Himanshu Prasad Das On Zubeen Garg: We Must Think About How To Strengthen This Emptiness

Zubeen Garg’s sudden and untimely demise on September 19, 2025, plunged Assam into a state of shock from which it has still not fully emerged.

More than a year after his death, the grief surrounding the cultural icon remains deeply felt across the state.

For a people who had come to see Zubeen Garg not simply as a musician but as an integral part of Assamese cultural identity, his absence has left a profound emotional void.

Assamese filmmaker and actor Himanshu Prasad Das believes there is a danger that this loss could eventually hold the culture itself back.

For Das, the question is no longer simply how Assam mourns Zubeen Garg. It is what Assam does with the space he has left behind.

“We must think about how to strengthen this emptiness” is the essence of his argument.

The point, he suggests, is not to overcome the grief or diminish Zubeen’s importance, but to ensure that mourning does not become a permanent state of paralysis.

“His death has created an absence that cannot be filled, but the response to that absence cannot be an endless search for someone who can replace him. Zubeen Garg is our own,” Das said, describing his contribution not merely in terms of music but in terms of what he gave to Assamese society and its sense of cultural identity.

That contribution needs to be understood in the context of the transformation Zubeen brought to Assamese music.

Das recalled a period when Hindi songs dominated public cultural spaces and said Zubeen’s emergence gave Assamese music renewed confidence.

Referring to Zubeen’s entry into the Assamese music scene around 1991-92 through Anamika, Das described the change that followed and how Assamese audiences began to experience their own language and music differently.

“There was a time when singers from Mumbai used to sing in Assamese. This was not because Assam lacked singers. This was mainly because only a few voices were notable with the audience. Zubeen Garg changed that,” he added.

That history makes the present loss particularly difficult to comprehend. It also makes the question of what happens next more urgent.

Das does not believe Assam should spend its cultural future trying to recreate what Zubeen represented.

“Zubeen Garg is very important to the greater Assamese cultural society. But nobody should be expected to become his replacement,” Das said.

Zubeen’s legacy, he believes, should encourage younger artists to find their own voices rather than leave them permanently trapped in comparison with him. If every singer, actor or filmmaker is judged against what Zubeen achieved, the cultural space he helped create could eventually become restrictive.

Comparing Zubeen Garg with a brightly burning flame, Das said, “The purpose of that flame, of that fire, should not be that everything becomes cold after it goes out. It should be capable of lighting other fires.”

That is perhaps the central idea in his reflection on Zubeen.

“A cultural legacy is not preserved by keeping it frozen in the past. It survives when it gives the next generation the confidence to create something of its own,” he added.

Das also expressed concern about the tendency to invoke Zubeen whenever a contemporary cultural question arises.

“If Zubeen were here, he would have done this” may sound like an expression of love and grief. But it can also allow the present generation to avoid taking responsibility for the present.

“Zubeen Garg is no longer here to speak. That cannot become a reason for everyone else to remain silent,” the actor added.

Das also spoke about his own professional relationship with Zubeen. Although he had met him several times and admired his stature, he deliberately avoided building his own work around Zubeen’s support.

For him, that was not a rejection of Zubeen. It was an attempt to establish his own artistic identity.

At one point, Das approached Zubeen for a project in which the singer would essentially play himself. Zubeen liked the concept, but circumstances prevented the project from being completed. Das recalled shooting with him for only one night.

He also remembered a time when Zubeen was physically unwell and chose not to push him to continue with the project.

That memory adds another dimension to the grief surrounding Zubeen’s death.

His absence represents unfinished collaborations, unwritten songs, incomplete films and possibilities that will never happen.

But Das’s larger argument is that Assamese culture cannot be built around what can no longer happen.

It has to move.

The responsibility now is to create an environment where other artists can emerge without the burden of becoming another Zubeen Garg.

That means letting singers sing differently, actors develop different identities, filmmakers tell different stories, and younger artists take risks without constantly being measured against a departed giant.

Zubeen Garg’s contribution may ultimately be measured not only by what he created but by what his work allows others to create.

For Das, keeping that possibility alive is a better tribute than remaining permanently trapped in sorrow.

Assam is still grieving. That grief is real. But the living have a responsibility to decide what grows from it.

The next chapter of Assamese culture has to be about the emergence of voices that could only have come after Zubeen Garg.

ALSO READ | যাত্ৰী নে শৰণাৰ্থী: Tribute To Zubeen Garg