Abstract

Bhawaiya is one of the most important folk music traditions of North Bengal, lower Assam and northern parts of Bangladesh. The music is popular among the Rajbanshi speaking people who are now divided by national and international boundaries. The land of Bhawaiya, erstwhile Cooch Behar state, was once ruled by Koch dynasty. In the colonial period Cooch Behar enjoyed the status of a British princely state. On the other hand, liminality as a philosophical thought first appeared in anthropology. Later the concept has been used in cultural and literary analysis to describe a space which is located in an “in-between” space. This paper aims to interpret Bhawaiya folk music in respect of liminality. It intends to show how Bhawaiya represents different aspects of liminality in relation to its people, language and culture. Hybridity and marginality are also very important philosophical thoughts in postcolonial study. This also aims to explore different marginal spaces articulated in Bhawaiya. This paper tries to explore how Bhawaiya, influenced by different cultural events in history, embodies a sense of hybridity in its nature. This paper also aims to explore how Bhawaiya resists dominant cultural push in different phases of history and emerges as unique cultural medium rooted in the folk traditions of the land it represents.