Bauls and fakirs are often hyphenated. But isn't there a difference? Fakirs are certainly not as much in the limelight as bauls, nor have they the same social recognition. Unlike bauls there are no globe trotting fakirs. No fakir has ever been invited to participate in Festival of India or in north American Banga Sanskriti Sammelon. There are no Purnadas or Pabandas among them. While Bauls and their philosophy is a popular seminar and research topic in academia today, the same interest is not shown towards fakirs. They are still at the margin of society, often stigmatized by both Hindus and Muslims. Even in Santiniketan Poush Mela bauls and fakirs are put up separately and there are separate programmes for each. While Hindus today seek to appropriate the baul tradition, they remain, at best, indifferent to fakirs. Muslim orthodoxy hates them because of their un-Islamic practices. They do not offer namaz, they defy the Sariyat, do not eat beef, do not fast during Ramadan. They show no interest in the external rituals of religion. Their spiritual quest is for inner peace and tranquility which, they believe, is achievable through the deeply personal and highly secretive Marphati practice. Marphat is the final (and most superior) of four Sufi or fakiri stations (mokām), the others being Sariyat, Tarikat, Hakitat. Marphati and Sariyati may denote unorthodox fakirs and orthodox Muslims respectively.
Like bauls, fakirs believe in here and now ('bartaman') as opposed to conjectures and received wisdom ('anuman'). Bauls are often dressed colourfully, but fakirs most often dress in white, a colour symbolic of renunciation. However, they renounce the material world, not the human. Many of them are married and do not practise birth control. However, as with bauls, their sexuality is spiritual. Their needs are not many, their life is simple and austere. Unlike dollar-earning bauls, most fakirs are impoverished. They make no effort to uplift themselves materially and often cannot afford more than one meal a day. But even in their poverty they are known to be highly hospitable and generous.
The Islam of Bengal, which has one of the largest Muslim population in the world, concentrated mainly in the eastern delta comprising present-day Bangladesh, is characterised by flexibility, adaptability, and accommodation to local traditions. Fakirs, who belong to this tradition, are called Beshar Muslims, a deviant branch of Islam, practised largely by the so-called lower castes, and its history in Bengal is replete with the assimilation of Buddhist, Tantric and Vaishnavite traditions. Like bauls they practise radical syncretism. Their philosophy can be traced back to Bengali Sufi esoteric literature dating from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century. This highly abstruse literature, composed by some of the most distinguished authors of medieval Bengal, including the late sixteenth century epic poet Saiyid Sultan, was influenced by the beliefs and practices of Bengali Tantric Yogic, Nath and Vaishnava Sahajiyas. Bauls and fakirs unite in their syncretic faith and practice and in their opposition to orthodoxy.
While bauls' musical accompaniment is the aektara, fakirs use khamak which is a small instrument capable of producing a very interesting sound. It is a one-sided small drum with the other left open to insert a string. Pulling the string to alter the tension of the side stretched with a goat skin changes the sound.
'Bishar Blues' is a rare film on fakirs. Directed by Amitabha Chakraborty, it won the 2008 National Award for best non-feature film. It also picked up awards in the Best Editing and Best Audiography categories. In an interview Chakraborty says, "I feel suffocated by the images of Islam that bombard me - 9/11 in NYC, the Afghanistan bombings, the war in Iraq, 7/7 in London. I bumped into the Bengali fakir in his own land and he made me think...The fakirs here are people who follow Islam in their own specific way for hundreds of years and generate values which are super inclusive...I would talk to them, argue perhaps, and film...Music is central to 'Bishar Blues' as the traditional knowledge of the fakirs is oral and the songs give movement to this knowledge."
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