Why We Love Baba Bulleh Shah As a Feminist? A Mystic’s Story of Class and Gender struggle.
“The first class oppression coincides with that of the female sex by the male,” (Friedrich Engels, Origin of the Family)
Was it with a purpose to bring attention to the plight of women, or a concealed struggle for lifting the expressions in the indigenous languages? Why Baba Bulleh Shah adopted the female character? Was he the only one?
All the third spaces between the home and worship were closed for women in the history. It drew a portion of age before the gates of Western masonic lodges started opening for women.
To read further about the concept of third space. Please click https://medium.com/@moinhunzai/beyond-me-time-and-my-space-let-us-cherish-our-third-space-96a4ffddb570.
Men had access to third spaces in form of Sufi Lodges, Zawiyas, Khanqah, Madaris and other places of meditation and learning. Women’s spiritual practices revolved around home or in restricted settings. Home was the place where women could live and worship. Amongst all the Sufi Silsila orders, i.e., Sufi lineage, there is no mention of women in any order. All these orders in their composition and character are male led orders. We do not hear of any sister, mother or a cousin of a Saint who reached forward with any lineage or legacy.
The Sufi shrines in the sub-continent were gender inclusive. Rather, it will not be an overstatement if we claim that proportion of female members has been higher than males as more females pledge a Mannat.
Mannat is a promise at the Shrine. A Mannat or a vow is a holier connotation than wishing wells or bridges where people throw coins or put locks to the bridges in a western cultural backdrop. Beyond the binary connotation of the gender, i.e. male and female, people from third gender attend Urs and Melas at these mausoleums.
Amir Khusro (1253- 1325 A.D.) An iconic musician and poet of his age wrote mystical poetry in female tones. It is a genuine paradox that Tamerlane who invaded India took Amir Khusro with him to Balkh and detained him for two years. Amir Khusro wrote the first Marsiya- which bemoans the death of Ghayas Uddin Balban’s son, who lost his life in Multan’s battle.
Why these Sufi poets assume female voice or female role while expressing their agonies of love. Here my aim is not to inquire into the cosmological features of divinity but to understand what caused these Sufi poets exemplify the female tones.
We can make the parallel between Gopis & Devis in the Hindu tradition. Gopi, which means cow herders. In female context, Gopis are the eternal consorts of Krishna. Amongst all the Gopis or Gopika’s, Radha or Radhika takes a particular place. The concept is of a boundless love of a higher order with full submission. The notion in Hindu mythology is Sudda Bhakti-the highest form of unconditional love for Krishna.
In the Sufi context, they call the concept of meeting with beloved Uroos- literally meaning the wedding night. It has the same connotation of consummation of love or in Persian “Humma Oost”. In the Dao teaching, it is the Oneness in the form of YingYang.
Mansur Hallaj accused of his philosophy of incarnation (hulul), in terms of two spirits in one body, took his life. His body was hanged and burnt to ashes. Killing and burning Hallaj forced his disciples to gather his poetry, philosophy and repackage his Sufi philosophy to a more vernacular audience through folklore. Baghdad became a fertile ground for Sufi literature in the garb of stories like Laila- Majnu, Shirin-Farhad and other lores of the time. When Majnu shouts Laila’s name in the fabled tale, there is a Sufi spin in this about Hulul and Hamma Oost. Concepts of Tu man shudi-man tu shudam which means oneness of lover and beloved is two spirits becoming one spirit is actually a Sufi twist for folks.
In Baghdad, where Laila and Shirin became the legends of female empowerment and unconditional love. Sub-continent had its own folklore seeped in the Sufi flavour in the characters like Sassi, Sohni, Heer, Momal, Marvi and others. These female characters were pre-Islamic and hence their secularity has remained the same.
Amir Khusro used the female tone to write devotional poetry in the local Rekhti- which was a mix of local languages and dialects in 1200 A.D. Persian and Arabic was the language of the rulers or invaders therefore Rekhta did not stand any near. Rekhti is the form when the poet assumes the role of a female lover. In the 20th century, Rekhti got considered as an obscene genre and hence gradually eliminated from the Urdu poetry scene.
Under this cultural milieu, Syed Abdullah Shah Qadri or Syed Abdullah Shah Gilani, known as Bulleh Shah, was a Punjabi philosopher and Sufi poet enters the scene in 17th-century Punjab. Baba Bulleh Shah used vernacular Punjabi to challenge the status quo in the most scathing and iconoclastic way.
Amongst all, Baba Bulleh Shah has topped the ace by calling himself a “choori” a female sweeper and a Kanjar. Bulleh Shah lived with Kanjars for over 12 years. They also attribute it to him to wear ghungroos and dance like a female courtesan.
Was this just an act of empathy towards the women, or there was a hidden and a mystic meaning to this madness? Picking similes of female lovers and that again from the lowest strata of society and mingling with ideas of divine exaltation speaks of the iconoclastic role modelling of Baba Bulleh Shah.
Sufi Shrines are part of a Silsila- a divine ordained lineage who derive their lineage from Hazrat Ali. Baba Bulleh Shah, who was not from a Sufi order, adopted the female voice. People say that Baba Bulleh Shah’s spiritual mentor Shah Inayat was from Arain caste, while Bulleh Shah was a Syed. Some also attribute Shah Inayat as the spiritual mentor for Waris Shah. The tale of Heer Ranjha is one of the earliest gender empowerment fables weaved in local soil.
Mystics like Baba Bulleh Shah were fighting a battle between elites and vernaculars. Their message remains valid and powerful. To this date, their poetry does not need an opera house or an orchestra. All it needs is a primitive single instrument-based music. In most of the cases, they use it as an instrument for percussion. Ranging from Iktara-a single string instrument, Rabab, or a utensil. In subcontinent we see women carrying lotas- a metal-based utensil for percussion. We know the woman who carries this lota and sing folk as lotaywali or gharhaywali.
Bulleh Shah brought the message of love to the vernacular in his iconoclastic signature style. From the standpoint of the modern times. We do not know which left Bulleh Shah belonged to. In one word-he was a humanist. A humanist who knew about the shock value of his work.
Based his message on love, challenging the existing class and social structures. From regimented practices to an egalitarian with more inclusive participation. Rightfully Bulleh Shah stands out as an ardent female empowerment activist and one of the biggest disruptors of all times.
Author: Moin Uddin is an occasional writer who loves to write about culture, economy, and psychology. He publishes on www.medium.com/@moinhunzai and tweets @moinhunzai
Credits: The writer acknowledges the invaluable contribution of like-minded friends, scholars and research write-ups on the subject.
Suggested further readings:
- Me and Rumi: The Autobiography of Shams I Tabrizi
2. Tawsin by Mansur Hallaj
3. The Female Voice in Sufi Ritual by Shemeem Burney Abbas
4. Alvina Wasim (2019). Discovering the voice of women through Archetypes in Baba Bullay Shah’s verses, Linguistics and Literature Review 5(1): 1- 17.
5. Rekhti Poetry: Love Between Women, Introduced & Translated by Saleem Kidwai
