Subaltern Saints in India: Women and Sudras in Bhakti Movement

The present era of complexity, anxiety, and moral turpitude is in need of spiritual solace and God's grace more than ever before. The established frameworks of religion have not entirely been successful in streamlining the rapport between the maker and the creation. The emergence and progression of bhakti saints are significant pointers in this direction. Living exemplary, realized lives on their own terms mostly in opposition to the given frame of life, the bhakti saints heralded a new possibility of the egalitarian order without any bigotry or dogmatism. The book undertakes a probe into the specific contributions made by two hitherto neglected sections of Indian society, namely women and Sudras. The precepts and lives of these subaltern saints reiterate the possibility of personal salvation and social regeneration, having transformative potential for breaking the barriers of iniquitous, hierarchical structures.

About the Author

Dr Meenakshi Jha is an Assistant Professor at the Centre for Women's Studies and Development, Faculty of Social Sciences, Banaras Hindu University. She has been actively engaged with the projects, workshops, and programs of the Centre along with editing its prominent publications including books, a newsletter, and a journal for the last sixteen years. In addition to her teaching assignments and doctoral supervision, she has contributed several research papers on gender and culture studies. The present book is based on her doctoral research on women and sudras in bhakti discourse.

The present day life of sick hurry and divided aims has created a situation uncongenial for the spiritual development of human beings. The contemporary Indian society is no exception where life keeps on receiving jolts after jolts without substantial spiritual anchorage. In order to rivet our thoughts and actions towards a meaningful direction the contribution made by bhakti saints is really mammoth. They were to play the role of both path-breakers and path-finders with the aid of their intuitive cognition. In targeting the artificial man-made iniquitous conventions, they saw to it that life operated in a unified framework without admitting extrinsic, divisive factors to play any decisive role.

The contribution made by both women and sūdra saints is really salubrious because of their locational handicaps in the social hierarchy. The adverse circumstances and negative criticisms could not deter them from their missionary task of both self and collective amelioration and striking the bonds of kinship with the almighty in different forms.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the life and works of the otherwise marginalized women and südra saints and to assess to what extent they were able to break the restrictions imposed on them by the traditional Brahmanical society. The book intends to probe their lives and ideas with a view to evaluating their influence in contemporary medieval Indian society and the impact it had in initiating the era of changes, the clamors of which resonate to date in numerous forms. These saints' glorious legacy was instrumental in auguring the advent of modern temper.

The Bhakti movement has been a major landmark in Indian cultural history. The movement embracing almost all sections of Indian society aimed at both mitigating the social evils and doing away with the social differentiation. In fact, it was a movement of radical social protest against an oppressive social structure. The bhakti saints and poets were primarily for the upliftment and amelioration of the masses.

Their experiences in life and their expression through letters were centered round the life of the common man. Their contribution has been in a large measure instrumental in shaping the cultural ethos and thought of India and influencing the minds and lives of the people. All these saints have been champions of a casteless and classless society and have stood for harmony, peace, and unity. The messages and deeper thoughts of these saints are as relevant today as they were several centuries ago. Their doctrine of social equality, self-dependence, and oneness will guide us in overcoming the major challenges facing the country today.

The movement while protesting against various socio-religious injustices also introduced new socio-religious reforms which in turn helped modern India to absorb and introduce the most modern reforms for the Indian society in general and for Indian women and the untouchables in particular who are considered subaltern people in India.

Women like other subaltern groups in Indian society are among the most muted or even silent voice of history and are at the receiving end. On the basis of caste, another subaltern group Sudra is also at the receiving end of the society.