Seeking Bauls of Bengal (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.