Kabir in the Guru Granth Sahib: a Bakhtinian perspective

Abstract

Kabirʹs discourse is one of the predominant social voices of the Guru Granth (the Sikh Scripture). Contrasting with its overall poetic nature, Kabirʹs discourse predominantly manifests the socio‐historical overtones fully marked with polemical and contesting historicity The present paper aims to establish that the poetic discourse of Kabir is socially multi‐accented and dialogic, consistent with the Bakhtinian postulates of unitary, monologic, ʺauthoritarianʺ (Bakhtin, Discourse in the Novel, 287) and ʺdogmaticʺ (Bakhtin, Discourse in the Novel,287) nature of poetic genres. Bakhtin postulated that poetic genres, unlike prose genres or novelistic discourse, can be understood as self‐contained entities which intentionally do not allow other languages or ʺworldviewsʺ (Bakhtin, Discourse in the Novel, 297) to fertilize in its poetic ʺsoilʺ (Bakhtin, Discourse in the Novel, 325). This paper contends that Bakhtinʹs dogmatic and rigid views on the poetic genres are disputable and need reformulation. However, the study uses Bakhtinʹs own framework of polyphony and heteroglossia to validate Kabirʹs multi‐accentuality. The present study argues that Kabir’s poetic compositions are intensely polyphonic and decentralized. Kabir employs both different and divergent voices, making his poetic utterances multi‐voiced and dialogic