A river and its stories

Travels along the mighty Brahmaputra also bring up the travails of the region

- RITWIK SHARMA

THE CENTRALITY OF Brahmaputra to Assam’s economy is well-known, and the yearly floods never fail to remind how it dictates the lives of millions.

Yet, as veteran journalist Sanjoy Hazarika notes in his new book, what is often lost in televised debates is the fact that the“Yarlung-Tsangpo-Brahmaputra is not one river but an extensive and intricate river system with a vast basin that embraces Tibet, North east India and Bangladesh”. Hazarika, one of the authoritative voices on the Northeast and its neighbourhood, is talking about debates in the context of dam politics that have swept up both China and India with potentially catastrophic consequences for the border regions.

The book, titled River Traveller: Journeys on the Tsangpo-Brahmaputra from Tibet to the Bay of Bengal, is a recollection of the author’s journeys charting the course of the river across countries.Some of his travels were part of a documentary film making experience.That was nearly three decades ago, when he teamed up with well-known director Jahnu Barua and a small crew. As he looks back, the journeys themselves do not occupy much space. The bulk of the book dwells on several issues, from current environmental questions and ethnographic portrayals of people whose everyday life depends on the rivers to historical figures, including conquerors and explorers.