Death defines the extraordinary life and story of social, political, and creative commitment embodied by the indomitable people’s singer, Mr. Zubeen Garg, from the northeastern Indian state of Assam. Zubeen Garg was born on 18th of November 1972 into an Assamese family in Tura, Meghalaya, and grew up deeply connected to his ancestral roots in a village called Tamulichiga in Jhanji, Jorhat, Assam. His music and singing took him to different parts of the country and the world, but his heart always remained in the wilderness of Northeast India and within the beauty and diversity of Assam.
Zubeen Garg passed away on 19th of September 2025 in Singapore at the age of 52 and was cremated on 23rd of September 2025 in Guwahati. Born into an Assamese Brahmin family, Zubeen rejected caste, religion, and the worship of gods and goddesses. He placed his faith instead in people and their creative potentials. He openly described himself as a “socialist, communist, and social leftist,” standing firmly with the struggles and dreams, desires, aspirations and needs of the common people. He lived within the collective joys and sorrows of the people, entertaining them as if he were one of their own.
People from all walks of life in Assam and across India mourn the passing of one of their most unique artists, whose creative dedication was inseparable from the interests, happiness, and entertainment of the working people. There was a spontaneous flow of people into the streets, in every nook and corner of Assam, to mourn his death. Neither Assam nor India has ever witnessed such a massive outpouring of grief over the passing of any singer, musician, or celebrity in its history. A sea of people gathered to pay their final respects to the mortal remains of Zubeen Garg — a man who had always detested state power in life and preferred to live with people, yet in death, the state of Assam declared three days of mourning and cremated him with full state honours.
In a creative career spanning more than three decades, Zubeen sang in over forty languages and performed on countless stages — from the rural heartlands of the Northeast to major cities across India and abroad. His songs and music celebrated life, hope, romance, sorrow, heartbreak, love, nature, and people. Through his art, he cultivated a deep social consciousness and an unwavering political commitment to the masses.
Zubeen Garg opposed communal politics in all its forms and used his creative abilities as a singer to unite people around the principles of secular humanism. He was a vocal critic of the Citizenship Amendment Act (Bill) enacted by the Modi government, standing firmly with those who resisted divisive policies. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he transformed his home in Guwahati into a COVID Care Centre to support those in need. Zubeen consistently used his creative talent and commercial success to serve, support, and entertain people, dedicating his art to the well-being of society. As a self-confessed follower of Che Guevara, Mr. Zubeen Garg believed in a politics grounded in radical social and economic transformation and envisioned a society free from all kinds of corruption, exploitation, and inequality.
Personally, Mr. Zubeen Garg used his commercial success to support people in various times of crisis. People from different parts of Assam and Northeast India have shared stories of the help they received from him during their most difficult moments. He supported working people with medical treatments, school and college admissions of their kids, marriages, birthday celebrations, funerals, flood relief and more. His home became a refuge for many children he had adopted, and his kitchen was a source of food for countless others.
Mr. Zubeen Garg, as an artist and singer, is no longer confined to Assam or Northeast India. His creative contributions, along with his social and political commitments, resonate with working people far beyond the country’s borders. He has become an enduring emotion woven into the folklore of music across all genres, captivating audiences — both young and old alike. His death ultimately defined his life — a life marked by creative contributions and an unwavering commitment to the working people. He was truly an embodiment of an intimate celebrity of the masses, free from the trappings of tinsel town and its culture of capitalist domination.
In an age dominated by celebrity culture — with its elitist snobbery built on material possessions, appearances, fashion, and attention-seeking egos inflated by commercial success in the creative and cultural industries — Zubeen Garg stood apart. The Assamese singer, musician, producer, director, actor, and filmmaker never let his commercial achievements distance him from his land and his people. Unlike many other artists whose ambitions remain confined to commercial and creative success, Zubeen was deeply and consistently committed — socially, politically, and emotionally — to the working masses. This is why the working masses loved Mr. Zubeen Garg as one of their own and came together in collective mourning to celebrate the life of one of their greatest cultural icons of contemporary times. As people celebrate your life and listen to your song “Mayabini,” you live on in their hearts, embraced in their arms during the dark nights, sharing your stories with the next generation of socially and politically conscious artists and singers, in every evening in blossoming moon and morning to come in rising sun.