Abu Bakkar, a septuagenarian baul from Meherpur, has pursued the wandering life of a Lalon devotee for over 50 years now. Never has he faced any harassment, that is until early August, when he had to ...

At first glance, anyone encountering a Baul may assume they are merely wandering minstrels, ascetics devoted to song, detached from society even while living within it. Music appears to be their sole ...

The Bauls of Bangladesh were following their spiritual tradition much before the advent of Islam,writes Sumit Paul. The Bauls subscribe to a philosophy that doesn't acknowledge caste, creed and other ...

The High Court, in the full text of an order released recently, has directed police to investigate allegations of attacks on bauls, fakirs, sannyasis, as well as shrines (mazars) and khanqahs, and ...

Long-entrenched and still pervasive in Indian society, the oppressive caste system has even moved from its Hindu moorings to infect other faiths entering or originating in the subcontinent and defied ...

Bauls, Fakirs, and Sadhus have been an essential element in artistic Bengali culture. Their music carrying the words of celestial love and the love of nature. But time and time again this marginalized ...

An exasperated British rock musician once remarked, after stewing in his own juice at a Baul festival in the village of Boral, now a part of the city of Kolkata: “There are none so sedentary as the ...

The Tollywood composer and his friends are going to help 50 wandering minstrels in Santiniketan with medical insurance Financer Avijit Dhara too feels the need to rope in others. Bauls do not ...

Early this month, Mohammed Fakir and his guests were enjoying an annual conference when they were accosted by religious zealots, conceited enough to arrogate to themselves a moral ascendancy. The ...

Bob Dylan would often visit a studio at Woodstock, New York, where the Baul musicians Purna Das, his brother Luxman and their entourage would hang out in 1967-68. Purna Das, now 83, remembers the ...

This program was first broadcast on 21 May, 2010. Made famous by Jimi Hendrix but of course written by Bob Dylan, and that was the original, 'All Along the Watchtower' from Dylan's 1967 album John ...

In the first-ever initiative for the 'bauls' of rural Bengal, the folk baladeers now come under medical insurance. To honour and support the cause of 'bauls', whose stringed 'ektara' is unique ...