Sagor sangamat kata nasaturilo/ tathapito howa nai klanta/ seyehe monor mor/ ashanta sagoror/ urmimala ashanta— Though, for so long have I swum/ In the confluence of seas/ I am not tired THE lines above make up the opening stanza of a song Bhupen Hazarika wrote while sailing across the Atlantic, from New York to Southampton, back in 1952. Fifty years on, the lyric maestro of the Assamese language — he’s drawn inspiration from ballads and folk songs from Assam and, indeed, the world — just refuses to tire. Or retire. In joining the BJP, Hazarika, 78, has returned to politics, active politics, after a long 33 years. In 1971, he had contested as an independent in the Mangaldoi Lok Sabha constituency, not just losing but also causing the defeat of Hem Baruah, then one of Assam’s best-known parliamentarians. Earlier, in 1967, he had entered the state assembly as an independent MLA from Naoboicha LAC. This time it’s not tokenism but serious business. As an Assamese cultural icon, Hazarika will give the BJP the face it so desperately needs in Assam. While Guwahati City is also being spoken of as a constituency, he is most likely to take on controversial lottery don M.K. Subba (Congress) in Tezpur. Ironically, just two days before Hazarika formally joined the BJP, it was Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) president Brindaban Goswami who met the musician in Guwahati, offering him the party’s nomination from Tezpur. Hazarika has had a long association with the AGP, given his identification with regional pride. Yet if the BJP won the day, it is perhaps because Hazarika sees it as a growing force in the state. In his biography of Hazarika published in 2003, Arup Kumar Dutta wrote, ‘‘Bhupen Hazarika . has almost single-handedly brought about a renaissance in Assamese music and cinema, and showcased her culture before the world . Not only is he the cultural icon of the entire Northeast . but also a jewel in the pan-Indian cultural crown.’’ That’s some description but perhaps not entirely undeserved. Hazarika’s multi-faceted genius is of a rare kind. He is a thespian of no mean order, beginning his career as a child-actor in the second Assamese film, Indramalati, in 1939. He is an instinctive painter, an authority on global cultural traditions, an academic, a journalist, among the pioneer Assamese broadcasters on AIR. He has authored 20 books in Assamese, directed 12 films, scored the music for over 70, including films in Bhojpuri and Karbi. Despite a doctorate in mass communications from Columbia University, he gave up his teaching job at Gauhati University to take up his destined role as a singer of the masses, with the message of social change woven into his songs and films. Many of his songs are highly political. One was even banned during the Emergency and has him talking of ‘‘the bright morning that cannot be kept covered by a dark night’’. Hazarika’s songs, when laid chronologically, are a commentary on events that have rocked not just Assam and the Northeast, but the rest of the country and planet too. Probably that’s why he calls himself a wanderer — jajabor. His autobiography is titled Moi eti jajabor and his most famous song goes Moi eti jajabor/ dhorar dihinge dipange laoron/ nibichari nija ghar (I am a roving nomad/ wandering across the earth/ without seeking a home of my own.) Well he’s just wandered home to Vajpayee country.
