On the evening of 19th October and the eve of Lalon Shah's 135th tirodhan (death anniversary), the student-run quarterly magazine Siren convened the programme titled "Manush Vojle Sonar Manush Hobi" (If you seek the human within, you become the golden human) at the open concourse of Payra Chattar at TSC, Dhaka University. From six until ten, the square became a temporary public institution of song humming with the strong voices that spoke of humanity and secularism that persists despite the forces that want to uproot them, the vibrations of ektara strings and the layered sound of harmonium and flute.

The event had assembled performers from every corner of the country united only by their love for Lalon -- Kuhok Team from Narayanganj, Indrani Shoma from Chattogram, Kotha Baul from Tangail, Oikko Jit Baul from Gazipur, Shukhonlal Rai from Lalmonirhat and Anan Baul from Sirajganj, joined by S M Rakib, Shimul, Anupam, Lanju, Akash Giyan, Lau Band and writer-philosopher-performer Arup Rahi.

The instrumental ensemble consisted of Asim Chakma (harmonium), Narayan Dash (tabla), Mishal Tripura (cajón), Mofizur Rahman Birohi (dotara) and Kanon Molla (flute). There were also modern instruments like ukulele and guitar that went smoothly without taking away from the folk aesthetics, rather making for a subtle addition.

The current political atmosphere of Bangladesh emphasizes a moral urgency of this music that translates into a broader statement on communal harmony. Since its inception, violence against Bauls and Fakirs and suppression of their voices has been common. The vandalism of mazars, surveillance of rural akhras, and public humiliation of spiritual mendicants constitute a recurring pattern of disciplining difference. The recent outrage over the forceful hair-cutting incidents of September 2025 was merely a more visible and direct transgression of human rights that couldn't be swept under the rug easily. However, instances of such injustices have always been there. Anan Baul's performance of his own song about the 2020 attack on his Sirajganj akhra emphasised that, asking why singers are punished for their harmless devotion and if his music killed anybody.

The performers each revisited Lalon's canonical songs "Shob Loke Koy Lalon Ki Jaat", "Khachar Bhetor Ochin Pakhi", "Jaat Gelo Jaat Gelo Bole", "E Shob Kanar Haat Bajar", and "Milon Hobe Koto Dine".

Writer-researcher Arup Rahi preceded his performance of  "Manush Manush Shobai Bole" with a statement on the history of humanism and Lalon. He described how Lalon's philosophy of humanism and anthropology predates industrial capitalism but is now mediated through a Westernised aesthetic that commodifies him. He critiqued the bourgeois enthusiasm for "folk authenticity" coexisting with social indifference to the living bearers of that authenticity.

Speaking at the gathering, DUCSU member Hema Chakma framed Lalon's philosophy as a response to the nation's growing intolerance. She said, "At a time when intolerance toward different opinions is spreading across the country, Lalon's philosophy can serve as a guiding path. By understanding his thoughts and building a humanist faith, we can move toward a healthy and tolerant society." She ended by thanking "Siren" for organising such a programme.

Lalon's philosophy of embodiment continues to structure Bangladeshi popular consciousness. His verses imagine the body as both cage and a channel where spirit encounters material constraint. When the musicians at Payra Chattar sang "Jaat Gelo Jaat Gelo Bole", it acted as a critique of caste and class hierarchies still embedded in bureaucratic and religious institutions.

His influence now extends far beyond the Bengal region. His humanist philosophy, grounded in the sanctity of the human body and the rejection of sectarian division, continues to inspire scholars, poets, and musicians across the world. The Japanese anthropologist Masahiko Togawa, one of the most devoted international interpreters of Baul culture, wrote with anguish after visiting the Kushtia mazar in 2000. He observed the striking contrast between Lalon's ascetic humanism and the concrete complex rising beside his tomb. For Togawa, the transformation of a sacred, living space into a tourist site represented the spiritual emptiness of commodified faith. He preferred to stay on the clay-walled veranda of his guru's house, eating simple food and listening to a child sing "Kemon Nay Bicharak Khoda".

Allen Ginsberg's poem "After Lalon", written after his encounter with Baul songs in the 1960s, reimagined freedom as inner harmony rather than political revolution. Bob Dylan's album John Wesley Harding features Baul singer Purna Das and Dylan once travelled to Kolkata for the wedding of Purna's son, invoking a lineage of resistance-song rooted in Lalon Shah, citing him as his inspiration too.

The Dhaka University event and Togawa's essay belong to a single conversation about preservation and erasure. Both insist that reverence without responsibility becomes another mode of violence. When state institutions construct monumental "heritage" around a living tradition while neglecting its practitioners, they replace dialogue with display. The students who organised "Manush Vojle Sonar Manush Hobi" chose the opposite gesture: they created a space where the Baul voice spoke for itself, surrounded by listeners rather than curators.

Both the anthropologist's testimony and the students' concert confront the same ethical question of preservation and erasure. Arup Rahi's address at the concert spoke directly to this dilemma. When Lalon is recast as an exotic emblem for urban culture, stripped of his subversive roots, the bourgeois gaze repeats the violence it claims to mourn.

Lalon's voice endures because it identifies freedom with recognition, the capacity to see another as part of one's own being. Among the crowd at Payra Chattar that resonance was visible. Street vendors hummed while selling snacks, children repeated refrains, and students from diverse disciplines joined the chorus. Lalon continues to speak to ordinary people because his language does not require mediation. He addresses hunger, love, mortality, class anxiety and the search for justice with equal intimacy. That recognition still animates the streets of Dhaka and the villages of Kushtia. In that continuity lies the true legacy of Lalon Shah, and in that continuity the possibility of an ethical Bangladesh remains alive.