Anis Uz Zaman

Anis Uz Zaman, also remembered as Anis Uz Zaman Dangoriya, was an Assamese poet, lyricist, translator, critic and teacher whose work helped carry Assamese verse to readers far beyond the Northeast. He died on the morning of 20 September 2026 at Nemcare Hospital in Guwahati after a prolonged illness. He was 79. Family sources said he passed away at about 7:40 a.m. His mortal remains were later taken to his residence at Shantipur in Guwahati, where literary colleagues and admirers gathered in mourning.

Born on 3 February 1947 in Baruah Bamunbari village in Assam's Sivasagar district, Zaman spent much of his life in education as well as literature. He taught and was associated with Gauhati University, and he taught for years at R.D. Higher Secondary School in Mirza. That classroom grounding sat alongside a long public role in Assamese literary institutions: he served as president of the All Assam Poets' Conference (Asom Kabi Sanmilan) and as a member of the Asom Sahitya Sabha. Colleagues knew him not only as a writer but as an eloquent orator who moved easily between criticism, translation and public literary life.

His first poetry collection, Agnjate, appeared in 1989. Further volumes followed, among them Gadhuli (1994), Seujia Joon (1999), Ei Batediei (2013) and Dokmokali (2014). He was also a lyricist and an active translator, including of Japanese haiku by Matsuo Basho and Kobayashi Issa, and he received the Amulya Chakraborty Memorial Translation Award. His poems and other writings were rendered into English, Hindi, Bengali, Odia, Tamil, French and Spanish, widening the reach of contemporary Assamese poetry.

Recognition came from across India. The Assam Poets' Conference conferred the title Kabyaratna. He received the Ganesh Gogoi Award and the Gangadhar Meher National Poetry Award (the Gangadhar National Award for Poetry-2022, presented by Sambalpur University in Odisha). In 2025 the Asom Sahitya Sabha honoured him with the title National Poet, a late-career affirmation of a body of work built over decades.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma led public tributes, calling him an eminent poet, translator, critic and orator, and an immensely positive and simple-hearted personality whose company would remain vivid in memory. For many readers in Assam, Zaman's death closed a chapter that linked village Sivasagar roots, schoolrooms in Mirza, and a national reputation for Assamese poetry spoken with clarity and warmth.