‘BAUL’ AND THE IDEA OF NATION IN RABINDRANATH WITH REFERENCE TO ‘GORA’:A SUBALTERN CASE STUDY Jeanne Openshaw in her seminal ‗Seeking Bauls of Bengal‘ rightly observes that the bauls: ‘While on theone hand they are … romanticized, on the other they are demonized.‘‘ Their antipathy to caste system andoverlapping the boundaries of natural order and involvement into sexual ritual practices makes them typicalaboriginals of Bengal. Early sources dating back to the 1870s project a negative view of the bauls as low casteentertainer and bairagis belonging to different sects.
The image of bauls underwent a change if not radical in theoncoming wave of nationalist movement and for the establishment of national culture, the intellectuals and educatedpeople not only tried to find their root in ancient tradition and rituals such like the revival of Hinduism. On the otherhand there is also a spectral move towards the idealization of baul culture, especially their synthesis and priority onhumanity devoid of race, sect and that remains a prototype for ideal nationhood both for the future India and also inthe present time of the radical projection of different and superiority of European or British with the native.Otherwise baul identity is not regarded as something desirable and few are anxious to proclaim themselves as baul.The esoteric practice such as identification of self with the semen and menstrual blood and therefore not separatefrom body, is the same in everyone that antagonizes the prevailing social system and order since the female is holdto be self-perfect. Sadhana is primarily for the benefit for the males and described from the male perspective. Thuspreventing ejaculation is extremely important but when the female partner is menstruating some emission may besanctioned.These practices prevent them largely from being akin with the dominant society and custom. However inthe wake of nationalism the interest of intellectuals fell on this subaltern group. The intellectuals like KangalHarinath, Mohammed Monsuruddin, Basant Kumar Paul and more particularly the Tagore family like JotirindranathTagore and Rabindranath Tagore. Rabindranath‘s influence on society about forming a positive opinion about baulswas rather important in many aspects. However in ‗The Philosophy of Our People‘ [1926], Tagore depicted the richtradition of bauls in rural society of Bengal and argued that their philosophy is an inheritance of Upanishad. Thusthe intellectuals like Tagore and Akshay Kumar Maitreya developed the image of Lalan as a folk poet to representindigenous tradition and culture as a counter culture of European civilization. Moreover the estoteric practice of thebauls had its root in Hathyoga a branch of yoga propounded by the great sage Patanjali. Thus the subaltern groupwas indinanized and in a way hinduized that they could be assimilated and have a say on common flow of race andculture. The aim of this present paper is to show how bauls have influenced Rabindranath to form his idea of nationand the novel ‗Gora‘ stands as a representation of Tagore‘s changing persona about idea of nationhood. The concept of nation and its identical relation with hindutwa is thoroughly changing and somewhat amatter of evolution in Rabindranath‘s psyche. In his introduction to ‗Muhammed Monsuruddin, Haramoni, LokSangit Sangraha‟ he says ‘‘The real history of our country bears testimony to the devotion of synthesis which hasbeen shared by common people as the inmost truth in their emotional depths. This devotion can be located amongthe Bauls –and their syncretistic tradition as a common heritage of both hindus and muslims. This confluence is thereal reflection of Indian civilization…this inspiration…has been relentlessly at work in the depths of the villagemilieu of Bengal‘‘. So the Baul tradition, culture and its philosophical attitude made a positive impact in creation ofthe idea of nationhood in Rabindranath.The origin of the word Baul is highly debated. Sashibushan Dasgupta the noted critic, opined that it may bederived from Sanskrit word ‗vatula‘ which means ‗enlightened, lashed by the wind to the point of losing one‘ssanity, god‘s madcap, detached from the world, seeker of the truth‘ or from the word ‗vyakula‘ meaning ‗restless,agitated‘. The word Baul is to be found in ‗Chaitanya Bhagabhata‟ of Vrindaban Dasa Thakura and ChaitanyaCharitamrita of Krishnadas Kaviraj. Baul is the wandering minstrel, the rag clad homeless figure, the spiritualmadman with iconoclastic notions in the sense of culture and rituals, the mystic folksingers having the synthesis ofIranian Sufism and the Baul singers infused the mystic thoughts and experiences of sufis in their culture and songs.So in a sense, they are the confluence of counter cultures and project in their way of life the amalgamation ofdifferent cultures. The specific ritual and culture and its practice in this conjoined counter culture is both seen intheir songs and practice, wearing saffron or red as attire like the hindu saints and uttering the name of allah likemuslims.
Page 60
SubalternSpeak (ISSN 2277-3959) Volume I Issue II April 2012 56 For centuries the Bauls have been emblematic in Bengali culture, living on the corners of society yethaving a powerful influence over the mainstream of the life that is both hindu and muslim, the two dominantcultures of the prevalent period, representing an alternative or non-conformist way of looking and outlook at thedivinity and life, Tagore, the greatest of Bauls of Bengal as the American scholar Edward. C. Dimock oncedescribed him, bore the essence of the Baul spirit in his thought and actions. Capwell thinks that ‗The Baul traditionis a fusion of elements from Buddhism, Saktism, [the worshippers of goddess kali-the source of all energies]Vaishnabism [worshippers of Lord Vishnu] and the sufi islam may well have its roots in the tantric Buddhism ofBengal in the 9th and 10th centuries. Dimock observes in this connection that Rabindranath ‗‘changed all that as hedid so much in Bengali society by acknowledging his debt to what the Bauls stand for and to their music. Many ofhis songs he categorized as Baul song and in most of his plays there is a Baul character, an unspoiled man who seesclearly and deeply, his vision uncluttered by the swirling bits and irrelevant particles of life.‘‘Tagore started collecting the Baul songs in the 1890‘s giving various data and information about thesingers. These songs were later on complied in his ‗Baul Sangeet‟ [baul songs] ‗Probashi‘ no.vii Calcutta 1915.Before Tagore Nafar Chandra Dutta‘s ‗Baul Sangeet‟ [baul songs] Calcutta 1883 and Nirmal ChandraChottopadhya‘s ‗Baul Sangeet‟ [baul songs Calcutta 1880] were published. But on the whole these compilationslack the systematic scholarship that it needs and Tagore was the first to discuss the Bauls and their philosophy in ascholarly way.To the Bauls, the human body is the most precious object for worship. It is the heavenly abode of god, thecreator and god, the translator of human beings. In his Hibbert lecture delivered at Oxford University in 1930, laterpublished as ‗The Religion of Man‘, Rabindranath Tagore draws upon his persistent fascination with Bengali folkmusic and literature especially the Bauls:―I have mentioned in connection with my personal experience some songs which I had often heardfrom wondering village singers, belonging to a popular sect of Bengal called Bauls, who have noimages, temples scriptures or ceremonials who declares in their songs the divinity of man andexpresses for him an intense felling of love coming from –who are unsophisticated living a simplelife in obscurity. It gives us a clue to the inner meaning of all religions, for it suggests that thesereligions are never about a god of human personality”The temporary living at Silaidah now in Bangladesh not only enriched Rabindranth the poet, the author, butalso enriched his philosophical notion of the life and the world. Coming into close contact with such Bauls as Gaganharkara and Rabindranath‘s endeavor to translate the songs of Lalan Fakir, the most celebrated figure in the Bauls isa vital phase in the poet‘s life to shape his future projection of the idea of nationhood for India. The images and languages of Baul songs are used in many of his poems such as:„Ami kothai pabo tareAmar moner manush je re‟[„Ah, where am I to find Him; the Man of my heart?‟]In ‗Sadhana‘ [1913] he outlined his world consciousness where there was a seamless awareness of theharmony within all creation. Truth is all comprehensive that there is no such thing as absolute isolation in existenceand the only way of attaining truth is through the interpretation of our being into all objects. The quality of infinite isnot the magnitude of extension. It is in the Advaitam, the mystery of unity.‘‘ So it is this ‗mystery of unity‘ and ‗theinner meaning of all religions‘ that constitutes a key motto in the future projections of Rabindranath in his thoughtand writings. This Baul tradition evokes in him the very concept of coexistence and binding of different cultures andreligions of India as a vast country and this transformation of conception is the subject matter of Gora.Thus in an introduction to a collection of Baul songs Rabindranath observes pertinently ‗‘The real historyof our country has however always borne its message of unity in the deepest truth lying in the inmost recesses of itsheart, not in any vehicle of expediency or necessity. Among the Bauls we see the fruit of such endeavor in a culturethat was alike hindu and muslim in which they come together but did not hurt each other.‘The intention of the present essay is to show that Rabindranath not only changed the Bengali society byacknowledging the impact and confluence of Baul culture, the marginalized and subaltern class but was alsochanged in his thought and action. The novel Gora, written during 1908-1909 is a vast scale projection of thedifferent problems of hindu and brahmo samaj, the concept of hindu revivalism and the projection of hindu cultureas the culture of India, the nation and his subsequent revelation of the common Indian nationhood with theconfluence of different sects and people.The founder of brahmo samaj Raja Rammohon Roy wrote in a letter to Dr. Tuckerman ‘‘ I regret to say thatthe present system of religion adhered to by the hindus is not well calculated to promote their political interest. Thedistinction of castes introducing innumerable subdivisions among them has entirely deprived them of patriotic
Page 61
SubalternSpeak (ISSN 2277-3959) Volume I Issue II April 2012 57 feeling and the magnitude of religious rites and ceremonies and the laws of purification have totally disqualifiedthem from undertaking any difficult enterprise‘. So it remains the aim and feature for founding brahmo samaj, is tounite the cast ridden divided Indians to ‗promote their political interest‘. On the other hand the concept of Vedantaas the fountain source for brahmo samaj retains its hindu background as a whole.In the year 1856 the different dimensions of BrahmoSomaj under keshavchandra Sen in the fields of multicaste marriage etc. irked Devendranath Tagore and as a result the BrahmoSamaj was divided into BharatiyoBrahmoSamaj led by Keshavchandra and Adi Brahmosamaj led by Devendranath Tagore and the fact remains thatAdi Brahmosamaj was rather pro-hindu in its essence. The noted historian R.C Majumdar in his ‗The History ofFreedom Movement in India‟ says that ‘The revelation of India‘s past was one of the strongest foundation on whichIndian nationalism was built and gave it a stamp of hindu character which made its influence felt in many ways atdifferent stages of political evolution in india.‘Anndashankar Roy in his essay ‗Rabindranather Bharatbaraho‘ says that before starting the novel gora hewas a staunch hindu and desisted the brahmos who were not identifying them as hindus‘. To describe Gora,Harimohini uses the apt image ‗jen ekebare hemer agun‘[just like the flames of jygna].the closeness Binay andLolita and to say more perfectly the entrance of a hindu into the brahmo household irked Gora, the staunch hinduprojected in the opening of the novel. The influence of Gora, the hindu on Sucharita, the brahmo girl remains themotto of the author. But after Gora‘s imprisonment the change starts and finally his coming into close contact withthe rural India with its poverty, human beings, core, creates deep impact on his mind.At the time of the marriage between Binay and Lalita, Rabindranath comes to the conclusion of his idea ofnationhood, as we see in the words of Anadamoyee ‗tahara hindu ki brahmo ektha tahara bhulil. Tahara je duimanavatman eikothai tahader mone niskamp prodiper sikhar moto jalite lagil‘. [They have forgotten whether theyare hindu or brahmo, they are only two human soul, only this thing grows like a flame of undisturbed lamp in theirmind].The revelation of the secret of Gora‘s birth and the reality of his being an Irishman breaks remnants ofconservativeness in Gora‘s mind. He becomes true Indian forgetting all the barrier of castes, religions andcommunity. The concept of India was to him at that time only hindu with its culture, rituals and traditional outlook.After that he becomes the union of the two dominant sects- the hindu and muslim. But in this novel he transcendseven beyond this. The persons born in India for him remain the part of Indian nationality. So after returning fromSucharita, Rabindranath the author and thinker in the guise of Gora, the protagonist declares to Anandmoyee ‗Youare my mother…you are my India‘. [ma tumii amar ma..tumii amar bharatbarsho]The discursive formation of hindutwa find articulation in Gora‘s voice: ‘You [Sucharita] must understandthat the hindu religion takes in its lap like a mother people of different ideas and opinions‘, and Pareshbabu‘sremarks: ‘‘you [Sucharita] mean to ask me why I myself do not call myself hindu?...there is very deep inner reason and it is that there is no way of obtaining entrances into hindu society …that society is not one for all mankind it isonly for those whose destiny it is to be born hindu‘. The identical difference between these two remarks and theconcept of hindutwa joining and cohabiting other opinions and concepts into its own fold is that concept of nation ofRabindranath which has the Baul and their philosophy into its formation. Coming to perception of ‗inner meaning ofall religions‘ and ‗mystery of unity‘ as propounded by the Bauls thus remains the subject matter of this novel thatbecomes Tagore‘s new version of India and new version of hindutwa, expressed in the amalgamation of vision:„amar praner manush ache praneTai heri taye shokol khane…….Ogo tai dekhi taye jethay sethayTaka-i-ami je dik pane‟[The man of my heart dwells inside meEverywhere I look it is he …………Here, there and everywhereWherever I turn he is right there.‟Or„Everyone asks „Lalan what‟s your religion in this world?‟Lalan answers „how does religion look?‟I‟ve never laid eyes on it.Some wear malas [hindu rosaries] around their necksSome tasbis [muslim rosaries] and so people say
Page 62
SubalternSpeak (ISSN 2277-3959) Volume I Issue II April 2012 58 They‟ve got different religionsBut do you bear the sign of your religion When you come or when you go?‟ In conclusion, Jawaharlal Nehru‘s view will be very pertinent ‗It was Tagore‘s immense service to India,as it has been Gandhi‘s in a different plane, that he forced the people in some measure out of their narrow groves ofthought and made them think of broader issues affecting humanity‘, and in this regard the Baul Sanskriti plays avital role. Works Cited1. Krishna Kripalani: Rabindranath Tagore: A Biography Viswabharati Calcutta 1980.2. Tagore Rabindranath, The Religion of Man; In the English Writings of Rabindranath Tagore ed. Sisir Kumar DasNew Delhi Sahitya Academy.19663. Radakrishnan S. The Philosophy of Rabindranath Tagore Baroda Good Companions 1961.4. Capwell Charles 1986 The Music of the Bauls of Bangla Kent State University Press USA5. Dimock. Edward. c 1989 The Place of the Hidden Moon : Erotic Mysticism in the Vaishnava Sahajiya Cult ofBengal Chicago university press Chicago.6. Banglar Baul Pt.Kshitimohan Senshastri.Calcutta University Press.7. Gora Rupa Publication
The image of bauls underwent a change if not radical in theoncoming wave of nationalist movement and for the establishment of national culture, the intellectuals and educatedpeople not only tried to find their root in ancient tradition and rituals such like the revival of Hinduism. On the otherhand there is also a spectral move towards the idealization of baul culture, especially their synthesis and priority onhumanity devoid of race, sect and that remains a prototype for ideal nationhood both for the future India and also inthe present time of the radical projection of different and superiority of European or British with the native.Otherwise baul identity is not regarded as something desirable and few are anxious to proclaim themselves as baul.The esoteric practice such as identification of self with the semen and menstrual blood and therefore not separatefrom body, is the same in everyone that antagonizes the prevailing social system and order since the female is holdto be self-perfect. Sadhana is primarily for the benefit for the males and described from the male perspective. Thuspreventing ejaculation is extremely important but when the female partner is menstruating some emission may besanctioned.These practices prevent them largely from being akin with the dominant society and custom. However inthe wake of nationalism the interest of intellectuals fell on this subaltern group. The intellectuals like KangalHarinath, Mohammed Monsuruddin, Basant Kumar Paul and more particularly the Tagore family like JotirindranathTagore and Rabindranath Tagore. Rabindranath‘s influence on society about forming a positive opinion about baulswas rather important in many aspects. However in ‗The Philosophy of Our People‘ [1926], Tagore depicted the richtradition of bauls in rural society of Bengal and argued that their philosophy is an inheritance of Upanishad. Thusthe intellectuals like Tagore and Akshay Kumar Maitreya developed the image of Lalan as a folk poet to representindigenous tradition and culture as a counter culture of European civilization. Moreover the estoteric practice of thebauls had its root in Hathyoga a branch of yoga propounded by the great sage Patanjali. Thus the subaltern groupwas indinanized and in a way hinduized that they could be assimilated and have a say on common flow of race andculture. The aim of this present paper is to show how bauls have influenced Rabindranath to form his idea of nationand the novel ‗Gora‘ stands as a representation of Tagore‘s changing persona about idea of nationhood. The concept of nation and its identical relation with hindutwa is thoroughly changing and somewhat amatter of evolution in Rabindranath‘s psyche. In his introduction to ‗Muhammed Monsuruddin, Haramoni, LokSangit Sangraha‟ he says ‘‘The real history of our country bears testimony to the devotion of synthesis which hasbeen shared by common people as the inmost truth in their emotional depths. This devotion can be located amongthe Bauls –and their syncretistic tradition as a common heritage of both hindus and muslims. This confluence is thereal reflection of Indian civilization…this inspiration…has been relentlessly at work in the depths of the villagemilieu of Bengal‘‘. So the Baul tradition, culture and its philosophical attitude made a positive impact in creation ofthe idea of nationhood in Rabindranath.The origin of the word Baul is highly debated. Sashibushan Dasgupta the noted critic, opined that it may bederived from Sanskrit word ‗vatula‘ which means ‗enlightened, lashed by the wind to the point of losing one‘ssanity, god‘s madcap, detached from the world, seeker of the truth‘ or from the word ‗vyakula‘ meaning ‗restless,agitated‘. The word Baul is to be found in ‗Chaitanya Bhagabhata‟ of Vrindaban Dasa Thakura and ChaitanyaCharitamrita of Krishnadas Kaviraj. Baul is the wandering minstrel, the rag clad homeless figure, the spiritualmadman with iconoclastic notions in the sense of culture and rituals, the mystic folksingers having the synthesis ofIranian Sufism and the Baul singers infused the mystic thoughts and experiences of sufis in their culture and songs.So in a sense, they are the confluence of counter cultures and project in their way of life the amalgamation ofdifferent cultures. The specific ritual and culture and its practice in this conjoined counter culture is both seen intheir songs and practice, wearing saffron or red as attire like the hindu saints and uttering the name of allah likemuslims.
Page 60
SubalternSpeak (ISSN 2277-3959) Volume I Issue II April 2012 56 For centuries the Bauls have been emblematic in Bengali culture, living on the corners of society yethaving a powerful influence over the mainstream of the life that is both hindu and muslim, the two dominantcultures of the prevalent period, representing an alternative or non-conformist way of looking and outlook at thedivinity and life, Tagore, the greatest of Bauls of Bengal as the American scholar Edward. C. Dimock oncedescribed him, bore the essence of the Baul spirit in his thought and actions. Capwell thinks that ‗The Baul traditionis a fusion of elements from Buddhism, Saktism, [the worshippers of goddess kali-the source of all energies]Vaishnabism [worshippers of Lord Vishnu] and the sufi islam may well have its roots in the tantric Buddhism ofBengal in the 9th and 10th centuries. Dimock observes in this connection that Rabindranath ‗‘changed all that as hedid so much in Bengali society by acknowledging his debt to what the Bauls stand for and to their music. Many ofhis songs he categorized as Baul song and in most of his plays there is a Baul character, an unspoiled man who seesclearly and deeply, his vision uncluttered by the swirling bits and irrelevant particles of life.‘‘Tagore started collecting the Baul songs in the 1890‘s giving various data and information about thesingers. These songs were later on complied in his ‗Baul Sangeet‟ [baul songs] ‗Probashi‘ no.vii Calcutta 1915.Before Tagore Nafar Chandra Dutta‘s ‗Baul Sangeet‟ [baul songs] Calcutta 1883 and Nirmal ChandraChottopadhya‘s ‗Baul Sangeet‟ [baul songs Calcutta 1880] were published. But on the whole these compilationslack the systematic scholarship that it needs and Tagore was the first to discuss the Bauls and their philosophy in ascholarly way.To the Bauls, the human body is the most precious object for worship. It is the heavenly abode of god, thecreator and god, the translator of human beings. In his Hibbert lecture delivered at Oxford University in 1930, laterpublished as ‗The Religion of Man‘, Rabindranath Tagore draws upon his persistent fascination with Bengali folkmusic and literature especially the Bauls:―I have mentioned in connection with my personal experience some songs which I had often heardfrom wondering village singers, belonging to a popular sect of Bengal called Bauls, who have noimages, temples scriptures or ceremonials who declares in their songs the divinity of man andexpresses for him an intense felling of love coming from –who are unsophisticated living a simplelife in obscurity. It gives us a clue to the inner meaning of all religions, for it suggests that thesereligions are never about a god of human personality”The temporary living at Silaidah now in Bangladesh not only enriched Rabindranth the poet, the author, butalso enriched his philosophical notion of the life and the world. Coming into close contact with such Bauls as Gaganharkara and Rabindranath‘s endeavor to translate the songs of Lalan Fakir, the most celebrated figure in the Bauls isa vital phase in the poet‘s life to shape his future projection of the idea of nationhood for India. The images and languages of Baul songs are used in many of his poems such as:„Ami kothai pabo tareAmar moner manush je re‟[„Ah, where am I to find Him; the Man of my heart?‟]In ‗Sadhana‘ [1913] he outlined his world consciousness where there was a seamless awareness of theharmony within all creation. Truth is all comprehensive that there is no such thing as absolute isolation in existenceand the only way of attaining truth is through the interpretation of our being into all objects. The quality of infinite isnot the magnitude of extension. It is in the Advaitam, the mystery of unity.‘‘ So it is this ‗mystery of unity‘ and ‗theinner meaning of all religions‘ that constitutes a key motto in the future projections of Rabindranath in his thoughtand writings. This Baul tradition evokes in him the very concept of coexistence and binding of different cultures andreligions of India as a vast country and this transformation of conception is the subject matter of Gora.Thus in an introduction to a collection of Baul songs Rabindranath observes pertinently ‗‘The real historyof our country has however always borne its message of unity in the deepest truth lying in the inmost recesses of itsheart, not in any vehicle of expediency or necessity. Among the Bauls we see the fruit of such endeavor in a culturethat was alike hindu and muslim in which they come together but did not hurt each other.‘The intention of the present essay is to show that Rabindranath not only changed the Bengali society byacknowledging the impact and confluence of Baul culture, the marginalized and subaltern class but was alsochanged in his thought and action. The novel Gora, written during 1908-1909 is a vast scale projection of thedifferent problems of hindu and brahmo samaj, the concept of hindu revivalism and the projection of hindu cultureas the culture of India, the nation and his subsequent revelation of the common Indian nationhood with theconfluence of different sects and people.The founder of brahmo samaj Raja Rammohon Roy wrote in a letter to Dr. Tuckerman ‘‘ I regret to say thatthe present system of religion adhered to by the hindus is not well calculated to promote their political interest. Thedistinction of castes introducing innumerable subdivisions among them has entirely deprived them of patriotic
Page 61
SubalternSpeak (ISSN 2277-3959) Volume I Issue II April 2012 57 feeling and the magnitude of religious rites and ceremonies and the laws of purification have totally disqualifiedthem from undertaking any difficult enterprise‘. So it remains the aim and feature for founding brahmo samaj, is tounite the cast ridden divided Indians to ‗promote their political interest‘. On the other hand the concept of Vedantaas the fountain source for brahmo samaj retains its hindu background as a whole.In the year 1856 the different dimensions of BrahmoSomaj under keshavchandra Sen in the fields of multicaste marriage etc. irked Devendranath Tagore and as a result the BrahmoSamaj was divided into BharatiyoBrahmoSamaj led by Keshavchandra and Adi Brahmosamaj led by Devendranath Tagore and the fact remains thatAdi Brahmosamaj was rather pro-hindu in its essence. The noted historian R.C Majumdar in his ‗The History ofFreedom Movement in India‟ says that ‘The revelation of India‘s past was one of the strongest foundation on whichIndian nationalism was built and gave it a stamp of hindu character which made its influence felt in many ways atdifferent stages of political evolution in india.‘Anndashankar Roy in his essay ‗Rabindranather Bharatbaraho‘ says that before starting the novel gora hewas a staunch hindu and desisted the brahmos who were not identifying them as hindus‘. To describe Gora,Harimohini uses the apt image ‗jen ekebare hemer agun‘[just like the flames of jygna].the closeness Binay andLolita and to say more perfectly the entrance of a hindu into the brahmo household irked Gora, the staunch hinduprojected in the opening of the novel. The influence of Gora, the hindu on Sucharita, the brahmo girl remains themotto of the author. But after Gora‘s imprisonment the change starts and finally his coming into close contact withthe rural India with its poverty, human beings, core, creates deep impact on his mind.At the time of the marriage between Binay and Lalita, Rabindranath comes to the conclusion of his idea ofnationhood, as we see in the words of Anadamoyee ‗tahara hindu ki brahmo ektha tahara bhulil. Tahara je duimanavatman eikothai tahader mone niskamp prodiper sikhar moto jalite lagil‘. [They have forgotten whether theyare hindu or brahmo, they are only two human soul, only this thing grows like a flame of undisturbed lamp in theirmind].The revelation of the secret of Gora‘s birth and the reality of his being an Irishman breaks remnants ofconservativeness in Gora‘s mind. He becomes true Indian forgetting all the barrier of castes, religions andcommunity. The concept of India was to him at that time only hindu with its culture, rituals and traditional outlook.After that he becomes the union of the two dominant sects- the hindu and muslim. But in this novel he transcendseven beyond this. The persons born in India for him remain the part of Indian nationality. So after returning fromSucharita, Rabindranath the author and thinker in the guise of Gora, the protagonist declares to Anandmoyee ‗Youare my mother…you are my India‘. [ma tumii amar ma..tumii amar bharatbarsho]The discursive formation of hindutwa find articulation in Gora‘s voice: ‘You [Sucharita] must understandthat the hindu religion takes in its lap like a mother people of different ideas and opinions‘, and Pareshbabu‘sremarks: ‘‘you [Sucharita] mean to ask me why I myself do not call myself hindu?...there is very deep inner reason and it is that there is no way of obtaining entrances into hindu society …that society is not one for all mankind it isonly for those whose destiny it is to be born hindu‘. The identical difference between these two remarks and theconcept of hindutwa joining and cohabiting other opinions and concepts into its own fold is that concept of nation ofRabindranath which has the Baul and their philosophy into its formation. Coming to perception of ‗inner meaning ofall religions‘ and ‗mystery of unity‘ as propounded by the Bauls thus remains the subject matter of this novel thatbecomes Tagore‘s new version of India and new version of hindutwa, expressed in the amalgamation of vision:„amar praner manush ache praneTai heri taye shokol khane…….Ogo tai dekhi taye jethay sethayTaka-i-ami je dik pane‟[The man of my heart dwells inside meEverywhere I look it is he …………Here, there and everywhereWherever I turn he is right there.‟Or„Everyone asks „Lalan what‟s your religion in this world?‟Lalan answers „how does religion look?‟I‟ve never laid eyes on it.Some wear malas [hindu rosaries] around their necksSome tasbis [muslim rosaries] and so people say
Page 62
SubalternSpeak (ISSN 2277-3959) Volume I Issue II April 2012 58 They‟ve got different religionsBut do you bear the sign of your religion When you come or when you go?‟ In conclusion, Jawaharlal Nehru‘s view will be very pertinent ‗It was Tagore‘s immense service to India,as it has been Gandhi‘s in a different plane, that he forced the people in some measure out of their narrow groves ofthought and made them think of broader issues affecting humanity‘, and in this regard the Baul Sanskriti plays avital role. Works Cited1. Krishna Kripalani: Rabindranath Tagore: A Biography Viswabharati Calcutta 1980.2. Tagore Rabindranath, The Religion of Man; In the English Writings of Rabindranath Tagore ed. Sisir Kumar DasNew Delhi Sahitya Academy.19663. Radakrishnan S. The Philosophy of Rabindranath Tagore Baroda Good Companions 1961.4. Capwell Charles 1986 The Music of the Bauls of Bangla Kent State University Press USA5. Dimock. Edward. c 1989 The Place of the Hidden Moon : Erotic Mysticism in the Vaishnava Sahajiya Cult ofBengal Chicago university press Chicago.6. Banglar Baul Pt.Kshitimohan Senshastri.Calcutta University Press.7. Gora Rupa Publication