ABSTRACT
The militant insurgency movements among various groups that emerged in different parts of North East India are seen as regionalist and separatist tendencies and considered opposite binaries to the nation-state following colonial ethnographic methods, a number of scholars have read them in terms of the politics of identity detrimental to the larger national integrity of the Indian state. However, a genre of literary works by native intellectuals, poets and lyricists mainly working in vernacular languages also reveals a common sphere shared by different communities despite their cultural differences. While emphasising this common sphere, natural landscapes, environments and unique ecosystems are referred to as emotive symbols to signify certain collective identities. Bhupen Hazarika, the most popular cultural icon of Assam, is also well known in the pan-Indian cultural landscape for his public intellectual expression through music and lyrical narratives. He uses the mighty river Brahamaputra in many of his songs on different occasions as a metaphor for Assamese nationalism. His engagement with the ecological imagination takes the shape of a nationalistic narrative of Assam in general and a trans-Brahamaputra valley consciousness in particular. The chapter analyses selected songs of Bhupen Hazarika through the perspective of ecological nationalism.
