Bhupenda’s Songs: Revealing Society

Bhupen Hazarika was a towering cultural icon who, by dint of his talent, not only enthralled audiences with his songs but also created affinity between cultures worldwide.

Priyanku Narayan Baruah(alwayspriyanku@gmail.com) Bhupen Hazarika was a towering cultural icon who, by dint of his talent, not only enthralled audiences with his songs but also created affinity between cultures worldwide. Hazarika's greatest strength of assimilation of all cultures lies in his songs. In the song 'Mahabahu Brahmaputra Mahamilanar Tirtha', he had depicted how the society is being assimilated by the Brahmaputra. Hazarika left his imprint on the world canvas too, by singing with Paul Robeson and against apartheid in South Africa and about Nelson Mandela. The song 'Moi Eti Jajabor' on seeing the sufferings of people on the banks of London's river Thames is just another expression of the golden heart he possessed. Bangladesh had posthumously conferred on Hazarika its highest civilian award — Muktijoddha Padak — for their affinity with his immortal songs including 'Ganga Amar Ma, Padma Amar Ma' (Ganges is My Mother, Padma is also My Mother).Hazarika fought vehemently to get Goalpariya lokageet recognized against the prevailing set of norms and system and succeeded in doing so. His uniquely deep baritone voice and his easy-on-the-ear compositions that quite often culled out finer nuances of classical ragas and the huge variety of folk music of North-East India were already deeply ingrained in my subconscious by then. It was much later that his lyrics – the meaning of the words and the mood they created – could mean anything to the audience. Indeed, his innate belief in the power of music to break barriers among individuals got reflected through not only his personal demeanour but also through his songs, films, writings and live performances. In his later life, he was deeply concerned about the atmosphere of social unrest in Assam – he had more than once told me that he wished that people would understand and use the "power of Gaan" (songs) than that of the "power of the gun" to resolve problems of the society. In fact, if one dream of his that remained unfulfilled was his plan to make a feature film that would speak about the need to forsake the path of violence in the society. His songs, written and sung mainly in the Assamese language by himself, are marked by humanity and universal brotherhood and have been translated and sung in many languages, most notably in Bengali and Hindi. Known for writing bold lyrics with themes of communal amity, universal justice and empathy, his songs have become popular among all sections of ethnic and religious communities in Assam, besides West Bengal and Bangladesh. He is acknowledged widely in the Hindi film industry for introducing Hindi film to the sounds and folk music of Assam and North-East India. Rupkonwar Jyoti Prasad Agarwala, Kalaguru Bishnu Prasad Rabha and Natsurjya Phani Sarma — had greatly influenced him. As an individual constantly engaged with contemporary history and politics, Hazarika unremittingly played the role of a political commentator. By politicizing culture, he was able to influence the masses, especially those of his own land, Assam. Often, he would use the imagery of the mighty river Brahmaputra to illustrate the numerous social, political and cultural discourses taking place in Assam. If the song 'Mahabahu Brahmaputra' (potent Brahmaputra) describes the assimilative process by which the Assamese sub-nation consolidated over centuries, then the masterpiece 'Bistirno Parore' (On the vast banks) laments moral decadence on the banks of the river. Hazarika himself was greatly influenced by the African-American singer and composer Paul Robeson. In fact, 'Bistirno Parore' is in a way a reproduction of Robeson's well-known 'Old Man River'. The works of the American musician offered the Assamese a sense of determinism. Although he never made a concrete public statement on the separatist movements taking place within Assam, Hazarika did emphasize on the cause of Assamese unity throughout his career. He condemned what he saw as the neo-imperialist agendas of the Indian government, and was concerned about its refusal to recognize Assam as a Union state. The lines from one of his lesser-known songs, 'Jibon Xindhu Bohu Bindure Hoi Jodi' (If life is constituted by diverse elements), sum up his longing for a better-understood Assam and a socialist world order: viz., :"Xomajok eri kono baad nohoi,/Xomajbaad ajir lakhya". Assam is an important part of India. Yet, it has the burden of defying everyone's negligence, Thousands are fighting against the oppressions of the greedy neo-imperialists. Even his songs of tea-garden labourers, Scheduled Caste fishermen and toiling peasants could not remain apolitical. Sung in a colloquial language, these compositions were insightful on the local level but also covered the mainstream social and political discourses. One of his most popular numbers, 'Oxom Dexor Bagisare Suwali (I am a girl from the tea gardens of Assam), from the film Chameli Memsaab, describes not just the tragic construct of Chameli, daughter of a tea-garden labourer, but also weaves in stories of exploitation of migrant laborers on these plantations and their subsequent alienation from the mainstream Assamese social sphere. Another song, 'Porohi Puwate' (In the morning before yesterday), tells the story of a young fisherman named Rongman who goes fishing one day and never comes back. And in 'Zik Mik Dewalir Bonti Jole' (The lights of Diwali shine), the pain of the working class reaches a deeper level with a lonely widow's cry going unheard amidst the celebration of the festival of light. Hazarika shared a two-way relationship with the proletariat. On one hand, he relied on the folk musical traditions of various tribes of Assam for inspiration; on the other, he supplemented these folk forms with radical avant-garde content, consisting of the Adivasi struggle. The outcome of this relationship was that narratives about the lives of the downtrodden found sympathetic ears in the drawing rooms of urban middle-class families. The artiste thus worked as a bridge between the toiling masses and the middle class, the urban and the rural, the Adivasi and caste-Hindu communities. This inadvertent role of a bridge, however, was not easy. In 2010, writer Loknath Goswami analysed Hazarika's life and work in a book entitled Bondita Bhupenda Nindita Bhupen Hazarika (Adored Bhupen da, loathed Bhupen Hazarika). Goswami, and his reviewers, wonder how a singer who began his musical career under the guidance of renowned revolutionary artistes – Jyoti Prasad Agarwala and Bishnu Prasad Rabha – and who once announced that he wanted to "kill the oppressors with weapons made of human skeletons" could become increasingly hesitant in fighting for the oppressed. How could the man who wished the water of Brahmaputra would shine, upon receiving state awards suddenly announce that the river is already shining? How could Hazarika, who bemoaned the lack of another Lachit Borphukan to lead Assam, discover such leaders among the agitated Assamese youth of the Assam Movement? Answers to these pertinent questions can be found in the complex dynamics of the realm of the popular, which allows such contradictions to exist. The thousands who crowded the streets of Guwahati after his recent demise were the same who grew up with the iconic image of 'Bhupen da', conceived through the numerous honours showered upon him during his lifetime. The pitfalls with adhering to this fond epithet 'da', meaning 'elder brother', is that he might be misinterpreted and misappropriated according to the changing political need. The people of Assam have already converted their two most radical and influential thinkers of the last century, Bishnu Prasad Rabha and Jyoti Prasad Agarwala, into mere cultural icons as 'Kolaguru' and 'Rupkonwar' respectively. One shudders to think what fate might await Hazarika's legacy. It is to be remembered that a young Bhupen Hazarika was noticed by the doyens of Assamese culture, Jyoti Prasad Agarwala and Bishnu Prasad Rabha, when he had performed a Borgeet at the age of 10 in Tezpur. Subsequently, Hazarika sang two songs in Agarwala's film 'Indramalati' (1939): 'Kaxote Kolosi Loi' and B'iswo Bijoyi Naujawan' at the tender age of 12. He wrote his first song, 'Agnijugor Firingoti Moi' at the age of 13 and he was well on his way to becoming a lyricist, composer and singer. Being a visionary of egalitarian society, indeed he was carrying forward the voyage of socio-cultural revolution undertaken by his predecessor Rupkonwar Jyoti Prasad Agarwala and Kolaguru Bishnu Prasad Rabha who happened to be his motivators and pathfinders.

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