The quest of kabir: Conscience as poetry in pre-modern India

Pre-modern India, also known as the Bhakti period, is a crucial period in Indian history. Kabir, as an oral poet, is the most remarkable figure of this period. Many scholars, particularly historians, have differed in assessing Kabir within a broader historical context. However, no scholar has tried yet to study Kabir from the civilization perspective. That is what I intend to do in this thesis and while doing so, I argue that Kabir's poetry embodies muhabbate-e kul and represents a civilizational metaphor or conscience that was achieved in pre modern India. To support my argument, I invoke Marshall G S Hodgson's projection of Islamicate highlighting three figures in unity in the Indian subcontinent: Kabir, Akbar, and Abu'l Fazl. Akbar, the Mughal Emperor, and his advisor-cum-historian Abu'l Fazl developed sulh-e kul (universal peace). Both intended to establish muhabbate-e kul (universal love) that was based on the conscience developed by Kabir. Thus, muhabbate-e kul embodies and justifies Hodgson's neologism of Islamicate civilization. This thesis is my humble attempt to reread world history by overcoming the crucial analytical gap that omits the Bhakti legacy. By focusing on Kabir's poetry as a missing narrative, I trace the trajectory of Hodgson's Islamicate civilization, complimented by Bruce B Lawrence's barzakh logic. With this approach, my analysis of Kabir's poetry offers new and vast implications for the civilizational legacy of South Asia. Keywords: Asabiyya, barzakh, Bhakti-Sufi network, Islamicate civilization, Kabir, muhabbat-e kul