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‘Zubeen was for all’: Singer’s death unites India’s religiously torn Assam

‘Zubeen was for all’: Singer’s death unites India’s religiously torn Assam

Barpeta/Guwahati, Assam, India – For more than 15 years, truck driver Imam Hussain found solace in singer Zubeen Garg’s voice and music as he drove his vehicle on quiet and lonely nights along the Himalayan hills and plains of the northeastern Indian state of Assam. It was a period in which Bengali-speaking Muslims – the community 42-year-old Hussein belongs to – increasingly came under attack in Assam. They’ve been accused of being outsiders – even infiltrators – in their own home. Amid soaring Hindu-Muslim tensions, the music of Garg – a Hindu – served as a rare unifier. “His music was my inner peace,” said Hussain. Hussain says Garg’s songs gave him inner peace amid communal divide in Assam [Arshad Ahmed/Al Jazeera] On September 19, Garg died by drowning near Lazarus Island in Singapore, where he was scheduled to perform at the Northeast India Festival, an event that celebrates the art and culture of the Indian region. The sudden death of the 52-year-old artist, who enjoyed a cult-like status among millions of his fans in and outside Assam, triggered a massive outpouring of grief that further cemented his stature as a public figure whose appeal spanned divisions that have otherwise fractured the state. The singer’s wife, Garima Saikia Garg, issued a statement, saying her husband “suffered a seizure attack” while swimming in the sea. While Hussain was mourning Garg’s death, so was Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose Hindu majoritarian Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is accused by critics of fanning Hindu-Muslim divisions nationally and in Assam. Advertisement “He will be remembered for his rich contribution to music,” Modi said in a condolence message. “His renditions were very popular among people across all walks of life.” Thousands gather to have a last glimpse of singer Zubeen Garg in Guwahati, Assam [Zakir Hussain/Al Jazeera] Assam’s Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who belongs to Modi’s party, said the state “lost one of its favourite sons”. “Zubeen’s voice had an unmatched ability to energise people, and his music spoke directly to our minds and souls. He has left a void that will never be filled,” Sarma said. The Assam government declared four days of state mourning as Sarma flew to the capital, New Delhi, to receive Garg’s body when it returned from Singapore. A polarised backdrop Two days later, on September 21, tens of thousands of Garg’s fans gathered outside the main airport in Guwahati, Assam’s biggest city. They waited as state officials received Garg’s body after it landed. Then, they marched behind a convoy carrying the body to a stadium some 30 kilometres (19 miles) away for public viewing, singing some of his most famous songs in unison. Some held his posters, while others walked teary-eyed with candles in their hands. After four days of state mourning, Garg was cremated on September 23 with full state honours and a 21-gun salute. Those scenes of unity were a break from the religious and linguistic fractures that have deepened in Assam in recent years. Grieving fans gather for the last rites of singer Zubeen Garg in Guwahati, Assam [Zakir Hussain/Al Jazeera] The fault lines between the Indigenous Assamese-speaking and the mostly migrant Bengali-speaking communities in Assam aren’t new: They go back nearly two centuries, when the British brought large numbers of Bengali-speaking Hindus from Bengal to run the colonial bureaucracy, creating resentment among the Indigenous Assamese who feared the outsiders would take their jobs and occupy lands. A second wave of migration of Bengali-speaking Hindus and Muslims to Assam started in 1947 with India’s independence and the formation of Pakistan, which included the territory that in 1971 declared itself the independent nation of Bangladesh. Millions of people migrated from Bangladesh to Assam in these years, triggering backlash from the Indigenous Assamese, which often turned violent. Those ethnic and religious tensions continue to dominate Assam’s politics even today as suspicions over the identity and citizenship of mainly Bengali-speaking Muslims – pejoratively called “miya” – deepen, with thousands of them declared “Bangladeshi infiltrators” and many of them sent to detention camps or forced to cross over to Bangladesh by Indian security forces. Advertisement Garg was composing his music against this polarised backdrop, responding to the communal fissures with his verses and voice. On many occasions, the singer described himself as an atheist and a “social leftist” as he distanced himself from the state’s mainstream parties, the centrist Congress and the right-wing BJP. He was also a vocal critic of India’s deeply entrenched caste system. In an undated video now viral after his death, a person on stage is seen teasing Garg for not wearing the sacred thread worn by other Brahmins, who sit at the top of Hinduism’s complex caste hierarchy. Garg shot back, saying, “I am just a human. I have no caste, no religion, and no God.” In another instance, Garg in 2018 encouraged famous female Assamese Olympian, Hima Das, to consume beef in order to “gain strength” to compete in international and national sports events. Many Hindus belonging to privileged castes revere the cow, and its slaughter and consumption are banned in several Indian states. It is unclear whether Das accepted Garg’s advice. He was also at the forefront of a 2019 campaign against India’s controversial new citizenship law, which made religion a basis for expediting citizenship for immigrants from neighbouring nations, excluding Muslims. The law led to nationwide protests against Modi’s government, while the United Nations called it “fundamentally discriminatory” and urged a review. Assamese social media creator Dr Medusssa told Al Jazeera that as anti-Muslim hate permeated Assamese society, Garg’s public positions stood out, turning him into an emblem of Hindu-Muslim harmony. “It is precisely because of Zubeen’s persona of being inclusive, and how he represented marginalised communities through his songs, that his legacy is being claimed by all,” said Medusssa, who requested to be identified by her social media name. “He refused to belong to any particular community. He was for all.” For Akhil Ranjan Dutta, a political scientist at Gauhati University

Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,317

Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,317

Here are the key events on day 1,317 of Russia’s war on Ukraine. Published On 3 Oct 20253 Oct 2025 Click here to share on social media share2 Share Here is how things stand on Friday, October 3, 2025: Fighting Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Ukraine it was playing a dangerous game by striking near the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant and suggested Moscow could retaliate against nuclear plants controlled by Ukraine. The plant, Europe’s largest nuclear power facility, has been cut off from external power sources for more than a week and is being cooled by emergency diesel generators, which were not designed for lengthy operations. As both Ukraine and Russia blame each other for cutting off the external power at Zaporizhzhia and shelling the area, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Russia deliberately cut the external power as it was preparing to connect the station to its own grid. Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said power had been fully restored in two areas of the border Sumy region hit by overnight Russian attacks. Repairs to power were also proceeding in the neighbouring Chernihiv region, where more than 300,000 consumers had been left without electricity after Russian strikes on Wednesday. The Trump administration’s desire to send long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine may not be viable because current inventories are committed to the United States Navy and other uses, a US official and three sources have told the Reuters news agency. President Putin warned any decision by the US to supply the missiles to Ukraine would trigger a major new escalation with Washington, but would not change the situation on the battlefield. Ukraine and Russia have exchanged 185 service personnel and 20 civilians in the latest prisoner swap. Regional security Advertisement Speaking at the Valdai Discussion Club in Sochi, southern Russia, Putin said Moscow would carry out a nuclear test if another nuclear power did so after saying that he had seen signs a country, which he did not name, was preparing to conduct tests. Putin repeated his offer to the US of voluntarily rolling over an agreement capping the number of nuclear warheads in Russia’s arsenal when a key arms control treaty expires next year, if Washington agrees to do the same. Putin said Moscow never had any issues with Sweden or Finland and that their decision to join the NATO military alliance was therefore “stupid”. France’s detention of a tanker vessel suspected of operating for Russia’s “shadow fleet” is part of a new European strategy to block revenue funding Moscow’s war effort in Ukraine, President Emmanuel Macron said. The Kremlin said France’s boarding of the tanker was “hysteria” that could create problems for global energy transportation routes, while Putin condemned it as an act of piracy. Putin said the global economy would suffer without Russian oil, warning that prices would jump to more than $100 per barrel if its supplies were cut off. Politics and diplomacy German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he saw great agreement among European leaders on supporting the use of frozen Russian assets to provide loans for Ukraine – to be repaid eventually using war reparations from Moscow – adding that he expects a concrete decision on the matter within three weeks. Russia said the European Union’s idea was “delusional” and would prompt it to retaliate very harshly. Maxim Kruglov, the deputy leader of Russia’s liberal Yabloko party, which opposes the war in Ukraine, has been charged with spreading lies about the Russian army and could face up to 10 years in jail if found guilty. Kruglov’s lawyer said her client had been charged over two posts he had made on the Telegram messaging app: One post referred to UN data about the number of people killed in the port city of Mariupol in eastern Ukraine, which Russia took control of in May 2022, and another to events in Bucha, a town north of Kyiv, in March 2022. Voters in the Czech Republic are likely to oust their centre-right government in an election on Friday and Saturday, with polls favouring populist billionaire Andrej Babis to return to power on pledges to raise wages and lift growth while reducing aid for Ukraine. Adblock test (Why?)