Back in 2021, almost thirty lakh people thronged to bid farewell to Puneeth Rajkumar. The funeral had to be postponed by a day to accommodate the rush of his fans. As per the Limca Book of World Records, Zubeen Garg’s funeral became the 4th largest public gathering in the world. In Arizona, nearly a hundred thousand gathered in a stadium for a memorial service to Charlie Kirk.
All three were neither from royalty nor from the political class.
Why then did their deaths feel so personal to millions? What is the reason for this collective mourning?
Individual Pride
Let’s look at the lives of these three and see what they stood for and what they did:
Puneeth Rajkumar, a hugely successful actor, yet remained humble. He was steadfast in his support of Kannada language, culture, and also corporations associated with the Karnataka State. He was very generous and supported a number of causes relating to his culture.
Zubeen Garg was the musical icon of Assam. He sang more than 38,000 songs, half of which were in Assamese. He mainstreamed Assamese culture in a manner that touched the lives of so many.
In an age when people are leaving Christianity by the hordes and becoming “spiritual but not religious,” Charlie Kirk became a Christian evangelist at the age of 18, focusing on youth by going to colleges and spreading the message of his faith and cultural convictions through conservative ideology.
All three of them used their skills to promote causes they strongly believed in. They were authentic, and their thought, word, and deed were in complete alignment. They embodied their beliefs and took every opportunity to promote pride in their culture.
Community Pride
By being authentic and embodied ambassadors for their culture and beliefs, they awakened all the members of the communities they belonged to. They became icons each member could look up to, idolize, and be proud of. They awakened a sense of pride individually, which eventually resulted in a collective pride.
The effects of modernity, urbanization, and nuclear families resulted in a disconnection from their roots. All three gave their people pride in their identity. In other words, through them, millions rediscovered themselves.
People were not only mourning these individuals, either as icons or as their own family members; they were mourning a loss within themselves.
We all long for identity and for being part of a community. When people like Puneeth, Zubeen, and Charlie embody a cause rooted in their culture, they go beyond themselves and begin living in each and every member of the community. They become mirrors in which every member sees themselves.
That is why their untimely deaths triggered grief on such a vast scale: because with them, a part of their community also died.
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