The Unquiet River- A Magnifiecent Biography of the Brahmaputra a Total History in the Best, and Fullest, Sense of the Term

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Unlike many great rivers of the world-the Indus, the Yellow River, the Mekong, the Nile, the Yangtze, the Rhine-the Brahmaputra still remains largely untamed, little touched by the powers of dredgers, dynamite, near mystical mathematical formulas, dams, and locks.... In contemporary popular narrative, the river and its environs are seen as one of the last bastions of nature. But this is only partly true: an environmental history of the Brahmaputra would uncover a different story. It will be a never-ending narrative of indiscernible environmental transformations of the river, the surrounding landscape, and life therein.

LIKE MARK TWAIN'S MISSISSIPPI, THE Brahmaputra seems to be an open book, always ready to tell its own story. But it runs deep and wide and encompasses many complexities. Writing a book about such a multifaceted river would not have been possible without the help of many friends. I have relied on the research of numerous scholars and scientists who have spent their lifetimes studying the river and the life around it. I have learned from their conversations, and have liberally used their ideas and findings. At different times and places, I have received generous advice from Katherine Morrison, Kuntala Lahiri Dutta, Mahesh Rangarajan, James C. Scott, Rohan D'Souza, Ramachandra Guha, Gunnel Cederlöf, Nayanjot Lahiri, Upinder Singh, Robert James Wasson, Tanika Sarkar, Neeladri Bhattacharya, Sugata Bose, K. Sivaramakrishnan, Dipesh Chakravarty, Iftekhar Iqbal, Indrani Chatterji, David Gilmartin, Sumit Guha, Sunil Amrith, Pradip Krishen, Mukul Sharma, Shekhar Pathak, Annu Jalais, Amita Baviskar, Nandini Sundar, Maan Barua, Himanshu Thakkar, Ghazala Shahabuddin, Raman Sukumar, Prasenjit Duara, William Van Schendel, Mandy Sadan, Dan Smyer Yu, Malini Sur, Raziuddin Aquil, Berenice Guyot-Rechard, Shruti Kapila, Sanal Mohan, Bhaskar Vira, Chris Courtney, Anindya Sinha, Debjani Bhattacharyya, Rana Pratap Behl, Gautam Bhadra, Daniel Bander, and Jayeeta Sharma. All have contributed to the making of this book in some way or the other. Kaushik Dasgupta volunteered to read some of the early drafts. I am especially thankful to Mahesh Rangarajan, Robert James Wasson, Gunnel Cederlöf, Rohan D'Souza, and the late Basudev Chatterji for reading parts of this book. Despite their busy schedules, they generously and carefully commented on sections of the manuscripts. Mahesh Rangarajan read an early draft of the complete manuscript and provided thoughtful insights and comments.

THE BRAHMAPUTRA IS AN OFFSPRING of a natural past rather than of human history. Geological contingency rather than human labour has shaped much of its history. Until recently, humans did not, indeed could not, fundamentally change the river. While embankments have imposed certain constraints, the river has miraculously escaped the domination of the age of technology. Unlike many great rivers of the world-the Indus, the Yellow River, the Mekong, the Nile, the Yangtze, the Rhine-the Brahmaputra still remains largely untamed, little touched by the powers of dredgers, dynamite, near mystical mathematical formulas, dams, and locks. There are no storage dams on the Brahmaputra to produce electricity, nor has it been subjected to major hydro-engineering projects. Stray ideas of straitjacketing the river's braided beds into a single channel were never translated into reality. There has been no large- scale dredging of the river to excavate the river's rising bed. While there are dykes everywhere, the gushing floodwaters of the river break these structures regularly. Even now, only parts of the river's long course are witness to concrete houses, roads, and markets. Its banks are still covered with grass, trees, and temporary houses. The Brahmaputra is thus still deeply embedded in the idea of wilderness and essentially remains a rural river. In contemporary popular narrative, the river and its environs are seen as one of the last bastions of nature. But this is only partly true: an environmental history of the Brahmaputra would uncover a different story. It will be a never-ending narrative of indiscernible environmental transformations of the river, the surrounding landscape, and life therein.

For many, the river is a geological wonder. Its Himalayan journey through much of Tibet and then through India and Bangladesh is an ever-evolving narrative of geological adventures. The river's physical condition is deeply influenced by the Himalayas and its environment. Although it is not one of the longest rivers of the world, it still drains more than 700,000 square km of area. However, the Mekong and the Nile travel a much longer distance. During the monsoon, the Brahmaputra's swelling waters turn violent and unpredictable; its waters spread as far as the eye can see. The Ganga and the Brahmaputra together discharge the highest volume of water of the world's rivers; the Brahmaputra supplies water at the rate of approximately 19,800 cubic metres per second to the Bay of Bengal. In comparison, the Indus supplies only one-third of this to the Arabian Sea. The Brahmaputra, however, can be lethargic in the dry winter months. Only 16 rivers on earth carry more than 100 million tons of sediment to the sea and the Brahmaputra ranks as one of the highest amongst them."