The singer-composer whose musical proclamation Ami Banglay gaan gai / Ami Banglar gaan gai (I sing in Bengali / I sing about Bengal) resonated among Bengalis far beyond the state, passed away on Saturday.

Pratul Mukhopadhyay was 83.

Mukhopadhyay was admitted to SSKM Hospital earlier in February. Doctors said he underwent surgery and was recovering when an infection in the lungs worsened his health.

His body was kept at Rabindra Sadan for two hours for his admirers to pay their respects. He had pledged his body for research and teaching purposes. “The body will be preserved at SSKM Hospital,” said an official of the hospital.

The state government accorded him a gun salute at Rabindra Sadan in the presence of chief minister Mamata Banerjee.

Mukhopadhyay could sing with elan without any accompanying musical instruments. He had turned innumerable poems into hummable songs.

“I met him in the hospital. I told him we cannot think of Bhasa Divas (International Mother Language Day) without you. He gestured with his hands. Maybe he was trying to say something,” Mamata said at Rabindra Sadan.

Mukhopadhyay was declared dead at 11.40am on Saturday.

“He had cancer,” said Monimoy Bandyopadhyay, the director of the Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research (SSKM Hospital).

Singer-songwriter-archivist Moushumi Bhowmik called Mukhopadhyay “a perfect-pitch singer”. “He did not need the assistance of instruments,” she said.

“He was so naturally gifted as a singer he could make anything into a song. He had turned so many poems of Sankha Ghosh, Subhash Mukhopadhyay, Arun Mitra and Birendra Chattopadhyay into songs,” Bhowmik added.

Mukhopadhyay studied at Presidency College and was involved with the Naxalite movement.

“Generations of Naxalites have sung Pratul-da’s song. They used to sing his songs earlier and they are singing now,” said Bhowmik.

Mukhopadhyay worked in the United Bank of India and retired as the head of the statistics department.

In an interview with this newspaper in 2022, Mukhopadhyay spoke about his iconic song Ami Banglay gaan gai / Ami Banglar gaan gai. He said the song was about assimilation and humility. “In patriotic songs, typically there is an element of boast, an arrogance, a tendency to say ‘we are the best’. This song is not written in that spirit. It is about assimilation and humility and a language that is representative of these things.”