In this compelling talk, Dr. Purushottam Agrawal speaks powerfully about his personal relationship with Kabir, asking some difficult questions to himself and all of us, about the tendency of contemporary scholars and activists to read Kabir selectively and in ways that suit our social agendas. In a wide-ranging talk weaving together references to Karl Marx and Roland Barthes on the one hand, and Swami Sahajanand Saraswati and Bhagvad Gita on the other, he urges us to listen to Kabir in totality and recognize that Kabir’s “iconoclasm would not be possible without a deep and humble search for love”.
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Find many other reflections on mystic poem and thought at ajabshahar.com/...
Discover a universe of Bhakti, Sufi, Baul poetry and music at www.ajabshahar.org.
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He was speaking at the Festival of Kabir organized by the Kabir Project, Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology along with several other partner organizations in Bangalore in February 2009. The festival brought together singers from India and Pakistan in an immersive week-long event that included film screenings, live music concerts and talks. Purushottam has been an advisor to the Kabir Project since its inception in 2003, and has always challenged us with his probing insights.
He is a distinguished scholar and cultural historian. His book Akath Kahani Prem Ki: Kabir Ki Kavita aur Unka Samay - Untellable tale of Love: Kabir’s Poetry and his Times, 2009 was awarded the First Rajkamal Kriti Samman. Recently he completed a 6-year term as member, Union Public Service Commission of India. He was senior visiting fellow at the Centre for Studies in the Developing Societies, Delhi, and has served as chairperson of the School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, and as chief advisor for Hindi textbooks for NCERT. He has been a visiting professor at the Faculty of Oriental Studies, Cambridge University and at El Colegio de Mexico. Blog: www.purushottam..., Email: purushottam53@gmail.com
(Click on Settings for subtitles in English & Hindi. Click ‘B’ on keyboard to remove the black background in subtitles.)
This is one of a series of uploads for Ajab Shahar, a webspace dedicated to mystic poem and song, created by the Kabir Project team (www.ajabshahar.org ; www.kabirprojec...).
Video Credits:
Cameras: Tahireh Lal & Vinay Ghodgeri
Sound: Dipanshu Mitra
Editing: Tahireh Lal, Sharanya Gautam
Sound Editing: Shruti Kulkarni
Sub-Titling: Mukesh Kulariya, Vipul Rikhi, Shabnam Virmani
Collection: The Kabir Project