In perhaps a few years from today, Majuli may no longer be one of the largest river islands in the world. A cold, jaded Brahmaputra punishes it every single day with its almost nihilistic badgering. It has reduced Majuli to one-third of its once majestic size of over 1200 square km. It is commonly accepted that the island will cease to exist. That’s the erosion part of it. The annual flood also submerges parts of the island for several months inflicting further losses to small-scale agriculture and to livestock and devastating the makeshift houses, riverine peoples build, which were wrecked by it only the previous year. A sense of fear looms over the different communities that coexist in Majuli.
Yet, in this constantly apocalyptic environment, these communities are enveloped together by a dense fabric of art and drama. This dense fabric has become synonymous to Majuli – a symbolic, defiant indicator, an artistic resilience against the shrinking island.
The illustrations below are done for a travel booklet made about Majuli, a withering island, in the Brahmaputra river, Assam, India.
