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
