Swapan Adhikari sings at Union Club during the Poila Baishakh celebrations. Picture by Hardeep Singh

Ranchi, April 15: People of Jharkhand had their first taste of traditional folk music of Bengal when members of the capital’s Union Club organised a baul programme on the occasion of Bengali New Year.

Baul Swapan Adikhari of “Jaiguru Debananda Baul Sampraday”, an institution at Mukktipur village in Burdwan, was among the invitees.

Talking to The Telegraph Baul Swapan said, “I have been singing baul songs for the past 30 years. But when I get up in the morning, I have to think about my survival”.

“People know what baul songs are all about. Nowadays nobody is bothered about Bengali tradition. We are forgetting the famous baul songs. It is our small effort to keep the tradition alive. But reaching out to the people is becoming tougher day by day,” he added.

Baul songs, described as the “happy mixture of the conception of Parmatmam of the Upanishads, the Sahaja of the Sahajyas and the sufiana conception of the beloved” in the words of Shashi Bhushan Dasgupta, now lie forgotten, they said.

Though people all over the world are increasingly trying to promote their traditional folk culture to know the roots, recognition of Baul songs, one of the most important part of the folk literature, is not getting due respect among the masses.

Purna Das Baul, the famous baul singer, took this folk culture to great heights by crossing the border and reaching foreign shores.

But for the next generation of Baul singers life was not so smooth. Each day spells a new struggle for them.

Sukumar Malik, another baul singer elaborated on the origin of the bauls.

“In Hindu dharma there are different followers. There are Sanyasis, Nagas, Tantriks and many more. We are the followers of Baishnab dharma which was initiated by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu”.

Baul songs, rendered by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, dealt with the social and religious issues of the times and they were written with simple words. Nature played an important role in the songs, that basically dealt with awakening the people from the social evils Malik said.

Several other baul singers have tried to commercialise the beautiful songs.

“We have approached different record companies to bring out cassettes. But we want to maintain the originality of the songs. We will not compromise on quality. The cassette companies want to make profit but we will not commercialise the songs,” he said.

When asked about Purna Das Baul, Swapan said, “Even Purna Das Baul has commercialised the baul songs. Otherwise, he would not have been so famous. He gave a good platform to the baul music but at the cost of commercialisation”.

“The baul songs played a major role during the freedom movement. Baul singers, through their songs, evoked revolutionary feelings among the masses. But now people have almost forgotten its contribution. Once in a while when people feel like, they call us” Swapan Adhikari added.