In 1999, while driving back to our home in Tinsukia from my grandparents’ place in Sibsagar, my mother bought Zubeen Garg’s album Pakhi. Although he had already become a sensation by then, it was my introduction to the man who would go on to become one of Assam’s most prominent cultural icons. For the entire four-hour journey, it was only Pakhi and Zubeen Garg’s voice accompanying us.

In Pakhi (feather), Zubeen Garg explores themes of freedom and captivity. The feather becomes a metaphor for the human condition – caught between the desire for absolute liberty and the reality of various constraints. The haunting melody accompanies lyrics that speak to the universal struggle between authenticity and social expectations.

The lyrics encapsulate the existential anxiety of displacement and the search for belonging. The feather’s journey mirrors the human quest for meaning and a firm place in an indifferent universe.

From that day, my brother and I became firm fans of the singer-songwriter.

Following the news of Zubeen Garg’s death in Singapore on September 19, Assam came to a standstill. The sorrow was most palpable in the streets. But it’s clear to me that even in death, Garg will continue to make meaning in the lives of the people of Assam.

Zubeen Garg was more than a musician: he was an artist who confronted the fundamental questions of human existence through his art. His songs did not merely entertain – they probed the depths of what it means to be human, to love, to suffer and to find meaning in an often-absurd world.

At 52, Garg had established himself as a versatile singer, composer and actor whose work spanned across several Indian languages. Emerging in the early 1990s, his breakthrough album Anamika in 1992 became wildly popular in Assam. This was followed by critically acclaimed albums such as Maya (1994), Aaxha (1995) and Mukti (1997).

Garg’s repertoire included romantic ballads, folk-inspired melodies and contemporary fusion, reflecting both regional traditions and broader popular music currents in India.

Unlike folk artists from Assam who primarily celebrate cultural heritage, Garg’s approach was distinctly modern and philosophical, grappling with alienation, mortality and the search for existence. His sensibility emerged from his experience as someone who lives between worlds – rooted in the tradition of Assam yet influenced by global musical currents. It was deeply spiritual yet questioned organised religion and caste-based discrimination, passionately regional yet universally resonant.

This inbetween existence made him a voice for those who, like him, found themselves questioning conventional certainties. What made Garg’s work different was his refusal to offer easy comfort or conventional solutions to life’s difficulties. His songs acknowledge suffering as an intrinsic part of human existence rather than something to be overcome or explained away.

His themes resonated particularly strongly in Assam due to the region’s specific historical and cultural position: the region is geographically peripheral to mainstream India yet is its own cultural universe. It is linguistically distinct yet integrated into the idea of nation-state, economically marginalised yet politically vibrant.

Garg articulated this position with unusual clarity. His songs gave voice to the anxiety of the difficulty of preserving culture in a globalising world and Assam’s struggle for political recognition within a larger federal structure in changing times.

Taking the dead seriously

In her book Our Grateful Dead, philosopher Vinciane Despret urges that we should “take ghosts seriously”. She says that the dead continue to make things happen through their continuing relationships with the living, through memory, inspiration and the ways in which their previous actions continue to generate consequences.

Garg’s death has already demonstrated this powerfully. The massive public response to his passing shows how death can amplify rather than diminish influence. His songs will continue to be played, his insights continue to resonate and his brand of authentic artistic expression continue to inspire.

Fans will not simply remember Garg: they will find new relevance in his work and new applications for his insights. Garg’s songs will generate new meanings, relationships and possibilities. This will transform both the living and the dead.

Perhaps Zubeen Garg’s greatest contribution was his commitment to asking profound questions rather than providing comfortable answers. How shall we live? What gives life meaning? How do we find connection while acknowledging fundamental solitude?

These questions remain as relevant today as when he first posed them. In this sense, Garg has achieved a form of immortality by posing queries that each generation must answer anew.

The continuing presence

For years, my family has debated whether Assam’s spirit was represented better by Zubeen Garg or Bhupen Hazarika, the towering musician who died in 2011 at the age of 85. Known as the Bard of the Brahmaputra, Hazarika was a prolific singer, lyricist, composer, and filmmaker whose works used the folk traditions of Assam to convey universal themes of humanity, justice, and cultural identity.

He artfully used music and cinema as instruments of social change, leaving behind a repertoire that continues to inspire discourses on regional pride, cultural unity, and progressive politics in South Asia.

Like Hazarika, Garg will remain an active presence in the cultural life of Assam, not merely a historical figure to be studied but a living force that continues to shape contemporary identity and expression.

Garg’s death marks not an ending but a transformation from physical presence to what Despret might call a “grateful ghost”, continuing to challenge, comfort, and inspire those who encounter his work.

In the end, Zubeen Garg’s legacy lies not in any particular song or achievement, but in his demonstration that art can be a form of philosophical inquiry, that entertainment can be an existential exploration and that regional artists can address universal human concerns.

Our family’s four-hour journey from Sibsagar to Tinsukia with Pakhi playing on repeat was more than a musical experience – it was an introduction to a way of thinking about life itself. For Assam, that introduction continues to unfold, question by question, song by song, as Zubeen Garg continues to ask us to live more authentically, question more deeply and critically, and embrace both the beauty and tragedy of human existence.

Prithiraj Borah is an assistant professor of sociology, at NALSAR University of Law in Hyderabad. His email address is prithiraj.borah@nalsar.ac.in.

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