It has been 3 weeks since the death of Assam’s beloved cultural icon Zubeen Garg in Singapore on 19th September 2025. In the aftermath of his death, India saw what he meant for the Assamese as millions joined to pay their heartfelt tributes at Sarusajai Stadium in Guwahati where his mortal remains were brought and kept for public mourning. They also saw the funeral he received with lakhs of people joining the hearse on his last journey and the strains of “Mayabini” filling the air as his mortal remains were set to fire.
Beyond the Headlines: The Media Got It Wrong
This was a personal affair for every Assamese as he lived in the crevices of the heart of each one of us. But since then, I have noticed that mainstream media has rushed to put together articles on Zubeen Garg and Assam that reflects only a skin-deep knowledge of the region, without a basis in real understanding.
One headline boldly proclaimed, “Singer’s death unites India’s religiously torn Assam”. Another called him “a symbol of unity in a divided Assam.” This is a false and lazy narrative, easy to fall prey to in a religiously divided “mainstream” India. But Assam is neither religiously torn nor is it divided across religious lines. It is also true Assam and the Northeast are not part of mainstream India.
Understanding Assam: A Culture Beyond Religion
Assam has its own unique culture, as does the rest of Northeast. You have to understand that undivided Assam originally included all of Mizoram, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya in its fold as well. Only Tripura and Manipur were not a part of it.
Assam has always been a tolerant state, wearing its religion lightly. And while the rest of India have had to deal with dowry deaths and female infanticide, gender discrimination has been a non-issue for Assam and its people. In fact, Assam had the first female Muslim Chief Minister of any state in India when Mrs Syeda Anwara Taimur became Chief Minister on Dec 6th 1980. You may have not heard about Mrs Dhira Chaliha Hazarika, an 85-yr old lady who became Assam’s first female pilot aged just 21 years in 1961. She recently came into the spotlight though because in September 2025, at the age of 85 years, she relived her passion for flying and took the reins of a WWII Tiger Moth plane flying it above the English countryside. Her courage, resilience and her indominable spirit to take to the skies at the age of 85 years is an inspiration to us all. Growing up in Assam, role models were never in short supply. They lived amongst us — in our mothers, grandmothers, and aunts.
However, for someone to truly understand Assam and its culture, I want to hark back to medieval times. Since culture does not form in decades but goes back centuries, I want to pull a thread from that time so you can understand where the story begins.
Roots of Responsibility: The Ahom Legacy
Assam’s deep sense of identity and unity goes back centuries. In medieval times, Assam was part of the Ahom Kingdom. Every surname in Assam reflected the leadership role that the head of the family took under the Ahom King. During this time, every household had a male member serving in the military or public service. They were called Paiks. The leader of 20 Paiks had the surname “Bora”. The leader of 100 Paiks was called “Saikia” while the commander of a 1000 Paiks was called “Hazarika”. “Rajkhowa” and “Barua” led an army of 2000-3000 Paiks while a “Phukan” led an army of 6000 Paiks. Senior ministers in the Ahom court had surnames of “Buragohain”, “Borgohain”, “Borbaruah” and “Borphukan” amongst others. These military or administrative titles were given not based on religion or caste, but based on merit and responsibility. This legacy instilled a cultural ethos of duty and community over identity politics.
Perhaps, that is why people of Assam have a deep-rooted sense of connection, identity and responsibility towards their community, regardless of faith.
Artists, Not Celebrities: How Assam Sees Its Icons
Celebrity culture is not something that the average Assamese person subscribes to as it does not align with the culture in which we are brought up. Our artists are not celebrities; rather they are the purveyors of our values and emotions, helping us to connect with ourselves, with each other and with themselves.
Zubeen Garg’s death affected people deeply. Even though he was a much-loved musical genius in life, affectionately known as “Zubeen da”, a term for an elder brother, I don’t think people themselves knew the depth of their feelings towards the man until he was gone. Over time, as if by osmosis, his music had entered our bloodstream, his songs speaking directly to our souls.
When Music Spoke to Our Souls
I remember the first time I heard the song “Maya”. Although it was just beginning to change, most of the Assamese music until this time were, to be frank, a bit slow, boring and usually with a melancholic refrain. “Maya” was different. It made us all do a collective double take when it hit the scene. For youngsters who were getting exposed to MTV and satellite channels in the 90s and to global stars like Michael Jackson, Bon Jovi and Bryan Adams, to then suddenly find music in their own language that was bold, modern, refreshing and a sound they had never heard before in Assamese music, was simply thrilling! He made us realise that our music could be cool too!
If “Anamika” was the announcement of Zubeen Garg’s arrival on the music scene, then “Maya” was him setting the scene on fire! I still remember that feeling. We were entering a new era. And just like that he became the heartthrob of Assam.
Over the years he wrote many songs, made many albums, composed many beautiful pieces. Being multilingual, he sang in Assamese, Bengali and Hindi but he also has a wealth of creations in other regional and tribal languages and dialects of Northeast India such as Bishnupriya Manipuri, Adi, Boro, Karbi, Mising and several others from the region. His songs of love, longing, loss, hope, resilience, courage and every other human emotion became the soundtrack to our lives.
He regaled us in our festivals including Bihu. But Bihu is not just a festival for the Assamese; it is our heirloom. And Zubeen Garg, who was a constant during these festivities, became a jewel in the crown of that heirloom.
A Voice for the People: Zubeen’s Stand Against CAA
As any other Asssamese, I loved his songs and felt quiet pride in his success as he conquered mainstream Bollywood in the 2000s. But my respect for him deepened when Assam was fighting against the Citizenship Amendment Act (2019), originally Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB), in December 2019. I had been reading about the decision of the BJP-led National government to impose the Act across the country with increasing horror because I realised the implications of this for Assam. Assam is a demographically diverse state and home to several different tribal ethnic and linguistic groups. However, we are all united by our Assamese language and culture, while retaining our own sub-cultures within the greater Assamese culture. In Assam, culture trumps religion any day. This is something that the rest of India does not understand, where religion often is a dividing line.
Due to a porous border with Bangladesh, Assam had for decades seen a huge amount of illegal migration which accelerated after the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971. This illegal migration threatened to overwhelm the local indigenous population, posing a threat to our language, culture and identity. As a border state, Assam had won a hard-fought battle with the signing of the Assam Accord on August 15th 1985 in New Delhi with the then Prime Minister, Mr. Rajiv Gandhi, after a six-year agitation led by the All-Assam Students’ Union (AASU). This agitation, also called the Assam Movement, was a popular uprising in Assam that defined a period of sustained civil disobedience campaigns, political instability and widespread ethnic violence. The movement which started in 1979 ended with the signing of the Assam Accord in 1985 where the Government of India agreed to detect, disenfranchise and deport illegal migrants from Assam.
The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) threatened to undo the sacrifices of all the people that led to the signing of the Assam Accord. It was an affront to the people of Assam. The Indian government did not seem to have an understanding of what this Act would mean for us. Playing divisive politics, they were more interested in ensuring Hindu voters for themselves even if they had to get them from neighbouring States!
From London With Love: Protesting for Assam
As my internal temperature rose, I wondered if people in Assam were feeling the heat. I looked online to understand the reaction back home. That is when I saw Zubeen Garg taking a powerful stand against the CAB. He, of course, understood what was at stake and gave voice to the frustration I, and millions of others, were feeling. He put a spotlight on the issue and mobilised entire Assam by his call to action. Young and old, from children to women in their 90s in the villages, towns and cities of Assam, responded to his call for action and came out onto the streets to protest against the Bill, day and night. Torch rallies were seen in many parts of the state. Assam was on fire.
The CAA felt like a betrayal. The BJP-led National government instead of implementing the Assam Accord in full, were devising ways to undermine and nullify the Accord, with the knowledge and support of the BJP-government in Assam. Seeing the betrayal and the subsequent surge of people walking out of their homes and onto the streets of Assam to protest, whether young, old or infirm, made me feel an anger I had not known before.
In frustration, I expressed my thoughts on Facebook. Going back to my post then, this is what I wrote, “Feeling the turmoil…I wish I was home in Assam…my blood boils…even though I am safely away, all I really want to do is put on the punching gloves and bring out the fight. This is a fight for the soul of our nation…Jai aai Axom!”
When I expressed the above, another friend wrote, “Could we do something? …I want to do something.” I responded, “Let’s do it!”. And that’s how we organised the first protest for CAB from the Assamese community outside India in London. The protest came about in just a couple of days through Whatsapp messages between friends and family and through messages on community groups from a very grassroots level. It was actually incredible to see so many people with roots in Assam and Northeast come out to protest outside the Indian High Commission. The protest received national coverage in India and also made it to the ears of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who mentioned the London protest while he was rallying in India. After our protest in London, several others popped up across the world where the Assamese diaspora lived.
Thinking back today, I realise that Zubeen Garg’s own powerful stand against the CAA inspired and spurred people in Assam from all walks of life to stand for their beliefs, to fight for their culture and identify, and to take on the powerful. He definitely voiced and articulated my frustration and validated it, with his own stand against the CAA. This act of his had ripple effects not only in Assam and Northeast India but also in London, which then had ripple effects across the world.
A Legend Passes, A Legacy Awakens
As the news of his demise spread on 19th September, I knew I had to mark it as I felt a personal connection to his work and deeds as I knew them. But I was not ready for what happened afterwards. He clearly had made an imprint in everyone else’s soul too because the flood of grief that ensued could not be held inside the four walls of a house.
Everywhere in Assam people spilled out of their houses. In Guwahati, my hometown, people poured out into its streets in separate droves to come together in collective grief to mourn their beloved artist. Crowds gathered in different parts of the city with candlelight vigils, prayers and spontaneous singing of his most loved songs. From college students to senior citizens, people joined in to remember the voice that had defined Assamese music since the 90s and had brought the people of Northeast closer together.
The Many Facets of Zubeen Garg
But he was not just a singer. Of course he was a musician, an actor, a director, a lyricist, a poet, a composer, a singer who delivered nearly 40,000 songs in more than 40 languages. But numbers cannot capture his essence. A nature and animal lover, he was a renegade Brahmin who renounced his sacred thread, changing his name from Jibon Borthakur to Zubeen Garg as a young adult still in his teens. Brave, bold and deeply rooted, humanity was his religion. Not afraid to call a spade a spade, his concerts were stages where he spoke directly to people on topics of relevance. Outspoken and irreverent, he held a mirror to our conscience, often calling out the corrupt behaviour of the highest officials in the land, but without malice. He was a phenomenon, a force of nature, a storm who was the heartbeat of Assam itself. After his passing, I have learnt a lot more about him than I did before. And with that came a realisation, slowly at first, and then suddenly, that he was the Mahapuruxh (The Great One) himself, uniting Assam in death as he did in life.
The Mahapuruxh Reincarnate
For the uninitiated, when we say Mahapuruxh we mean Mahapuruxh Srimanta Sankardev, who was a 15th – 16th century Assamese polymath. He was a saint-scholar, poet, playwright, dancer, actor, musician, social-religious reformer and an important figure in the cultural and religious life of the Bhakti movement in Assam. He is credited with building on past cultural relics and devising new forms of music (Borgeet), theatrical performance (Ankia Naat, Bhaona), dance (Sattriya), and literary language (Brajavali), besides leaving a literary oeuvre of trans-created scriptures (Bhagavat of Sankardev), poetry and theological works written in Sanskrit, Assamese and Brajavali. (source: Wikipedia)
The religious movement he started, Ekasarana Dharma, also called the Neo-Vaishnavite movement, influenced two medieval kingdoms – Koch and the Ahom Kingdom – and the assembly of devotees he gathered evolved over time into monastic centres called Sattras. Sankardev’s literary and artistic contributions are living traditions in Assam today. The religion he preached is practiced by a large population, and Sattras (monasteries) that he and his followers established, continue to flourish and sustain his legacy. (source: Wikipedia)
Srimanta Sankardev became Mahapuruxh (The Great One) for the Assamese.
As we bade goodbye to Zubeen Garg, we collectively understood his impact on our souls. This was no mere mortal. The cry of pain was visceral. We wept and cried from the depth of our hearts because he had made a place for himself in each one of ours. He was the family member that every household in Assam had, whether as a son, a brother or an uncle, irrespective of religion.
We all shared our memories of him and what he meant to us online. And as we shared, we also got to experience him for the whole person that he was rather than the little bit that we knew of him. And as we all remembered and recollected his songs, his words, his deeds, his irreverence, his rebellion, his truth, his power, his love: we realised what he truly was and what we have lost.
Assam is a land of potent spiritual energy. And in Zubeen Garg’s death we all experienced it. People of all castes, creeds and religions came together to sing his songs in prayer. And to pray in front of their own Gods, whoever that might be, to give him peace. But as we prayed in front of our Gods, it dawned on us that he was a part of God himself. He was the Mahapuruxh reincarnate, reviving our forgotten folk music in Assam and Northeast India, regaling us with his lyrical poetry in songs and music, unafraid to stand against all wrong-doing and evil, and capable of treating the most powerful and the powerless equally, whether man or animal.
“I Am Axom”: The Message He Leaves Behind
I saw a video of him recently where he says: “I have no caste or creed, no religion, no God. I am free. I am Axom.”
I tried to understand its meaning. How can one say “I am Axom” (I am Assam)? What would it take to say, “I am Axom”. Ever since I was a child, I have heard the phrase, “Xun’or Axom”. It translates into “Golden Assam”. I asked myself how can we build a golden Assam?
Xun’or Axom: Building Golden Assam From Within
And just like that the answer came to me. Every son or daughter of the soil is an Axom in themselves. We all have the power to be truthful to ourselves, to do our work with integrity, to be honest in our efforts, to raise our voices against evil, to not take the easy path but the right one. This all is in our power for each one of us. And if each and every of us can do this for ourselves, then we will be able to claim, “I am Axom”. Because one doesn’t need to build structures to build Xun’or Axom. One only needs to build one’s own self.
For someone who was a unifying force, it is fitting that his Adya Shraddha on the 13th day of rituals, held in Jorhat on 1st October 2025, was marked by inter-faith prayers with the air reverberating with the sound of more than a 100 people from the Sattras doing a Gayan Bayan, which is a devotional musical dance performance. We were collectively lifting his spirit to join with the Supreme Being.
Now that he has left for his heavenly abode, we have come to realise he was God’s child: a Mahapuruxh who united this nation giving us an understanding of how to create a “Xun’or Axom”.
Author: Pallavi Konwar
Putting the spotlight on my thoughts 