India is the proud home to the world’s largest river island. But the question is, for how long? In the last 100 years, Majuli on the Brahmaputra River in Assam has shrunk from 1,300 square km to 483 square km. Experts believe the island might vanish forever in the next two decades. Climate change has brought drastic changes to the island and its people, with many having to relocate and rebuild their homes several times due to erosion and floods claiming their previous homes. The Kumar community, or the potters, are the worst sufferers among them.
The community, steeped in poverty, is forced to live near the riverbanks because they need the clay there to make pottery for sale in local markets. Men from the community usually collect the clay, while women make pottery using their hands and feet, an art form they inherited from their mothers and grandmothers. Since the 16th century, the potters of Majuli have worked without a potter’s wheel or other machinery. Their homes are thus built near the river, as their livelihood depends on it. They usually do not own farmland, with pottery as their only income source.
In recent times, as severe weather events have become more frequent due to climate change and flooding has become more destructive, the river banks in Majuli are eroding more rapidly than ever before. The Kumar community in the area is thus forced to relocate whenever their villages are washed away by floods and rebuild their entire lives.
During the monsoon, when the rains drench the island and flooding happens, sometimes submerging the land for up to 5 feet, the Kumars are forced to leave their homes and take shelter along the highway. Their homes are built on bamboo stilts to help them withstand floods to some extent.
Majuli is not just home to the Kumars but also to many other communities with unique cultural practices and art and craft traditions found nowhere else on the planet. One example is the Mukha mask-making tradition of Majuli, which began sometime around the 15th and 16th centuries as part of the Neo Vaishnavism movement. This beautiful craft form is internationally renowned for its ornate masks used during traditional mythological plays on the island during special festivals.
Several other ethnic groups call this island home, which is also rich in biodiversity. Today, this island, inhabited since the 12th century, is about to disappear. If it goes, we will all be responsible for this disaster, as our growing carbon footprints are driving climate change. The world will lose its largest river island, and our country will witness age-old Assamese traditions disappear because we did not act in time.
Written by: Dr. Oishimaya Sen Nag
Photography by: Arijit Nag
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