The mainstream of religious life in Bengal, Hindu or Muslim, has always had a parallel marginalized counterpart--that of the lower class/caste people--swimming against the mainstream, rebelling against all fundamentalist strictures, working furtively as a culture of silence that is at the same time vocal in surreptitious dissidence. These sub-cultural, liminal "religions" have always based themselves generally on highly syncretic principles. But their practices or sadhonas are seldom acceptable to the 'civilized' all-powerful educated upper class mainly because of their sexual nature. The most prominent sub-cultural sect working out of Bengal are the members of the Baul-Phokir faith.

Members of the faith across all sects and sub-sects ubiquitously regard Lalon Phokir as the "King of Bauls" who has been a subject of great interest among scholars as well as artists in Bengal: poets, novelists, playwrights and filmmakers.

Below, poster of a film on Lalon made in Calcutta (1986).                                                                                 Click on + sign to enlarge image.

Lalon was probably born in 1774 in the part of the formerly larger Nadia district now in Kushtia, Bangladesh, and died in 1890. He had (arguably) lived an amazing 116 years, a highly productive and devout life, gathering disciples and composing innumerable songs. Legend has it that Lalon was born a Hindu and became a Muslim under unusual circumstances. Lalon had set out on a pilgrimage with friends, but contracted small pox soon after departure, and was abandoned for dead. A Sufi practitioner, Malam Shah, saved him from death. Later on, he was ordained into the discipleship of a certain Shiraj Sain, but his interpretation of Islam was radically different, a far cry from the Koran-based Shariati religious order. Lalon sought to combine it with a loose reading of Tantric Vaishnavism, for to him God was One; human beings have merely made up different names and created institutions to enshrine Divinity in external forms. Lalon wanted to situate his “faith” as counter-institutional, but not as a counter-institution itself

Lalon lived through one of the most interesting periods of history in the South Asian subcontinent that witnessed cataclysmic changes that came  with colonial rule of the British. His orally composed (and transmitted) songs reflect all of these. Lalon worked within his small space in nineteenth century Bengal, always aiming to reach high or even enter the world of literary fame. The Bengali literati who controlled visible culture in Bengal in the 19th and 20th centuries have traditionally viewed his music and poetry as "folk art." The literati have always taken what they most needed from Lalon and used it in their own agendas, whether to fold him up in the discourse of a "feel-good" secularism or use him as an icon for a new nation. The inner quest of the Baul-Phokir sect's bodily practice has ever been acceptable to educated upper class mainly because of the sexual nature of their practice. But Lalon, the true philosopher and artist, has existed on his own and in his own right.