- Novanita Sharma
Assam is in the grip of inconsolable heartache and restlessness for the past eleven days since the tragic death of Assam’s beloved cultural icon Zubeen Garg, on 19th September 2025 at Singapore. Prayers, grief, and an unsettling emotional fury among the people marked the low key Durgotsav celebrations all over the state this year. The people are jolted by the untimely death of their heartthrob; people are demanding justice for Zubeen Garg which is the legitimate need of this hour. The remarkable outpouring of love, respect, and solidarity of the people towards their icon has spellbound the entire Nation and the world with the undying aura of Zubeen Garg. This legendary outpouring of people is not just for his musical and artistic genius; this is because of the humane person behind the musical and creative brilliance of Zubeen Garg who cared for others and defiantly dared to stand for the cause of the people. Like everyone else, I remain hopeful to find the truth behind this tragic death of Zubeen Garg. We have faith in our government and judiciary, we look forward to honour Zubeen Garg with justice, and peace.
The words of Anne Frank resonate with the thoughts in my mind during this time. She famously said that “Dead people receive more flowers than the living ones because the regret is stronger than gratitude”. The overwhelming ocean of people who accompanied our beloved Zubeen Da in his last journey and during his last rites at Sonapur, Guwahati compels me to wonder whether we could offer him such gestures of appreciation for his goodness, for the kind, benevolent, nature loving person in him, while he was alive. Perhaps we failed to show our gratitude to this legend mostly because his ways were unconventional, his approach was not approved by our social norms, and we still live in a society where artists are often considered mere means of entertainment. Zubeen Garg’s death opened the pandoras box, where we see the bottomless ocean of corruption, and exploitation prevalent in the human world which continues to thrive beyond our control, and wishes. Surviving in this labyrinth demands shrewdness, no amount of talent can tide us through this lethal web of our society if we remain defenceless in this regard. It is complicated, and it will remain so for many more aeons in the future because we are glued to the thoughts and ideas of individual comforts, ambitions, and personal goals compared to the collective wellbeing of our communities, and our country. I hope and wish that the people of Assam will find ways to honour Zubeen Garg with befitting gratitude, which he deserved for what he strived to uphold through his work and thoughts. If I am not wrong, he wanted to see a peaceful, progressive, and vibrant Assam, where people will choose to be kind, empathetic, and broad minded, to walk the path of humanity in true
sense.
While we talk about many different aspects of nature conservation, be it biodiversity conservation, wildlife conservation, water conservation, soil conservation, forest preservation, and so on, we ought to understand that it all begins with the philosophy of nature conservation, and the foundation of the Indian philosophy of nature conservation is based on the self-driven commitment to honour the beauty, goodness, and divinity in other living beings apart from our own race, we cannot work for nature conservation until and unless we come closer to be compassionate human beings first. The root cause of all our environmental problems, our social problems lie in the failure of human beings in striking this chord of empathy and compassion. This world does not need the scientists, scholars, and intellectuals who could not bring the rest of us to understand the sheer magic of developing a good heart, we rather need healers, creators, and kind-hearted crusaders who dare to fight and bring human beings closer to the true meanings of humanity with their humble ways, in their own style and disposition.
I pay my homage to Zubeen Garg, to his larger-than-life spirit of love, empathy, and brotherhood, which has drawn the entire Assam to his side, at his death. I pray for my people to find ways to connect with this spirit of compassion, to build a peaceful world ahead.