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15 Mag 2026 15:30

SEMINAR | Searching for the Wind: Sustainable Travel Practices of Bengali Bāuls and Fakirs

Ca' Bottacin, Aula A, Venice

SEMINAR | Searching for the Wind: Sustainable Travel Practices of Bengali Bāuls and Fakirs

15 May 2026 | 15:30 
Aula A, Ca' Bottacin, Venice

Keith Cantù
Ca' Foscari University of Venice

This paper focuses on the sustainable travel methods of Bengali Bāuls and Fakirs, or loosely connected communities of esoteric bards who are mostly active in Bangladesh and West Bengal, India.
Based on ethnographic fieldwork and archival research, the paper shows how their methods of travel are diverse but inherently tend towards communal and ecological friendly modes when available: wooden boats, buses, trains, and even walking — whatever will leave the lightest footprint.
This tendency also offers a synergistic relationship with their social activities, since it allows for numerous interactions with people throughout any given day, providing avenues for exchange, opportunities for performance, and ultimately more freedom of movement.
The first part of the paper introduces these modes, while the second part of the paper shows how several of these ecological ideas of travel directly intersect with their songs, music, and philosophy, part of which includes a mystical “search for the wind” (bātāser anusandhān).
The final part of the paper shows how both urban and rural development and changes in travel infrastructure have created unique challenges to the eco-friendly tendencies of Bāuls and Fakirs, but how many of the artists nevertheless still find creative ways to retain ecologically sustainable lifestyles amid social and technological transformation.

Lingua

L'evento si terrà in inglese

Organizzatore

NICHE, DSAAM

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Poster 2543 KB

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