Dr J Openshaw (BA PhD)

Honorary Fellow

Biography

Background

Since the 1970s, I have been researching and writing on contemporary South Asian religious traditions.

My research has involved many years' social anthropological fieldwork in West Bengal, as well as the study of relevant languages, especially Bengali, and associated literature.

Initially my primary concern was 'Hindu' Goddesses, their devotees and sacred centres. Subsequently the focus of my work shifted to people called "Baul", who recruit from both 'Hindu' (Vaishnava) and 'Muslim' (Fakir) communities, and who are known primarily through their beautiful and often enigmatic songs.

My general research interests include: the theory and practice of renunciation (including female renouncers), guru lineages, esoteric (encoded) language, gender, autobiography and biography, liminality and dissent, religion and politics, and subaltern studies. My research in South Asia has involved me in cooperation with a variety of academics and non-academics in South Asia, especially India. 

Postgraduate teaching

South Asian religion, society and history, especially contemporary "Hindu", "Buddhist" and dissenting traditions

Anthropological approaches to the study of religions

Research summary

Bauls of Bengal and Bangladesh

Caste Vaishnavas

Bengali Vaishnavism

The theory and practice of renunciation (the famed holy men of India, but there are also female renouncers)

Gurus and guru-lineages

Autobiography and biography

Liminality, dissent and subaltern studies

Religion and politics

Esoteric (encoded) language

Gender and South Asian religion

Radical songs of South Asia, especially Bengal (India) and Bangladesh

Current research interests

At present I am preparing a translation of hybrid Hindu-Muslim Baul songs of Bengal, with annotations, commentaries and discussion. The volume will focus on relatively neglected topics, that is, radical and dissenting songs.

Project activity

At present I am completing a book on Bengali Baul songs (translation and commentary), provisionally entitled: 'Beyond identity: radical Bengali Baul songs'.  The volume focuses on songs composed by Bauls of both Hindu and Muslim origin.  These contest social and religious identities, on the grounds that they are human (usually male) constructions, rather than of natural or divine origin.  Instead the songs advocate a focus on the 'human being' (manush) in various senses.   

View all 14 publications on Research Explorer

Monographs

  • 2002     Seeking Bauls of Bengal, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0 521 81125 2. Awarded Rabindranath Tagore Memorial Award by Pascimbanga Bangla Academy, Government of West Bengal (India).
  • 2004, Seeking Bauls of Bengal, paperback South Asian edition, C.U.P. (ex-Foundation Press) ISBN 81-7586-205-4.
  • 2010     Writing the self: the life and philosophy of a dissenting Bengali Baul guru, Oxford University Press, ISBN-10: 0-19-806247-8 & ISBN-13: 978-0-19-806247-9.
  • Forthcoming: Beyond identity: radical Baul songs of Bengal.

Articles & chapters

  • 1990, 'Diversity within Islam - an instance from Eastern India', Anthropology Today, Vol.6 no.6. December 1990. (Written in the name of S. Isherwood).
  • 1995, 'Raj Krsna: perspectives on the worlds of a little-known Bengali guru' in Mind, body and society: life and mentality in colonial Bengal, edited by Rajat Kanta Ray, pp.109-151. Oxford University Press, ISBN 019-563757 7.
  • 1997, 'The radicalism of Tagore and the "Bauls" of Bengal', in South Asia Research, Vol.17, No.1, pp.20-36, School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London), printed by Henry Ling Ltd (The Dorset Press), Dorchester.
  • 1997, 'The web of deceit: challenges to Hindu and Muslim "orthodoxies" by "Bauls" of Bengal', in Religion, Vol.27, pp. 297-309, Academic Press Ltd, ISSN 0048-721X.
  • 1998, '"Killing" the guru: anti-hierarchical tendencies of "Bauls" of Bengal', Contributions to Indian Sociology, Vol. 32.1, pp. 1-19, Sage Publications, ISSN 0069-9667.
  • 2005, 'Inner self, outer individual: a Bengali "Baul" perspective' in South Asia Research, 25.2 (November). 8,500 words. Sage Publications New Delhi, Thousand Oaks, London. pp 183-200. ISSN: 0262-7280. DOI: 10.1177/0262728005058762.
  • 2006, 'Home or ashram? The Caste Vaishnavas of Bengal', Fieldwork in Religion 2.1, 65-82. ISSN: 1743-0615 (print); 1743-0623 (online). Equinox.
  • 2007, 'Renunciation feminised? Joint renunciation of a female-male pairs in Bengali Vaishnavism' in Religion, 37.4, ISSN: 0048 721x. 319-332. Elsevier. doi:10.1016/j.religion.2007.06.007
  • Entry on 'Bauls' in the Brill Encyclopaedia of Hinduism, 2011, ISBN13: 9789004178946, ISSN: 0169-9377, pp.285-294. 
  • 2012, 'Nirmāṇ-binirmāṇ ebaṅ maner mānuṣ'.  Article (in Bengali) in Deś, 2 February, 2012, pp. 87-92.
  • 2017, Introduction to City of Mirrors: Songs of Lālan Sā̃i, text, translation and commentary by Carol Salomon, Oxford University Press, NY.
  • 2018, Entry on 'Bauls' in the Brill Encyclopaedia of Islam: Three. ISSN: 1873-9830. ISBN: 978-90-04-35663-4, Brill, Leiden and Boston.
  • Forthcoming 2019: ' Love of woman: love of humankind? Interconnections between Bāul esoteric practice and social radicalism' in F.Sardella & L.Wong (eds), Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, Vaiṣṇavism in Colonial Bengal, Routledge. 
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