About 30 kilometres from Guwahati, in Kamarkuchi village in Sonapur, the songs haven’t stopped. Each day, hundreds gather with incense sticks, candles and small oil lamps to offer prayers at the plot of land where Assam’s cultural icon Zubeen Garg was laid to rest.

Among them are Kabita, Himani, and Runu Das, fans who travelled nearly three hours from Assam’s Baksa district to pay homage. “We left home around five in the morning and have been singing naam here since we arrived,” Kabita said, sitting cross-legged beside the others. In Assam, naam is a form of devotional singing that, for the three women, has now become both a ritual of mourning and an act of resistance.

“We want nyay (justice),” Kabita said. “To us, he is like god, and we are confident that god will get justice.

See Full Page