Introduction

• This paper focuses on Kabir’s political ideas, particularly his critique of the state, judicial and revenue administration, and his vision of an alternative society.
• Kabir’s utopia of Begumpura presents an ideal village polity without private property, taxation, and injustice.
• His secularism, grounded in monotheism and syncretism, lacks a critique of patriarchy and his views on gender equality need further explanation.
• Kabir’s praxis (theory and action) in both private and public domains was fused, rather than separate, and must be analyzed in the context of his ideas.
• His ideas and praxis were revolutionary and represented the avant-garde of subalternity in his time.
• Kabir, a 15th-century figure, was a contemporary of Sikander Lodi (1489–1517) and resided in Banaras.
• Kabir was a radical intellectual, second only to Basavanna (12th century, Karnataka), and remains influential in social, academic, and folk traditions.
• His works are compiled in Adi Granth, Panchvani, Sarvangi, Bijak, and Granthavali.
• Kabir’s ideas still imprint social discourse, folk traditions, and radical praxis.
• He was one of Ambedkar’s gurus, though the disciple wrote little about him.
• Kabir’s works have been compiled continuously for centuries by different scholars in various regions of India, resulting in variations in content and language.
• For instance, the language of Saakhi is influenced by Punjab and Rajasthan, while Padavali reflects Bhojpuriinfluences.
• The critique of the social order in Bijak is more severe compared to other works.
• Words, their frequency, and the number of doba, pad, and saakhi vary across different sources.
• Kabir’s works were compiled 75 years after his death, raising questions about the authenticity of many of his baanis.
• Experts have filtered authentic works from spurious ones, though the process is still ongoing.
• Methodology for studying Kabir requires critical analysis of texts and folk traditions.
• Many works have been written about Kabir, including by literateurs, theologians, and historians with varying disciplinary perspectives.
• Scholars include Kshiti Mohan Sen, Rabindranath Tagore, Hazari Prasad Dwivedi, Raj Kishore, Purushottam Aggarwal, Irfan Habib, David Lorenzen, Charlotte Vaudville, Ali Sardar Zafri, Ramvilas Sharma, R.P. Bahuguna, Namwar Singh, Manager Pandey, Saral Jhingran, Mamta Sagar, Linda Hess, Vidya Mishra Niwas, Gail Ombedt, among others.
• However, these studies generally do not focus on Kabir’s political ideas, his political utopia, or his critique of the state.
• There is a lack of focused study on Kabir’s political ideas.