The contentious National Register for Citizens (NRC) and the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) have both been greeted with fierce protests in Assam. Many Assamese songs against the CAA and NRC have been made and released.
Now, a band Cosmic Horizon has released a music video, Motherland, composed in English to get the message out to a wider audience. Their song is playing on YouTube. The band says they are seeking to draw attention nationally and internationally to the situation in Assam and the North East.
The video shows people, many of them holding placards with anti-CAA slogans, hitting the streets braving police batons.
The song begins with a wake-up call to "My people to speak to anyone whosoever or else we all will be wiped out from our motherland."
Talking to The New Indian Express, Arup Dutta, the lead guitarist says, "It is a humble musical effort to draw people's attention at the national and international levels so that the people of the region get permanent justice in the influx issue".
The song is sung by Zubeen Garg, a familiar face of the ongoing anti-CAA protests across Assam.
Zubeen has been openly critical of the Assam government for not opposing the CAA. He had earlier released another song Politics nokoriba bondhu to oppose the CAA.
"It's not a song to mobilise the Assamese speaking people against the CAA but more intended towards garnering support from the sister states and outside to raise a concern and their voices against the Immigrants Influx Issue, economic underdevelopment, divisive politics and rule, corruption in all polity, etc," says Arup.
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The band Cosmic Horizon has three core members -- Arup Dutta on lead guitar, Anupam Das Moran doing the vocals and bass and Simanta Basumatary on the rhythm guitar.
"For the song Motherland, we took the services of Bulbul Das (bassist) and Pritam Bhuyan(drummer) as guest members," Arup adds.