(Re)Tracing the Radical Poetics and Vision of Guru Nanak: A Socio-Political Perspective

Aparna Lanjewar Bose

doi:10.32351/rca.v8.341

Authors

Aparna Lanjewar Bose Department of English Literature, School of Literary Studies at The English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7830-3202

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.32351/rca.v8.341

Política de Crossmark DOI: https://doi.org/10.32351/politica-crossmark

Keywords:

Indian History, Philosophies, Emancipatory vision, Revolutionary poetics, Comparative analysis

Abstract

The entire landscape of Northern Indian religious practices underwent a sea change in the 15th and 16th centuries with Nirgun Saint poets like Kabir, and Guru Nanak. Nanak invariably became one of the leading voices of his times whose modernist vision can be visualized through his poetics. His egalitarian worldview has made him popular amongst all sections of society. Choosing a linguistic idiom of the masses he refuted the consecrated value rendered to scriptures, invalidated many prevalent notions of Karma Kand (Vedic rituals) and its hegemonic approach and showed a revolutionary path to devotion. His Japji sahib is a cultural model of co-existential plurality resistive to rigid authoritarianism and entails a democratized mysticism. It’s a unique philosophy that dismantles the regressive upholders of repressive ideologies. His Shabads and Gurbani in the Guru Granth Sahib are poetics of plurality offering an alternative model of openness and multidimensionality. Reminiscent of the style of English Romantics, in Nanak, the mundane and commonplace gets elevated to larger significance in his poetry. The rationality, equality and liberal ideology preached and rendered in his poetics stands in stark opposition to the irrationality, inequality and orthodoxy prevalent. The important rationale of Nanak’s philosophy is the psychological freedom it accords to those despised and dispossessed because of caste, class, and gender. It moves beyond the boundaries of community, religion, language, culture and nation. The consequential philosophy of holistic liberation becomes more relevant in a multilingual, multicultural, multireligious Indian ethos today. This paper therefore, shall explore the radical, emancipatory potential in the poetics of Guru Nanak, its contemporary relevance in an age of religious polarizations, bigotry and divisiveness; Further, it explores how the pluralistic paradigms of Guru Nanak’s vision and poetics become a panacea to the ongoing invasions on secular democratic beliefs.

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Author Biography

Aparna Lanjewar Bose, Department of English Literature, School of Literary Studies at The English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad

Trilingual writer, poet, critic, and translator. She is a Professor in the School of Literary Studies, The English and Foreign Languages University(A Central University), Hyderabad. She taught at the University of Nagpur (1995-2001), the PGTD of English, Mumbai University (2001- 2010) before joining EFLU, Hyderabad in 2010. She specializes in American literature, African American Literature, Revolutionary/ Marginal literature, and Contemporary women`s writings. Her areas of interest and research include Comparative Literature, African Literature, Indian literature, Dalit literature, Translation, Folk literature, Post-colonial, Diaspora, Poetry and feminist writings. She has successfully guided many scholars to their doctoral awards and continues to mentor both MA and PhD scholars. She has been a resource person in several major national and international platforms both in India and abroad. Her study tours, research and Social activism led her to visit several countries like Germany, France, England, Switzerland, Sweden, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Thailand, Austria, Macau etc. to speak on literary and social concerns. She was part of the Sahitya Akademi`s writers' and scholars delegation to Moscow and Istanbul in 2009. Besides publishing several articles, papers, reviews and translations in peer-reviewed journals and books, she has edited and introduced a volume of critical essays titled Writing Gender Writing Self: Memory, Memoir and Autobiography published by Routledge. It has won the Galaxy International Foundation Award, 2020 in Literary criticism. She has published 2 books of poetry titled In the Days of Cages and Kuch Yu Bhi, a book of translations titled Red Slogans on The Green Grass. She has compiled and edited two books on Marathi short stories and poetry titled Pakshin ani Chakravyuh and Wadal Uthanar Aahey respectively.

References

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Bose, A. (2019). Hacia una poética comparativa de Buda, Kabir y Gurú Nanak desde una perspectiva democrática secular. Revista Científica Arbitrada de la Fundación MenteClara, Vol. 4(2), 19-44 (85). doi: https://doi.org/10.32351/rca.v4.2.85

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