranath Tagore and the Bauls against the backdrop of the politics of nationalism between the late nineteenth and the early twentieth century in Bengal. Tagore’s works – including novels (Gora and Ghare Baire), plays (Phalguni), and songs composed between 1900 and 1920 – are thoroughly influenced by the ideologies of Bauls, whose liminal identities (of being in the world and yet outside of it) play a significant part in the formation of his political, philosophical and spiritual identity. Tagore’s subsequent popularity amongst the middle-class bourgeois Bengalis, in turn, shapes the representation of Bauls more as political rather than merely spiritual, musical or cultural performers of Bengal. From a marginal and ‘shameful’ social positionality, Tagore’s portrayal of Bauls transforms them into political figures and agents of self-reflection, reform and covert resistance to hegemonic powers of control and domination through their world view, performance and lifestyle.

© Intellect

Keywords

anti-imperialism, Bauls, covert resistance, home-sentiment, politics of liminality, politics of nationalism

Department

Film and Theatre

Link to Full Text

Share

COinS