Zubeen Garg : Radical Romanticism of an Irreverent Icon

Jyotirmoy Prodhani

After Bhupen Hazarika, arguably, Zubeen Garg has been the next greatest cultural icon of modern Assam. If Bhupen Hazarika was the most dominant voice from the 60s till the early part of the twenty-first century, Zubin’s voice took off from the early 90s. Both their voices would continue to reverberate long after their deaths, as they would transcend the tangible contours of their lives, which essentially represented the anguish and angst, as well as the aspirations and longings, of the respective generations to which they belonged.

Dr Bhupen Hazarika’s emergence coincided with the historical juncture of India’s freedom, followed by the subsequent eras of hopes and delusions. A product of the intellectual and ideological climate of the time, his music emphatically exhorted change, propagated the idioms of protest, and infused courage to assert disagreement. With the musical images of the silent river against the clamour of the suffering multitudes (Ganga behti ho kyun), the emaciated palanquin carriers tottering under continual feudal repression(dola he dola), or the call for retrieving the values of universal humanism for the fellow human beings(manuh manuhar babey), Bhupen Hazarika was the conscience of a generation; a source of ideological values and ethical lore that the masses collectively aspired to reconnect with.

Bhupen Hazarika steadily evolved into a cultural icon, an enduring moral reference point for the Assamese nation. By the late 1990s, after about half a century of independence, India entered a new phase of its political and economic epoch. With this, the sense of public morality, dimensions of aspirations, and the sense of music too began to change.

The 90s marked a new era for Assam’s contemporary history, too. It was an era of political settlement of sorts after the tumultuous phase of Assam agitation of the mid-80s, which ended with the Assam accord. This was the juncture when Zubeen Garg emerged, a fresh young voice that could render romanticism with youthful vigour in a voice, earthy and mellifluous. Instead of being being musical manifestos, like that of Hazarika’s, his were sheer music, rhythms, and poetry.

When his first music album, Anamika, was released in the 90s, he was barely in his 20s. The songs might not have had the erudite ideological sophistication, but his music was impetuous, scintillatingly melodic, and also radically romantic. However, one of his later songs, Majulir ejoni sowali dukh paley, where Majuli, the delicate river island, was turned into an abiding metaphor against negligence and indifference to our eco-heritage.

There are many stories about how Zubeen evolved into a singer and subsequently became one of Assam’s most significant cultural icons. He had defined the contours of the popular culture of Assam in his own terms. He defied all norms of the conventional playbook to invent his own codes, which can be described as the ‘Zubeen Era’.

A boy from Sivasagar in upper Assam, Zubeen, was born in Tura, Meghalaya, when his father was posted there as a state civil servant, when Meghalaya was still a part of Assam. He did his matriculation from a school in Tamulpur, now in the Bodoland territorial region, and his higher secondary from Karimganj, a district in the Barak valley of Assam. He was exposed to ethnic and cultural diversities early on that had shaped his formative mind, which found its reflections in his music and in the philosophy of his life.

He joined B. Barooah College of Guwahati to pursue his BSc with the subject combination Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics, indicating a fairly firm academic grounding. In one of his interviews, Zubeen revealed how his principal at college was somewhat worried about Zubeen when he did not complete his examinations and coolly came out of the examination hall, submitting his incomplete answer scripts.

The principal asked him why he did so. How could he be so reckless? What would he do in life without a formal degree? He replied, ‘I will sing.’

‘Will you be able to earn a livelihood with mere singing? (which was almost an impossible prospect), Zubeen confidently answered, ‘Yes, I will.’

He kept his promise and soon became Assam’s highest-paid singer, who sang around thirty-eight thousand songs in forty languages, whichincluded numerous minor languages known for their folk songs.

    From the early days of cassettes, when recording music became relatively easy as studios emerged in Assam, it was no longer necessary to travel to Calcutta or Bombay, unlike the days of vinyl records. Songs were available on cassette tapes. Soon, the music scene turned quite vibrant.

Soon, Zubeen stormed in, setting the stage on fire with his electrifying bravado and irreverent flamboyance; he looked surreal against psychedelic lights, high decibel sounds, loud strumming of instruments, mostly western, and his flawless voice, he often silhouetted on stage with studded western outfits flowing from his waist, fancy hats, and the guitar in his grip. He was a superstar performing live.

He was a Rock Star of dreams right in front of millions of eyes, night after night, in the season songs and music, especially during the months-long Rongali Bihu celebrations, when he would set stages on fire across Assam.

He became almost synonymous with music. He crafted his lyrics that weaved the metaphors of freedom, the melodies of free souls. No wonder, in a number of his songs, he draws on the image of a flying bird in the sky as his central image, pakhipakhi ai mon, pakhiloga mor mon (My mind flies with its wings), sila sila moi dur akaxore/ uri uri phuro moi dawore pohore (I am flying kite of the distant sky/ I fly glide along the clouds and light) quite like the radical romantic Shelley’s images of sky. Like his wild winds, Zubeen too danced for ages with storm (dhumuha rxote mur bahu jugare nachon).

            On stage, he broke rules, for he was not there to sing the songs; he believed in performing them. He was the Elvis Presley of Assam, heralding a new age of music, which would eventually be named after him -the era of Zubeen. He was the only Rock Star of Assam in the true sense of the term, for he defied convention, deviated from the codes, and even threw challenges to the unexpected quarters. He was a veritable bucking bronco on stage, an irreverent iconoclast.

He knew his charisma; he was aware of his power as a singer, and he knew he was a legend. Else, how could one afford to come on stage beyond time habitually, and declare at times that one was too tired and needed sleep? And, he would literally sleep on stage, not to the irate crowd who would be waiting for him for hours till early morning. Still, to a concerned audience, who would let him sleep, being so worried that their beloved singer truly needed rest, he should care for his health as well, for he looked so exhausted. All this sounds mythic, like a fairy tale, but that was what Zubeen Garg was all about. 

As an irreverent icon, he enjoyed making others uncomfortable with his offbeat sartorial preferences, through his strong statements often against the power to bewithout trepidation, to the rousing approval of the audience. Such comments apparently looked casual, but he made serious statements on politics, on conventional ethics,and also on spiritual and social hierarchies. Like Hazarika, he was an unabashed humanist with equal emotive attachments to even non-humans, especially animals.

After his untimely demise, when the social media platforms are full of images and videos of a twenty-five-kilometer-long human procession for the last journey of their beloved singer, there are also images of animals silently standing in front of the homage stands for Zubeen. He created a universe not only for human bonding butalso a world of affectionfor all.

Perhaps this was the core of his artistic ideology, which he often defined as ‘social leftism’. His silent philanthropy for the needy, for humans and animals, was probably a part of his commitment to his ideology. He had exuded the power of his creative self, who was not only an artist but a phenomenon.

If one has to point out Zubeen’s most important contribution, one might as well point out how he has shown the world the power of music. Apparently, he was a regional singer who had dedicated his entire life to his state, despite achieving equal success on much larger platforms, such as Bollywood, with iconic songs like ‘Ya Ali’, he had transcended boundaries.

He proved once again that music has the inbuilt power to defy all limitations. Even in his death, his final act, he arrived in style and made us all feel how terrible it is to wake up in the morning and realize that life henceforth will be without Zubeen, because with him, for Assam, a part of the soul is gone.  

Jyotirmoy Prodhani is a professor of English at North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong. Ph 8787346290

22-09-2025

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