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 ...

Fete de la Musique, or World Music Day, is celebrated in many countries across the world, but the initiators of the festival, France, still celebrates it in higher spirit than most others. As part of ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

Deb Chowdhury and members of his band, Sahajiya, recently helped more than 100 bauls and folk music artistes across Birbhum and Bardhaman, who have been badly affected due to the pandemic. Talking ...

In search of music performed for Krishna, Lucy Duran and the musician Viram Jasani find themselves in a brothel in Kolkata, India. Plus music by the tantric philosophers of rural Bengal, the Bauls.

Police said unidentified men attacked an Akhra (place where Bauls stay) in the wee hours of Friday in the district’s Damurhuda Upazila. Bauls Zultam Khan and Nagen Halder were beaten up and their hair ...