By Ananya S Guha
He was peripatetic, the wanderer, the bard, the minstrel. He was a denizen of the world. He loved humanity. He could envision in the Luhit, the Ganga and the Padma; the confluence of life, its fount, its elixir.
He wanted a common humanity bereft of races yet loving the antecedents of his race. He was India epitomized, humanity enshrined and the emblematic Assamese. He wore the Nepali cap to exemplify his love for all cultures. He was irreversibly Indian, human and Assamese. He sang of man’s aloneness, desire for compassion, brotherhood. He loved the ideal, but he translated them into the real. He loved the city and the small town in a juxtaposition of realities. He coalesced images: the rural and the urban, into a complex but lyrical whole. He was Urban, Rural, Cosmopolitan, Metropolitan. The fictive and the real intersected his songs and poetry palpably, hauntingly.
He followed closely on the heels of Paul Robson. He was a nationalist and internationalist. To call him simply a communist is to limit his infinitude and supranationalism. He was more than a member of the Indian People’s Theatre. He was one in many many in one; he was myriad of cultures, protagonist of love, manifested through songs and dances. He saw in the Bihu festival an eternity, a celebration of life. Like Gandhiji he loved people individually and in masses. He sang the Ram and Rahim song in unison. He was Hindu, Muslim and Christian alike.
He was the Renaissance man. His life was a song. And, he sang it.
He was Dr. Bhupen Hazarika.
May his soul rest in eternal peace.
