Ustad Rashid Khan, the celebrated voice that made Hindustani classical music accessible to countless listeners, died at a Kolkata hospital on Tuesday after a four-year battle with prostate cancer. The classical singer was 55. He is survived by his wife, two sons and a daughter.
Khan, who belongs to the Rampur-Sahaswan Gharana, is the great-grandson of the Gharana founder Inayat Hussain Khan.
“We tried our best but failed. He passed away around 3.45 pm,” an official of the private hospital where Khan was admitted said.
He was progressing well under conservative treatment but prolonged stay in hospital resulted in his infection spreading rapidly and complications developed, a doctor of the medical team which treated Khan told reporters.
“I heard about his death. This is a great loss for the entire country and the entire music fraternity. I am in a lot of mental anguish as I still can’t believe that Rashid Khan is no more,” West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said at the hospital while standing beside his family members.
He made West Bengal his home, she said about the singer who was born in Uttar Pradesh’s Badaun but came to Kolkata with his family in 1980 at the age of 10. “We had a deep personal bond… He was such a sweet soul. We used to be regularly in touch. We are all with his family,” Banerjee said. The Chief Minister said Khan will be given a gun salute and State honours at the State-run cultural complex Rabindra Sadan after his body is taken out of a mortuary on January 10.
Banerjee said she and her ministerial colleagues will be present there. Khan’s body will then be taken to his Naktala home and subsequently the Tollygunje cemetery for last rites.
The musician was on ventilator support. His health condition deteriorated following a stroke last month. He had been undergoing cancer treatment since 2019. As a pall of gloom descended on the music world after his death, lyricist and screenwriter Prasooj Joshi described Khand as a legend and “a voice through which the divine spoke to us”.
“Rashid Khan’s demise is an irreparable loss to the world of music. Fortunate are those who heard him perform. He was an unparalleled treasure. Milenge Rashid bhai upar milenge (we will meet in afterlife),” he said. Music director Pritam said losing Rashid Khan Saab is a huge loss for the world of music. Veteran Bengali singer Haimanti Shukla recalled how they would sing together while travelling to a place in the same vehicle. “Rashid bhai was a sweet person who was very popular among contemporary artistes. He would wait to get my ‘bhai phonta’ (bhai dooj) every year,” Shukla said as her voice choked.
Young Bengali singer Suvamita described Khan as a father figure whose death will be a great loss to the music world. Another national award recipient singer Iman Chakraborty said, “I cannot imagine Ustadji is no more. This is not the age to die. He had such a mellifluous voice!”
