Between Esoteric Knowledge and Biomedical Governance: Baul Understandings of Fertility and Contraception in Rural Bengal

This paper explores the relationship between Baul esoteric knowledge systems and modern biomedicine in the context of fertility and family planning in rural Bengal. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Birbhum district between 2018 and 2022, it examines how Baul practitioners understand the body, reproduction, and contraception through ritual practices such as jugal sadhana. Rooted in embodied discipline and guru-mediated knowledge, these practices regulate fertility through internal bodily control rather than technological intervention. Drawing on theories of biopolitics, embodiment, and medical pluralism, the paper conceptualizes Baul practice as a form of “vernacular biopolitics” that governs reproductive conduct outside formal biomedical systems. It argues that state-sponsored family planning programmes and modern contraceptives have not replaced Baul practices but reshaped them through negotiation, selective adoption, and resistance. The study highlights the coexistence and contestation of multiple epistemologies of the body within contemporary rural Bengal.