On September 19, 2026, Assam will fall quiet again.
A year has passed since Zubeen Garg died on September 19, 2025, and the state has not stopped grieving. A three-day observance at Zubeen Khetra in Sonapur, Assam, beginning September 17, 2026, marks his first death anniversary — a date his wife, Garima Saikia Garg, announced people would observe as Zubeen Divas. People from every corner of Assam will gather to honor his music, philanthropy, and fearlessness.
There is another side of Zubeen worth remembering: the advocate who picked injured birds up off the road, rescued snakes, spoke out against felling century-old trees, and collected funds for flood-hit families and animals. He even took a rescued monkey into his home and gave him his surname. In May 2018, while performing at a Bihu function near the Kamakhya Temple, he stopped mid-program to speak out against animal sacrifice.
He stated plainly:
“I have always spoken against animal sacrifice. It should be stopped.”
He added that no deity wants the blood of animals. Priests condemned his remarks and demanded an apology. He refused to apologize.
Zubeen also shared how living with ducks changed his perspective: when we fall in love with an animal, we stop eating their meat. He had come to know a duck as somebody, not something. That recognition drives the mission of Mercy For Animals to protect hens in battery cages, pigs in gestation crates, and animals throughout industrial animal agriculture.
Zubeen shared his home with four dogs, ducks, egrets, tortoises, and pythons. Since 2001, he partnered with the Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation near Kaziranga to rescue animals during annual floods. Last October, on World Animal Day, Kaziranga named a newborn elephant calf Mayabini after his famous song.
In Assam, food and ritual are deeply woven into culture. Zubeen showed that compassion is not foreign to identity; it is central to who we are. When we spend enough time with animals to truly know them, we transform how we treat them.
What his legacy asks of us
In Assam, food and ritual are woven deeply into culture, and questioning any part of that can feel like an attack on identity itself. That is exactly why his voice mattered. Zubeen was not an outsider criticising Assam. He was Assam. And he was saying that compassion is not foreign to who we are — it is the most Assamese thing there is.
A year on, we are honoring his legacy by continuing the work he started. When we spend enough time with animals to truly know them, we transform how we see them and how we treat them.
We can build a world where every animal receives the protection and respect they deserve. By supporting compassionate choices, we take a powerful stand against industrial animal agriculture.
Take action with us now — join Mercy For Animals and help create a kinder world for all.
