Is Bhupen Da Still Alive? Assam’s Growing Cultural Amnesia

At such a turbulent time when Assam is waking up to a new dawn and has become more vocal and loud than ever, it is increasingly becoming politically charged along with a hyperactive digital presence, and becoming endlessly self-referential.

Even though in between this constant chaos, there seems to be a conspicuous silence; to be more precise, the absence of Bhupen Hazarika from the everyday thoughts. At times, it seems there is an eerie silence when it comes to everyday debates and even the moral imagination of the state.

The question of the hour remains not of oblivion, but of the fading understanding of Bhupen Hazarika, his ideas, and the way he wanted to shape the state. Though the bard’s songs still resonate on his anniversaries, his portraits are laid with garlands on birth and death anniversaries, but surprisingly, beyond these ritualistic remembrances, has Bhupen Hazarika quietly slipped out of the state’s living consciousness?

For Bhupen Hazarika was never just a great singer or a composer; he was a keeper of conscience, a bridge between Assam and the wider world, between the riverbank and the global stage.

Through his music, he carried the pain of the have-nots, the dignity of labour, the anguish of displacement and exodus, and the promise of humanism. At a time when Assam is wrestling with issues like identity anxieties, social polarisation and political absolutism, the voice of the bard, which is always measured, compassionate, and resolutely inclusive, should definitely have been more relevant than ever.

In contemporary times, the problem with Bhupen Hazarika is that the new generation has reduced the legend to mere nostalgia. He is remembered as a cultural icon, not as a social thinker. His songs are celebrated for their melody, not interrogated for their message.

“Manuhe Manuhor Babe” is sung, but its radical insistence on humanism is rarely discussed. “Bistirno Parore” is admired, but its empathy for the displaced and dispossessed seldom informs policy or politics.

This weird but selective remembrance is a pointer towards a deeper discomfort, as Bhupen Da’s worldview does not fit easily with today’s dominant narratives. His idea of a borderless emotional geography, where Assam can include itself within a broader human civilisation. The Bard of Brahmaputra was absolutely resistant against narrow nationalism, linguistic chauvinism, and broader cultural isolationism. His Assam was both confident and capable enough of embracing the difference to sing of Africa, America, and Asia with an equal intimacy and unmatched humanism.

As such ideas now appear inconvenient, Assam’s public space today is hardly shaped by artists and intellectuals and more by the slogans and political spectacles. Cultural figures are expected to align, endorse, or remain silent. Bhupen Hazarika, however, belonged to a tradition of personalities where art had questioned power rather than courting it. His songs, his creations, and his works did not blatantly flatter authority; they spoke the reality around the society to it, mostly softly, but always on a firm note.

The irony of the situation is not that Bhupen Da is slipping into oblivion from official platforms as he is commemorated there, but that the fading impact from public thinking is what is concerning. Young generations and music enthusiasts are familiar with his iconic tunes but remain ignorant of the intellectual courage that shaped those lines.

In a state like Assam that is constantly struggling with questions of coexistence, migration, economic inequality, and cultural insecurity, Bhupen Hazarika and his school of thought could have offered a moral compass. His life and work demonstrated that one could be rooted without being rigid, proud without being exclusionary, and political without being partisan.

The unfortunate dwindling of Bhupen Hazarika’s thoughts and understanding from Assam’s intellectual bloodstream is also a failure on the part of its cultural custodians. Remembering Bhupen da requires more than concerts and cultural events; it demands, above all, the courage to confront the philosophies that he had always stood for. It requires asking uncomfortable questions: What would Bhupen Hazarika say about today’s Assam? Would he recognise its silences, its fears, and its hardened certainties?

Perhaps the reason his absence feels so profound is because his presence would have been unsettling.

Today, in neglecting Bhupen Hazarika as a social thinker, Assam stands the risk of losing more than the memory of a celebrated musician. There is a genuine risk of surrendering a language that reflects compassion, a legacy of questioning the mighty authority, and above all, a social vision where human dignity is placed above all at the altar of humanity.

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