Hinduism - Who Is A Faqir, Or Faqir Baba, Or A Muslim Ascetic In Contemporary India?

  

Faqir is a word that has a lot of different meanings (variant of fakir, from the Arabic poor).

As the Arabic root of the term suggests, this refers to a Muslim ascetic in the strictest meaning. 

In common parlance, the term has been used to any ascetic (as seen by Winston Churchill's description of Mohandas Gandhi as a "half-naked faqir"). 

Both of these idioms are still in use in contemporary India. 

Although the term "faqir baba" has come to denote a Muslim following India's partition in 1947, Hindu ascetics continue to refer to someone who is divorced from all things and reliant on God for sustenance as a "faqir baba." 



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