Inner Self, Outer Individual
A Bengali ‘Bāul’ Perspective
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11447516 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jeanne Openshaw (0000-0002-9479-6067, EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY, UK,, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2005 |
| Volume | 25 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 183-200 |
| Publication date | 2005-11-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | South Asia Research (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0262-7280 • E-ISSN: 1741-3141 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0262728005058762 |
| OpenAlex | W2083598582 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 23 |
Dumont’s denial of individuality to Hindus, with the exception of renouncers of the world, has provoked a fascinating, but in many ways confusing debate on the subject of the individual and the self. The present article uses oral historical information and writings by Rāj Khyāpā, a Bengali ‘Bāul’ guru, and his followers, to highlight one of many indigenous debates about the self and the individual. Rāj and other Bāuls use the high ‘Hindu’ (or unorthodox ‘Islamic’) notions of identity between individual selves and supreme being to legitimize a radical agenda, whereby the authority of alleged superiors (divine or human) is denied in favour of the affirmation of each person’s agency and autonomy. The discussion is framed in terms of the indigenous South Asian distinction between inner versus outer perspectives or realities. This, it is argued, avoids some pitfalls of the Dumontian approaches, such as the exaggeration of discontinuities between householder and renouncer, Hindu and Muslim, as well as traditional and modern South Asian culture
Aesthetics · Agency (philosophy · Autonomy · Bengali · Denial · Epistemology · Hinduism · Identity (music · Indigenous · Political science · Psychoanalysis · Social science · Sociology · Subject (documents · Education and Islamic Studies · Gender Studies · Indian and Buddhist Studies · Indian History and Philosophy · Law · Philosophy · Psychology · Religious studies
A Source Book in Indian Philosophy
White Saris and Sweet Mangoes
Homo hierarchicus
Transaction and meaning
Structure and Cognition
The Radicalism of Tagore and the Bauls of Bengali
Individualism and Equality [and Comments and Replies]
Public Faces, Private VoicesCommunity and Individuality in South India
The Gender of the GiftProblems with Women and Problems with Society in Melanesia
Culture and self
From the Native's Point of View
Killing' the Guru
The Web of Deceit
Wandering Ascetics of the Rāmānandī Sect
The householder and the renouncer in the Brahmanical and Buddhist traditions
Structure and Cognition. Aspects of Hindu Caste and Ritual
Way of Life
Diversity Within Islam
Renunciation in the Religious Traditions of South Asia
Is the Western Conception of the Self "Peculiar" within the Context of the World Cultures
Shifting Contexts
Conceptualizing the Person
On Individualism and Equality
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,38 |
| Citation span | 2018 - 2024 (7) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |