Demystifying Dr. Bhupen Hazarika:

                             Demystifying Dr. Bhupen Hazarika:

          Review of the Book Edited and Published By Tej Hazarika

                                                                                 Rajen Barua

Dr. Bhupen Hazarika (1926–2011) is generally remembered by the general public as the legendary singer, composer and film director from Assam.  In fact, he was a lyricist, musician, singer, poet, writer, activist, peace-maker, film-maker and much more.  Mostly however he will be remembered as the greatest singer not only in Assam but also in  West Bengal and Bangladesh. His songs, marked by humanity and universal brotherhood, gave voices to many regional and ethnic aspirations of the common people of the region that won him the hearts of the millions of Assamese and Bengali fans all over.

            However, the above is a profile of what Bhupen Hazarika is and how the generel public  perceive him. This however  does not tell us anything about how he became such a great artist, what inspired him to be such and what inner struggle he had to go through in the process. Most importantly we hardly know much about his ‘Dr’ title that he acquired and how he obtained the same and why. There are also many other facts about his life which the common people do not know.

Now, Tej Hazarika, his son and who is also a fan of Bhupen Hazarika has edited and published the book, “Demystifying Dr. Bhupen Hazarika”. The book has done a great service to the millions of his fans. For the first time, the book has published not only a copy of the Thesis of his Doctorate degree from Columbia University in 1952, but also gave some valuable insight how  and why he did it. The title of his Thesis was: “Proposals for Preparing India’s Basic Educators to use Audio-Visual Techniques in Adult Education”. From the title of the thesis itself we know the visionary and compassionate Bhupen Hazrika who was dreaming the upliftment for India’s teeming millions, in his word, ‘the grey haired farmer with sweet on his brow’, ‘the unemployed rickshaw puller in Benares’ or ‘the laborer in Mumbai’. 

Editing the book, Tej Hazarika rightly stated, " the subject of the thesis is still relevant, it spoke of conditions today - a treasure waiting to be published.  and it is that impetus which inspired Tej to publish the book with the thesis with the hope that his fans will understand Bhupem Hazarika better.

The book also had a valuable write up by Dr Dilip Dutta about the artist’s life story following the musical roots of Bhupen Hazarika which give us a snapshot of the environment  of his youth.

For the Assamese people, Bhupen Hazarika represented something more and something bigger.  For us, he was our unofficial cultural and musical ambassador to the world. For almost half a century or more, through his music, he had popularized the Assamese and in fact the North East Indian musical melodies to India, Bangladesh and beyond; and in the process he also carried with him the Assamese cultural and musical identity and the very psyche and aspiration of the Assamese people.

I am sure millions of fans of Dr Bhupen Hazarika will like the book.