"Namami Brahmaputra" Is A Disservice To The People of The Brahmaputra Valley - Raiot

4/5/2017 NamamiBrahmaputraisadisservicetothepeopleoftheBrahmaputraValleyRaiot
RAIOT
APRIL 4, 2017 / MITUL BARUAH
NAMAMI BRAHMAPUTRA IS A DISSERVICE TO THE PEOPLE

OF THE BRAHMAPUTRA VALLEY
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A spectacle is going on in Assam the spectacle of apparently the largest river festival in
India, Namami Brahmaputra. The Sanskrit word Namami translates as I worship thee.
Thus an attempt is being made, all of a sudden, to sacralize the Brahmaputra and enroll it
into the Hindu(tva) imagination. Since everything in the country now needs to be
modelled after the symbols of the Hindus, why not make a Ganga or a Yamuna out of the
Brahmaputra too?
I grew up in Majuli, a river island located in the middle of the

Brahmaputra river.
http://raiot.in/namamibrahmaputraisadisservicetothepeopleofthebrahmaputravalley/ 1/15
The ve-day event (March 31-April 4) has beenpacked with a series of events, including
soulful veneration of the Brahmaputra, boat racing, indigenous sports, exhibition of
traditional handloom and handicraft, exhibition of organic tea and local cuisine, cultural
programs, lm festivals, business meets and symposiums, laser show, and yoga (of
course!). The worshipping of the Brahmaputra remains the essence of it all, however. The
Whos Who at the event included the President of India and the Dalai Lama, no less.
While there is nothing wrong in organizing a Brahmaputra festival, the content and the
politics of such an event beg some critical re ection.
Worshipping Brahmaputra is ahistorical
I grew up in Majuli, a river island located in the middle of the Brahmaputra river. The
people of Majuli share a deep and complex association with the Brahmaputra. On the
one hand, the Brahmaputra is vital to the agrarian economy in Majuli, it also supports the
islands rich and diverse ecosystem. At the same time, through the twin processes of
ooding and riverbank erosion, the Brahmaputra has also caused enormous miseries on
the island on a regular basis. Either way, the Brahmaputra remains inseparable from the
lives of the people of Majuli. It constitutes the everyday on the island. Yet the
Brahmaputra has not been dei ed in Majuli. To the people of Majuli, the Brahmaputra is
anything but sacred. There have been instances where some sattradhikars (the religious
and administrative head of a sattra, a Vaishnavite monastery) have o ered bhog to the
Brahmaputra for the protection of the island from erosion. However, such rituals have
been performed only in times of intense erosion activity on the island. Hence, these are
desperate acts and not the norm by any measure. Moreover, such acts are always
performed by the sattradhikars and not by the ordinary inhabitants of the island. Hence,
these can be described, as it were, as Brahmanic rituals that perhaps help enhance the
public reverence for the sattradhikars. They are not part of the local culture and tradition.
The case of Majuli that is, what the Brahmaputra means

to the local inhabitants and how the latter treat the river Is it then a time
is illustrative of the Assamese peoples relations with the
for a river festival
Brahmaputra as a whole. As part of my research on the
Brahmaputra, I have conducted ethnographic eldwork in in Assam?
di erent parts of the Brahmaputra valley, including Majuli, Shouldnt the
Rohmoria in Dibrugarh district, and Lahorighat in state
Morigaon district. All these places share similar crises of
ooding and erosion, and like everywhere else in the
government
Brahmaputra valley, these places also depend heavily on rather be working
the river for local livelihoods. But nowhere have I come on war-footing to
across any instances of worshipping the Brahmaputra.
repair the
Nor are such traditions mentioned in the scholarly work dilapidated

on the Brahmaputra or in popular culture. Did Bhupen
infrastructures in
Hazarika simply forget to mention the sacred nature of
the Brahmaputra in his songs? Well, I guess his songs can the valley to
be re-interpreted now. After all, re-writing history is BJPs prevent another
forte. Perhaps the following picture from the Namami
catastrophe this
Brahmaputra event in Guwahati tells us that a process of
re-writing the history of the Brahmaputra has already upcoming
begun. monsoon?
Photo
source: http://www.guwahatiplus.com/
In Assam, this is time for ood and erosion preparedness and not a river festival
As mentioned above, the processes of ooding and riverbank erosion wreak havoc in the
valley on a regular basis. A little statistics can help us understand the scale of the crises
facing the valley. Between 1954 and 2012, about 7.4% of the total landmass of the valley
has succumbed to erosion, resulting in the disappearance of thousands of villages and
dozens of towns. About 40% of the total landmass in the valley is ood prone. Many of
these places are ravaged by three to four waves of ooding within a year. This is April
now. The ood season is less than two months away. Ask any villager in the Brahmaputra
valley what their primary concerns are at this time of the year. The answer, unmistakably,
would be: the fear of the upcoming ood season. As various studies have shown, most of
the embankments in the state have far outlived their life, meaning they can be breached
any moment, putting lives and livelihoods in the valley at serious risk. The Brahmaputra
Boards projects for erosion control remain ever incomplete. Majuli, again, is a classic
example of this. The Board still hasnt completed several of its important projects in
Majuli, which were supposed to be completed couple of years ago, thus keeping many
villages on the island permanently under the gigantic shadow of erosion.
Is it then a time for a river festival in Assam? Shouldnt the

for the people of state government rather be working on war-footing to
repair the dilapidated infrastructures in the valley to
Assam, the
prevent another catastrophe this upcoming monsoon?
Brahmaputra is a Shouldnt it invest in building capacities of the local
source of both communities and institutions to better adapt to natural
happiness and disasters? The Water Resources Department (previously
known as the Embankment and Drainage department) in
sorrow. Assam is notorious for its last-minute interventions, which
has always been a part of the ood problem in Assam.
Has the Sonowal government taken adequate measures to address this issue? We dont
know about that, but we do see that an ugly amount of money is being spent on a river
festival at a time when the monsoon is just around the corner. All these years, the
sattradhikars of Majuli have failed to organize a protest rally or a sit-in in Dispur, let alone
Delhi, on the issue of protection of Majuli. But they took a four-day long ferry ride from
Majuli to Guwahati to participate in the Namami Brahmaputra festival. En route to
Guwahati, they apparently halted at three places, one of them being Lahorighat. I wonder
what words of comfort the sattradhikars had for those ood and erosion ravaged families
at Lahorighat. That the river god will henceforth protect them from ood and erosion?
Finally, the discursive perils
The Brahmaputra is the lifeline for the people of Assam. But the river has meant various
things to various communities living in di erent parts of the valley for instance, a Mising
sherman in Majuli relates to the Brahmaputra very di erently from a Muslim chapori
dwellers in lower Assam, a tea plantation laborer in Dibrugarh, or a Karbi farmer in the
hills. Accordingly, a diverse set of socio-political practices have emerged in the valley
over the years. The Namami Brahmaputra rhetoric tends to erase this diversity and
homogenize it all. It is an attempt for the appropriation of the Brahmaputra as a Hindu
holy river, thus robbing it o its speci c socio-historical context.
NAMAMIBRAHMAPUTRATHEMESONGM
PostedbyMrIndia
25,509Views
The anti-politics of the Namami Brahmaputra rhetoric is worth noting too. As mentioned
earlier, for the people of Assam, the Brahmaputra is a source of both happiness and
sorrow. The latter has given rise to deep social discontent in various parts of the valley,
sometimes resulting in social movements (for instance, in Rohmoria, Dibrugarh). Whether
this discontent is only with the state, as it often appears, or at times it may also be with
the river itself, triggered by the rivers speci c behavior in speci c time and space, is
another matter. But the point is that the Brahmaputra is not considered holy by the local
communities. They even aim their wrath at the river (I have many anecdotes on this from
my eldwork) when the oodwater does not seem to recede for days to weeks and
erosion continues unabated. Namami Brahmaputra takes the Brahmaputra away from
the material and elevates (!) it to the religio-spiritual realm instead. Are we to assume that
with this newly acquired holy status, the Brahmaputra will henceforth beseech only
veneration and not any act of resistance on its banks? The government seems to suggest
us so.
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WRITTEN BY:
M I T U L BA R UA H
Mitul Baruah teaches Anthropology/Sociology at Ashoka University. He has a PhD

in Geography from Syracuse University and has worked in the eld of environment
and development for a long time.
3 COMMENTS
CHITRALEKHA BARUAH
April 4, 2017
Reply
Worshiping a river is a purely north Indian concept. The ruling national parties are always
busy imposing majoritarianism on the cultural minorities.
MAMAN
April 4, 2017
Reply
After reading ur article..the 1st thought that crossed my mind is I hope u n ur family have
not visited the venue n have entertained yourselfI dont understand why do some
people criticize everything
NAGESH NARZA BARO

April 4, 2017
Reply
Ugly spending of public money in, so-called river worshiping, by Hindu orthodox is good
for nothing to culturally minority indigenous people as well as common man of Assam
and it seems an untold conspiracy of eliminating the indigenous religions , believes and
customs related to brahmaputra ( Burlungbuthur -Boro language) gradually from the
region. It must not happened.
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4/5/2017 NamamiBrahmaputraisadisservicetothepeopleoftheBrahmaputraValleyRaiot

APRIL 4, 2017 / MITUL BARUAH

NAMAMI BRAHMAPUTRA IS A DISSERVICE TO THE PEOPLE

I grew up in Majuli, a river island located in the middle of the

Worshipping Brahmaputra is ahistorical

The case of Majuli that is, what the Brahmaputra means

Nor are such traditions mentioned in the scholarly work dilapidated

Is it then a time for a river festival in Assam? Shouldnt the

Finally, the discursive perils

Have your say

0Comments Sortby Oldest

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Mitul Baruah teaches Anthropology/Sociology at Ashoka University. He has a PhD

NAGESH NARZA BARO

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NAGESH NARZA BARO ON NAMAMI BRAHMAPUTRA IS A DISSERVICE TO THE PEOPLE OF

SHAMIM ON (ACCHE DIN VIDEO) SANGHI TERRORISTS BEATING UP A COUPLE IN UTTAR

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