SONGS OF DEVIANCE AND DEFIANCE SUBJECTIVITY, EMOTIONS AND AUTHENTICITY IN BHAWAIYA FOLK SONGS OF NORTH BENGAL Nasrin Khandoker PhD Thesis Maynooth University Faculty of Social Sciences Department of Anthropology October 2019 Supervisor: Dr. A. Jamie Saris TABLE OF CONTENT ACKNOWLEDGMENT ................................................................................................................................. 1 ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................................. 3 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................... 4 PRELUDE .......................................................................................................................................................... 4 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................................. 5 Folk Songs in The Margins of The Identities .............................................................................................. 7 The Embodied Emotions of the Marginalised ........................................................................................... 7 Becoming a woman of Bhawaiya .............................................................................................................. 8 Emotional Atmosphere of Folk Songs ....................................................................................................... 8 Management of Folk Songs ...................................................................................................................... 8 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RESEARCH AND RELEVANT LITERATURE ...................................................................................... 9 An Addition to Postcolonial and Subaltern Studies ................................................................................... 9 An Addition to The Transnational Feminist Studies: ............................................................................... 11 An Addition to The Field of Psychological Anthropology ........................................................................ 12 CONCEPTUAL FRAMES OF THE RESEARCH: .............................................................................................................. 14 Subjectivity, Becoming-woman and Assemblage .................................................................................... 14 Emotional Atmosphere ........................................................................................................................... 21 Actors of Authenticity ............................................................................................................................. 21 ‘FIELDS’ AND MY SUBJECTIVITY AS RESEARCHER: ..................................................................................................... 14 METHODS ....................................................................................................................................................... 36 Archival Research .................................................................................................................................... 36 Ethnographic Fieldwork and Bhawaiya ‘Sites’. ....................................................................................... 38 Interviews ................................................................................................................................................ 39 Group Discussion ..................................................................................................................................... 40 Textual Analysis ...................................................................................................................................... 40 ETHICAL CONCERNS .......................................................................................................................................... 41 CHAPTER OUTLINE ............................................................................................................................................ 42 CHAPTER 2: IDENTITIES AND BHAWAIYA IN THEIR SUBVERSIVE MARGINS .............................................. 46 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................................ 46 THE CONSTRUCTION OF IDENTITIES IN THE HISTORICAL TRAJECTORY: .......................................................................... 49 Colonial era ............................................................................................................................................. 49 Post-colonial era ..................................................................................................................................... 66 After 71: West Bengal and Bangladesh .................................................................................................. 71 SUBVERSIVE MARGINS OF THE IDENTITY MARKERS ................................................................................................. 72 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................................................... 75 CHAPTER 3: BHAWAIYA IN THE CONTEXT OF FOLK SONG GENRES IN BENGAL ......................................... 46 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................................ 78 FOLK TRADITIONS AND SEXUALITY: ...................................................................................................................... 79 Bhawaiya: Deviant and Worldly Desires of Women ............................................................................... 84 Bhatiali: The Song of The Tides ............................................................................................................... 89 Baul: The Spirit of Bengal ........................................................................................................................ 90 CHALLENGING THE HIERARCHY ............................................................................................................................ 97 RECONSTRUCTING GENRES THROUGH EMBODIED EMOTIONS AND EXPERIENCE: ........................................................... 98 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................................................. 102 CHAPTER 4: SUBJECTIVITY OF DEVIANT, DEFIANT AND DANGEROUS WOMEN ......................................... 78 PRELUDE: “YOU ARE A DANGEROUS WOMAN!” .................................................................................................... 104 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................................................. 105 RE-EXAMINING ‘FEMALE VICTIM MALE WRITER’ IDEA: ............................................................................................ 106 Who made the songs? ........................................................................................................................... 106 Imagined past, imagined subjectivity: .................................................................................................. 114 Who is making the songs now? ............................................................................................................. 116 Collective voices of women ................................................................................................................... 121 Voice in negotiating norms: To be or not to be a ‘dangerous/bad' woman: ........................................ 122 Becoming-woman through performance: ............................................................................................. 131 Intersubjective Negotiations ................................................................................................................. 135 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................................................. 137 CHAPTER 5: EMOTIONAL ATMOSPHERE IN PERFORMANCES AND PRODUCTIONS ................................. 104 PRELUDE ...................................................................................................................................................... 139 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................................................. 141 EXPERIENCING THE EMOTIONAL ATMOSPHERE ...................................................................................................... 142 Music that Hypnotises ........................................................................................................................... 143 shadhusongo and Merging the Individual into Atmosphere ................................................................. 146 The Object of Deviant Emotions ............................................................................................................ 151 Performing in Desperation .................................................................................................................... 153 The Atmospheric Emotions: .................................................................................................................