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'Like the Drifting Grains of Sand': Vulnerability, Security
and Adjustment by Communities in the Charlands of the
Damodar River, India
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To cite this Article: Lahiri-Dutt, Kuntala and Samanta, Gopa (2007) ''Like the Drifting
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Charlands of the Damodar River, India', South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies,
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South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies,

n.s., Vol.XXX, no.2, August 2007

‘Like the Drifting Grains of Sand’:1 Vulnerability,

Security and Adjustment by Communities in the
Charlands of the Damodar River, India

Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt, Australian National University

and
Gopa Samanta, Mankar College, Burdwan

Abstract
Charlands are islands formed in major river systems particularly in the flat deltaic
plains such as those in the Bengal delta in eastern India and Bangladesh. The
charlands in the lower reaches of the Damodar River in India are prone to frequent
floods, shifting river channels and consequent riverbank erosion. In spite of these
risks posed by the environment, migrant communities from Bihar and Bangladesh
settle in the charlands because the soils are fertile, and because being untitled, they
are relatively cheaper than legal lands. This paper explores the mental maps or percep-
tions that the chouras—the charland inhabitants—have of their places of living. We
ask: How do the chouras see their fragile environment? Our findings are as follows:
first of all, we agree that the perceptions of vulnerability and insecurity are subjective,
and may differ widely between different communities or groups living in the char-
lands. Secondly, we note that ‘adaptation’ might be too broad a term; the specific
process is more contingent than a long-term adaptation and best described as ‘adjust-
ment’. Finally, we note that in light of our study into the livelihoods that people keep
pursuing in marginal environments such as that of chars, a felt need has arisen to
redefine categories such as ‘resilience’, ‘vulnerability’ or ‘security’.

Where the Land Floats on Water: Charlands

Near their mouths many rivers do not follow the same course for more than a couple
of decades, and areas that are continually subject to water logging turn into a maze of

We would like to thank Dr. David Williams for his kind editorial work on the paper. Dr. Ruchira Ganguly-Scrase’s
and Dr. Kalpana Ram’s comments at the 2004 Women in Asia conference were helpful in crystallising some of our
thoughts. The review comments of anonymous referees were also helpful in improving the structure of the paper.
1
Quote from our informant Naren Sarkar.

ISSN 0085-6401 print; 1479-0270 online/07/020327-23 # 2007 South Asian Studies Association of Australia
DOI: 10.1080/00856400701499268
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328 SOUTH ASIA

moribund channels criss-crossing each other as the delta-building moves on. The
rivers in such situations constantly create charlands. The charlands (called diara
in the upper reaches of the Gangetic plains) are virgin, low-lying river islands and
sand bars occurring in the plains, particularly the deltaic parts, of rivers. They are
exposed and repeatedly affected by frequent floods, shifting river channels and riv-
erbank erosion. Consequently they may get washed away overnight by the changing
river currents. This transitional, fragile nature of the physical environment makes
chars risky and disaster-prone as human habitats. And newly-formed charlands
are even more vulnerable than the older-established ones.

The silty and sandy chars are literally on the margins of land and water worlds,
‘edges’ where earth and water ecologies and cultures meet on the fringe of human
habitation. The human use of these borderline lands throws up a rich reservoir of
metaphors (such as the ‘edge effect’ of ‘the bringing together of people, ideas and
institutions’ described by McCay2), unique questions of environmental dynamics
and management,3 and debates around resilience and adaptation. We are particu-
larly interested in the last of these, and intend to examine poor people’s resilience
to marginal and vulnerable environments. Poverty and lack of choice provides the
overall backdrop of our study; the fragility inherent in the physical characteristics
or the ecology of char formation leads to persistent poverty in these charlands
which in turn provide the opportunity to acquire deeper insights into what we
mean by the terms such as ‘vulnerability’, ‘resilience’ and ‘adaptation’. The
studies of Chambers and Conway,4 Wisner,5 and Ashley et al. 6 conclude that,
although the nature and causes of poverty in the charlands are complex and inter-
linked, the root causes of poverty and vulnerability are often identical and usually
overlap. A large number of people live in chars all over the world, especially in
the flat plains of developing countries of Asia such as in eastern India and Ban-
gladesh.7 To live in this hostile environment, people are obliged to take risks and
2
B. McCay, ‘Edges, Fields and Regions’, in The Common Property Digest, Vol.54 (2000), pp.6–8.
3
CEGIS (Center for Environmental and Geographic Information Service), Riverine Chars in Bangladesh:
Environment Dynamics and Management Issues (Dhaka: The University Press Limited, 2000); and M.H. Sarker,
Iffat Huque and M. Alam, ‘Rivers, Chars and Char Dwellers of Bangladesh’, in International Journal of River
Basin Management, Vol.1, no.1 (2003), pp.61–80 [http://www.jrbm.net/pages/archives/JRBMn1/Sarker.PDF].
4
R. Chambers and G. Conway, ‘Sustainable Rural Livelihoods: Practical Concepts for the 21st Century’, Discussion
Paper No. 296 (Brighton, Sussex: Institute of Development Studies, 1991).
5
B. Wisner, ‘Sustainable Suffering? Reflections on Development and Disaster Vulnerability in the Post-
Johannesburg World’, in Regional Development Dialogue, Vol.24, no.1 (2003), pp.135–48.
6
Steve Ashley, Kamal Kar, Abul Hossain and Shibabaata Nandi, ‘The Chars Livelihood Assistance Scoping Study’,
Documents of Chars Livelihoods Assistance Project (Dhaka: DFID (Department for International Development),
2003).
7
Sarker et al. note that in Bangladesh alone, about 600,000 people live on chars. In India, no such major study has
been undertaken yet to give a reliable estimate of the numbers involved. However, the figure would be much higher
than in Bangladesh, especially if those people living within the embankments along the rivers are taken into account.
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‘LIKE THE DRIFTING GRAINS OF SAND’ 329

have to develop their livelihoods in such ways as to be able to cope with the
river’s moods, a process evocatively described as ‘dancing with the rivers’.8

This continual adjustment—‘rising above’ the traumatic and difficult circumstances

posed by a hostile environment—brings us to a rethinking of the concepts of ‘adap-
tation’ and ‘resilience’ of human communities.9 The ability of chouras (the people
living on the chars) to adjust to what is commonly seen as an insecure environment
offers a problematic worth investigating. The enquiry reported in this paper began
with a set of questions about the perceptions people might have of the charland as a
secure place of residence. These questions are: why do peoples live in the marginal
environment of chars in spite of immense insecurity? How much choice do they
have in selecting a place to live? Do the chouras see the charlands as a permanent
location or do they use them as a stepping-stone to move on to other places?
What insights can we get on the perceptions of charland dwellers of their environment?
And above all, what lessons can we learn from the charlands and the communities
living on them? In attempting to seek answers to these questions, our local-level
case study helped us to redefine the concepts of ‘vulnerability’ and ‘resilience’ accord-
ing to the perceptions of, and meanings derived by, the local residents.

Many years ago, a geographer asked: ‘Why do people live on flood plains?’10 Even
now, we keep asking similar questions,11 though our theoretical standpoint has
changed over time with greater insights into human behaviour. How individuals
sort through a maze of environmental constraints and opportunities to make
decisions is now better understood through the lens of subjective perceptions and
choices, rather than within a framework of rigid group behaviour. Consequently,
our study examined the perceptions of environmental security through the looking
glass of individual life histories of some charlands dwellers in the Damodar River
in the lower part of deltaic Bengal. The specific and complex geography of the

However, one must remember that this is a ‘floating’ population, and hence these numbers are no more than
(informed) guesstimates. See Sarker et al., ‘Rivers, Chars and Char Dwellers of Bangladesh’, p.61.
8
Gilles Saussier, Living in the Fringe (Paris: Figura Association, 1998).
9
These are catchwords of the day, often seen from the positivist angle, dealing with the issues of resilience and sus-
tainable development, and aiming to build ‘adaptive capacity’ amongst human communities or even ecological
systems or a ‘resilience framework’ linking social and ecological systems.
10
R.W. Kates, Hazard and Choice Perception in Flood Plain Management (Chicago: Department of Geography,
Research Paper 78, University of Chicago, 1962).
11
For example, the vulnerability and adaptation (V & A) guidelines formulated by the IPCC, UNEP & USCSP for ful-
filling the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s (UNFCCC) core focus, have highlighted the
need to know the autonomous adaptation mechanisms in the various sectors of a society such as different classes or
social groups. Another study by the U.S. Country Studies Program (USCSP), in collaboration with the Government
of Bangladesh, has located vulnerability and adaptation of humans to environmental changes in various sectors. See
J.B. Smith, S. Huq, S. Lenhart, L.J. Mata, I. Nemesova and S. Toure (eds), Vulnerability and Adaptation to Climate
Change: Interim Results from the U.S. Country Studies Program (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1996).
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330 SOUTH ASIA

place forming the context of livelihoods, and the specific cultural backgrounds of
two main communities living there, gave us new insights on popularly-debated
concepts such as adjustment, adaptation and resilience.12

Charlands are known by various technical names such as ‘bars’, ‘river islands’ and
‘slough’.13 The use of charlands or similar wetland habitats by people varies widely
from country to country. In the developed world, river islands provide areas
of unique and rare plants and wildlife and are ideal locations for environmental prot-
ection. Such areas are often used for public recreational activities like boating, fishing
and game hunting. Against this, the chars in the Pjang River on the border between
Afghanistan and Tajikistan provide shelter to the ‘lost people’—stranded Afghan
refugees of many ethnic backgrounds who were ‘rediscovered’ by the wider
humanitarian and media world.14 Awareness of the river islands and sandbars as
locations of human habitations has so far been restricted; however, millions of
people in low-lying parts of developing countries such as those in the Bengal delta
use the charlands as habitats.15

Perhaps the best-known example of charlands in South Asia is the Bengal delta,
created by river-borne silt from the Himalayas. Bhattacharyya’s 1998 research
shows how in recent times decreased flooding has led to increasing ‘colonisation’
of the sandbars in the Lower Damodar River, one of the several major waterways
that feed the delta. Further east, the chars of Bangladesh have been at the epicentre of
resource management and policy debates because of the importance of the riparian
zones to the country’s life and economy.16 According to Baqee, the pioneer of
research into the human occupancy of Bangladeshi chars, they house ‘some of the
most desperate people in the country’17 who, in their risk-adopting activity, have
developed a distinct sub-culture different from the ways of the people living on

12
Please note that in this paper we do not deal with the reasons why Bangladeshi unauthorised migrants are here.
13
For a geomorphological interpretation of these landmasses see M. Morisawa, Rivers: Form and Process
(London: Longman, 1985); and R.J. Chorley, S.A. Schumm and D.E. Sugden, Geomorphology (London:
Methuen, 1984).
14
See http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/rights/articles/eav100101.shtml#.
15
Saussier elaborates on how char people in Bangladesh even retain property title deeds and pay taxes for lands
under water with the hope of cultivating it again, once the island re-emerges: ‘Land is fresh and fertile on the
char. The harvest is better than on the mainland. . . . Apart from the cyclones, life is sweet on the chars’. Saussier,
Living in the Fringe, p.20.
16
Mahajabeen Chowdhury, ‘Women’s Technological Innovations and Adaptations for Disaster Mitigation: A Case
Study of Charlands in Bangladesh’, Expert Group Meeting on Environmental Management and the Mitigation of
Natural Disasters: A Gender Perspective, Ankara, 6– 9 November 2001.
17
Abdul Baqee, Peopling in the Land of Allah Jaane: Power, Peopling and Environment, the Case of Charlands of
Bangladesh (Dhaka: The University Press Limited, 1998), p.1.
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‘LIKE THE DRIFTING GRAINS OF SAND’ 331

the mainland.18 In the Lower Damodar Valley, an area with relatively high agricul-
tural prosperity and high urbanisation, the shifting charlands and their communities
remain largely invisible to the mainstream/mainland economy and society.19

Vulnerability and Its Dimensions

Let us first clarify our understanding of vulnerability. Wisner defines it as the ‘likeli-
hood of injury, death, loss, disruption of livelihood or other harm in an extreme
event, and/or unusual difficulties in recovering from such effects’.20 The International
Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) defines it as ‘a set of conditions and processes
resulting from physical, social and environmental factors, which increases the suscep-
tibility of a community to the impact of hazards’.21 The United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP) sees vulnerability as a human condition or process ‘resulting
from physical, social and environmental factors, which determines the likelihood
and scale of damage from the impact of a given hazard’.22 Schjolden defines vulner-
ability as the degree to which a system is susceptible to, or unable to cope with,
adverse effects of natural disasters.23 According to Blaikie et al., vulnerability can
be measured by the capacity of a person or group to anticipate, cope with, resist,
and recover from the impact of a particular natural hazard.24 Thus, vulnerability rep-
resents the interface between exposure to physical threats and the capacity of people
and communities to cope with those threats. Threats may arise from a combination of
social and physical processes. The most conspicuous and widely-reported manifes-
tation of this vulnerability is when people are affected—suddenly and violently—by
natural hazards.

Vulnerability arising from natural hazards has multiple facets. Bohle introduced an
external (environmental) and internal (human) side of vulnerability in his
remarkable study on land degradation and human security. He clearly identified
vulnerability as a potentially detrimental social response to environmental events
18
M.Q. Zaman, ‘The Social and Political Context of Adjustment to Riverbank Erosion Hazard and Population Reset-
tlement in Bangladesh’, in Human Organization, Vol.48, no.3 (1989), p.197.
19
Both of us did our Doctoral research on the region’s urbanisation and rural-urban interactions.
20
B. Wisner, ‘Who? What? Where? When? in an Emergency: Notes on Possible Indicators of Vulnerability and
Resilience by Phase of the Disaster Management Cycle and Social Actor,’ in E. Plate (ed.), Environment and
Human Security: Contribution to a Workshop in Bonn (23– 25 October 2002).
21
ISDR/UN/WMO, Water and Disaster: Be Informed and Be Prepared (Geneva: WMO Publication No.971,
2004).
22
UNDP (United Nations Development Programme), Reducing Disaster Risk: A Challenge for Development
(New York: Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery, 2004).
23
Ane Schjolden, ‘Are Vulnerability and Adaptability Two Sides of the Same Coin?’, in IHDP Newsletter, No.4
(2003), pp.12–14.
24
Piers Blaikie, Terry Cannon, Ian Davis and Ben Wisner, At Risk: Natural Hazards, People’s Vulnerability and
Disasters (London: Routledge, 1994), pp.8–9.
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332 SOUTH ASIA

and changes.25 Thus vulnerability covers a broad range of possible harms and con-
sequences; it implies, too, relatively long time periods, certainly exceeding the time-
frame of the extreme event that triggered it. This interpretation of vulnerability is
unavoidably related to resilience.26 Through this broad framework, the meaning
of vulnerability has expanded to include the notions of risk, impact, adaptability
and environmental justice.27 Yet following Kelly and Adger,28 O’Brien et al. empha-
sise the subjectivity inherent in the interpretation of environmental elements:

In a field where scientists are simultaneously working to determine the

nature and extent of the problem, identify the consequences and address
it politically, vulnerability serves as a flexible and somewhat malleable
concept that can engage both research and policy communities.... On the
one hand, vulnerability is sometimes viewed as an end point—that is, as
a residual of climate change impacts minus adaptation. Here vulnerability
represents the net impacts of climate change; it serves as a means of defin-
ing the extent of the climate problem and providing input into policy
decisions regarding the cost of climate change versus costs related to
greenhouse gas mitigation efforts. On the other hand, it is sometimes
viewed as a starting point, where vulnerability is a characteristic or a
state generated by multiple environmental and social processes, but
exacerbated by climate change. In this case, vulnerability provides a
means of understanding how the impacts of climate change will be
distributed primarily to identify how vulnerability can be reduced.29

Environmental security is about safeguarding human communities from ‘critical

pervasive threats’30 such as violent conflicts, water shortages, chronic destitution
or pollution. Many of these threats, if they occur as surprise events, can indeed be
destructive. The objective of human security is to guarantee a set of vital
25
H.G. Bohle, ‘Land Degradation and Human Security’, paper presented at an international workshop on Environ-
ment and Human Security, Bonn, 2002.
26
J.J. Bogardi, ‘Hazards, Risk and Vulnerability: A New Look on the Flood Plains’, Proceedings, international
workshop on Water Hazards and Risk Management, Tsukuba, 20– 22 January 2004.
27
See for example Heather A. Smith, ‘Facing Environmental Security’, in Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
(Winter 2000/Spring 2001) [http://www.jmss.org/2001/article3.html, accessed 1 Feb. 2007]; and J. Ikeme,
‘Equity, Environmental Justice and Sustainability: Incomplete Approaches in Climatic Changes Politics’, in
Global Environmental Change, Vol.13 (2003), pp.195–206.
28
P.M. Kelly and W.N. Adger, ‘Theory and Practice in Assessing Vulnerability to Climate Change and Facilitating
Adaptation’, in Climatic Change, Vol.47, no.4 (2000), pp.325– 52.
29
Karen O’Brien, Siri Eriksen, Ane Schjolden and Lynn Nygaard, Whats in a Word? Conflicting Interpretations of
Vulnerability in Climate Change Research, Working Paper No.2004:04 (Blinden, Norway: Centre for International
Climate and Environmental Research, 2004), p.1.
30
Sabina Alkire, ‘Conceptual Framework for Human Security’, in Excerpt from Working Definition and Executive
Summary: Report of the Commission on Human Security (New York: CHS Secretariat, 2002).
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‘LIKE THE DRIFTING GRAINS OF SAND’ 333

rights and freedoms for everyone in a way that is consistent with other life goals.31
The human security approach, important since the 1990s, encourages the safeguard-
ing and protection of communities in the face of sudden and recurrent natural events
such as flooding and riverbank erosion. Pro-security measures are institutionalised,
not episodic; responsive, not rigid; and are preventative, not reactive. This implies
that the interface between people and environmental change does not necessarily
endanger human well-being; that groups are not wiped out completely, displaced
or dislocated from their livelihood bases. Environmental security usually neglects
to recognise the subjectivity factor,32 and tends to take human knowledge of the
environment as neutral, objective and absolute. However some social scientists
have highlighted the social constructions of the environment that reflect inherent
power differentials in society.33 We place our study in the context of this genre of
critical theory.34

Human exposure to environmental threats is not evenly distributed over the earth’s
surface. Many thousands of people live in places with inherent risk such as the riv-
erine islands and floodplains, slopes of volcanoes, earthquake zones, and low-lying
coastal areas. Sometimes people are forced to live in such highly vulnerable environ-
ments because of social, economic and political factors, including acute poverty,
development or war-related displacement. Again, people may also choose to live
in what might be seen by others as vulnerable and insecure environments. For
example, floodplains have always been favoured for settlement because of the
fertility of the soil or the plentiful availability of flat land. As populations grow
and there is more competition for limited land and its resources, areas of increasing
vulnerability are settled by refugees, migrants and other displaced groups. Such
settlers expose themselves by occupying the areas of high risk and potential loss
of livelihoods.

With vulnerability is associated risk (the possibility of lives lost; persons injured;
damage to property and disruption of economic activity and livelihood).35 Thus
risk is a function of the probability of particular occurrences and the losses each
might cause. Some people are clearly more prone than others to damage, loss and
31
Amartya Sen, ‘Why Human Security’, Text of Presentation at the International Symposium on Human Security in
Tokyo, 28 July 2000 [http://www.humansecurity-chs.org/activities/outreach/Sen2000.pdf].
32
Smith, ‘Facing Environmental Security’.
33
See for example Arun Agrawal and K. Sivaramakrishnan, Social Nature: Resources, Representations and Rule in
India (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2001).
34
For a detailed discussion of such concepts see Andrew Linklater, ‘The Achievement of Critical Theory’, in Steve
Smith, Ken Booth and Marysia Zalewski (eds), International Theory: Positivism and Beyond (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press. 1996); and George C. Bond and Angela Gilliam, Social Reconstruction of the Past:
Representation as Power (London: Routledge, 1994).
35
Blaikie et al., At Risk: Natural Hazards, People’s Vulnerability and Disasters.
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334 SOUTH ASIA

suffering. Economically better-off people are better protected, being often insured
against damage; and their homes are usually safely-sited, making the process of
recovery easier. The most vulnerable people are those who find it hardest to recon-
struct their livelihoods.

All over the world, but especially in poorer countries, vulnerable people often suffer
repeated, multiple, mutually-reinforcing shocks to their lives, their settlements and
their livelihoods. For example, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) notes that developing countries, particularly the least developed, are more
vulnerable to environmental threats, and that this inability is most extreme among
the poorest people and disadvantaged groups such as women and children.36 Thus
the importance of the human and social context can never be ignored, as Blaikie
et al. note:

There is a general consensus in research on disasters that the number of

natural hazard events (earthquakes, eruptions, floods, or cyclones) has
not increased in recent decades. If this is valid, then we need to look
at social factors that increase vulnerability (including, but not only,
increasing population) to explain the apparent increases in the number
of disasters, in the value of losses and numbers of victims.37

Alternatively, experts such as Schjolden have seen increasing adaptive capacity is

the key strategy to cope with vulnerability.38 However, there are great semantic vari-
ations in this line of thinking; for example, Anderson and Woodrow prefer the term
‘capability’, by which they mean a capability to protect one’s community, home and
family and to re-establish one’s livelihood. Anderson and Woodward also show that
people living in vulnerable environments can enhance their adaptive capacity—or
capability—through building infrastructure and improving social awareness and pre-
paredness—an observation that implies that the ability to adjust and cope is not
necessarily related to economic status.39 Following Cutter et al., three specific
approaches can be outlined in environmental security and vulnerability studies:
those dealing with the identification of conditions that make people or places vulner-
able to extreme natural events; those assuming that vulnerability is a social
condition, a measure of societal resistance or resilience to hazards; and those that
36
IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), ‘Summary for Policy Makers’, in Third Assessment Report—
Climate Change 2001: The Scientific Basis (Geneva: World Meteorological Organization and United Nations
Environment Programme ISDR, 2001) [http://www.grida.no/climate/ipcc_tar/wg1/].
37
Blaikie et al., At Risk: Natural Hazards, People’s Vulnerability and Disasters, p.31.
38
Schjolden, ‘Are Vulnerability and Adaptability Two Sides of the Same Coin?’, pp.12–14.
39
M.B. Anderson and P.J. Woodrow, Rising from the Ashes: Development Strategies in Times of Disaster (Colorado:
Westview Press, 1989).
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‘LIKE THE DRIFTING GRAINS OF SAND’ 335

integrate potential exposures and societal resilience with a specific focus on

particular places or regions.40 The second approach has been followed by Blaikie
et al. and Hewitt, and in our research we choose to follow this line of argument to
understand the social conditions, perceptions and the adjustment processes in the
Damodar charlands.41 We note the absence of long-term measures amongst the
charland people, and following Haw et al. attempt to differentiate between ‘adjust-
ment’—that is, action on a contingent basis to cope with emergencies as they
occur—and ‘adaptation’—that is, long-term strategies to reduce flood frequency
or other environmental risks.42

The Damodar River and its Chars

The Damodar is an important river of the Bengal delta that affects the well-
being of a sizeable fraction of the Indian population. It flows through the
eastern Indian states of Bihar and West Bengal, across the coal and steel belt,
its basin comprising nearly 25,000 square kilometres. The 540 kilometre-long
river eventually meets the Hooghly, a distributary of the Ganga River, near
Falta point in Howrah district. The river has been notorious for changing
courses and has created an inland delta of sorts through its innumerable distri-
butaries.43 The upper and lower reaches of the Damodar have contrasting eco-
logical characteristics. The upper valley has a rugged relief with high slopes
covered with forests and scrub jungles, and terraced, cultivated fields. The
lower valley on the other hand is nearly flat, even bowl-like. Mukherjee in
his 1938 work on the Bengal delta noted that this particular deltaic stretch
had an unusual concentration of small farmers and settlements. This feature
has been enhanced in the recent decades.44

The physical environment of the Damodar delta has undergone considerable changes
since late colonial times when imported civil engineering techniques began to
replace traditional irrigation. The first phase saw the construction in 1881 of Ander-
son Weir at Rhondia (located some distance west of Burdwan), and the Eden Canal
to carry its water to the lower agricultural fields. Later, the Maharaja of Burdwan
built embankments along the course of the river to contain its floods, and then in
40
Susan L. Cutter, Bryan J. Boruff and W. Lynn Shirley, ‘Social Vulnerability to Environmental Hazards’, in Social
Science Quarterly, Vol.84, no.2 (2003), pp.242–61.
41
Blaikie et al., At Risk: Natural Hazards, People’s Vulnerability and Disasters; and K. Hewitt, Regions of Risk: A
Geographical Introduction to Disasters (Harlow, Essex: Longman, 1997).
42
Melissa Haw, Chris Cocklin and David Mercer, ‘A Pinch of Salt: Landowner Perception and Adjustment to the
Salinity Hazard in Victoria, Australia’, in Journal of Rural Studies, Vol.16 (2000), pp.155– 69.
43
Kanangopal Bagchi, The Ganges Delta (Calcutta: Calcutta University, 1994).
44
R. Mukherjee, The Changing Face of Bengal: A Study in Riverine Economy (Calcutta: Calcutta University Press,
1938).
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336 SOUTH ASIA

the early 1950s the Damodar Valley Corporation or DVC constructed dams and
brought its canals through the region.45

The DVC dams were only partially successful in reducing the frequency of floods and
providing irrigation water through the canal network to agricultural fields.46 However,
the intervention brought several changes in the physical environment to the lower
reaches of the valley. The clearing of extensive natural forests in the upper catchments
areas for the construction of the reservoirs resulted in increased siltation rates and the
formation of more permanent chars on the riverbed. And while flooding in the lower
reaches of the Damodar’s valley has been reduced, low-intensity floods have become
longer in duration. Moreover, when they do occur in the Lower Damodar Valley,
floods now dump coarse sand, destroying the fertility of cultivated lands. Also, the
behaviour of the river has become more unpredictable: large chunks of fertile agricul-
tural land are eroded by its currents every year. The current physical character of the
Damodar chars, therefore, is somewhat different from other chars located in the active
delta areas of the Ganga–Padma and other rivers in deltaic Bengal. Being more per-
manent in nature, Damodar chars do not experience the regular and annual flooding
characteristic of the active delta chars of Bangladesh. However more devastating
and longer-duration floods can and do occur—such as in 1978 and 2000. As the
nature of floods have become variable in the Lower Damodar Valley, the ways in
which local people have traditionally dealt with them, too, have become ineffective
and have had to be modified.

Related closely to the history of river control is the story of how the Damodar chars
came to be occupied. This process began in the late nineteenth century when groups
of Muslim fishermen migrated from Bihar to these riverine locations. Bihari
Muslims were initially employed as village watchmen and gatekeepers by the
Burdwan rajas and were allotted land in the chars by way of payment. Besides
fishing, they reared some cattle. Yet, unused to farming, they did not try to cultivate
the chars which at that time were mostly covered by bush, plum trees and tall bena
grass. Small amounts of mesta (a variety of jute which is red in colour and grows
without much water and nourishment), maize (corn) and pulses were the only
crops. Population remained sparse, and floods were a regular visitor during the
monsoons.

After Partition, Bangladeshi (then East Pakistan) Hindus started to trickle into this
part of India in search of livelihoods and social security. Lacking legal owners,
45
Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt, ‘Imagining Rivers’, in Economic and Political Weekly, Vol.35, no.27 (2000), pp.2395–400.
46
Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt, ‘People, Power and Rivers: Experiences from the Damodar River, India’, in Water Nepal,
Vols.9/10, nos.1 & 2 (2003), pp.251–67.
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‘LIKE THE DRIFTING GRAINS OF SAND’ 337

the charlands were designated by the government as khaslands,47 and deemed

available for the resettlement of the refugees. Some (but not all) the grantees were
given patta (title deeds)48 to their new homes. However, the shifting river
courses made charlands highly insecure; considerable stretches of charlands
have since reverted to riverbed, whereas some new lands have emerged from
the riverbed, and again considerable stretches of the river channel have been con-
verted into seasonal croplands by the char people. The settlement process in char-
lands gained pace after the 1971 Bangladesh liberation movement, leading to a
significant increase in the flow of migrants into southern West Bengal across
the Bangladesh border. A large segment of these migrants are unauthorised and
have no citizenship papers.49

Presently Bangladeshi migrants form the dominant group in all charlands; the earlier
Bihari settlers are gradually being marginalised. For example, in Char Gaitanpur
there are 205 families of which 65 are Bihari fishermen-turned-labourers, whereas
140 families are from Bangladesh. The Bihari fishermen who are left make a
living either as wage labourers in the agricultural fields or work for contractors
lifting sand from the riverbed. Industrial waste pollution of the river water from
the expanding collieries and industries in the upper reaches of the Damodar have
added to this change in subsistence. Not only has there been a drastic reduction in
water levels but industrial and urban liquid wastes have reduced biotic life,
causing a loss of livelihood for the Bihari fishermen.

The relief variations in the chars dictate the pattern of land utilisation. Higher lands
are occupied by houses, and the more marginal lower lands are used for cultivation.
Reclamation is ongoing. Barren sand fields are steadily converted into croplands
through bio-manuring and hard labour. During our field survey, we saw over two
acres of sandy land reclaimed for crop production in a single char within a ten-
month period. But the sandy soil drains rapidly and requires large quantities of
water for the production of any crop; the water requirement is even higher for
paddy and only those owning shallow and submersible pumps can tap the
47
Khaslands are new lands coming under government control. A piece of land has to be in existence for at least 20
years on a continuous basis before it can be legally designated as ‘land’. Thus, many charlands are non-lands, as the
Bangladeshi residents are non-people.
48
Patta is legal right to land written in a paper that is given by the Land Revenue Department. It is most important for
a squatter to have a patta to establish ownership rights to the land. Getting a patta can be a bitterly-prolonged affair
taking many years.
49
Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt and Gopa Samanta, ‘Fleeting Land, Fleeting People: Bangladeshi Women in a Charland
Environment in Lower Bengal, India’, in Asia Pacific Migration Journal, Vol.13, no.4 (2004), pp.475–95; and
Gopa Samanta and Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt, ‘Marginal Lives in Marginal Lands: Livelihood Strategies of Women-
Headed Households in Charlands of the Damodar, Lower Bengal, India’, paper presented at XI National Conference
of the Indian Association for Women’s Studies, Goa, 3–6 May 2005.
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338 SOUTH ASIA

groundwater. Poorer farmers keep their lands fallow during the kharif or main crop-
ping season (July to October) as during this time of high evaporation it is impossible
to cultivate without irrigation. The winter season, from October to March, when
temperatures are lower, is thus the main cropping season of the chars. During this
time, vegetables are grown for nearby urban markets. As well, better-off farmers
can afford to invest in a second crop of rice (boro dhan). The farmers who
produce vegetables engage the women of their families to provide the extra attention
that these crops need. Poorer people usually work in another’s field when their own
lands are fallow during the kharif season. The fallow land during kharif provides an
opportunity for the rearing of cows, goats and pigs to supplement family incomes.
This is the rainy time of the year and there is a good yield of local grass, so the
livestock need to be fed only once, at night. During winter, the animals subsist on
hay purchased locally. The cultivation process is small, marginal, and extremely
labour-intensive. As a result, labourers are in high demand in this charland,
providing a livelihood for new migrants

Typically the dwellings in a char form two parallel rows, separated by a dirt track.
Construction is done entirely by family members. The houses are built of bamboo
(the dominant species of plant in the char), locally available timber from mango or
jackfruit trees, and mud. The roofs are made of paddy straw, corrugated tin or
asbestos. Poorer families, however, often cannot afford to apply a mud coating
to the walls; consequently cold winds blow through their walls in winter. One
of our informants observed ruefully: ‘in winter’ we ‘eagerly wait for the morn-
ings’. Recently some chouras have built pucca houses with brick and mud
walls, and roofs of tin and asbestos, with the aid of loans from local mahajans
or moneylenders.

Population is understandably greater in the higher or more permanent chars that are
less liable to flooding. For example the population density of elevated Char
Gaitanpur is 388 persons per square kilometre according to the 2001 census.50 But
the population density is increasing rapidly in almost all the chars in this area
with the continuous influx of unauthorised migrants from Bangladesh. (The joint
family system is uncommon here because of the ‘new’ nature of establishment
and settlement.) For the same reason, the land-holdings of the chouras are quite
tiny; generally farmers owning just five bighas (0.5 hectares) of agricultural land
could be designated ‘big’ in the char environment.

Our awareness of the chars and the lives of char communities dates back to our
doctoral research which was completed respectively in 1985 and 2002, both on
50
This is close to the Indian threshold urban density of 400 persons per sq. km.
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‘LIKE THE DRIFTING GRAINS OF SAND’ 339

urbanisation processes.51 The research reported here is part of an ongoing study,

based entirely on fieldwork methods. The surveys were carried out in several
chars located on a 48-kilometre stretch of the Damodar River where it divides the
Bankura and Burdwan districts of West Bengal. Some of these chars are attached
to the northern riverbank and are locally known as mana (such as Kasba Mana, Bha-
sapur Mana), whereas others are islands, locally known as char mana (for example,
Majher Char Mana, Kalimohanpur Char Mana).

To develop an intimate knowledge of the perceptions of the security of life in chars,

we built up personal contacts with individual women and men in Char Gaitanpur,
which is more accessible from the nearby town. We took the oral histories of 30
women and 30 men currently living in the charlands and recorded these conversa-
tions. The conversations (in Bengali) were transcribed later into English. The selec-
tion process of these men and women was very subjective and did not follow any
scientific method of sampling since we had to be content with whoever had the
time or inclination to talk to us. Nevertheless despite time being a precious commod-
ity, the inhabitants of Gaitanpur were keen to talk to us about their lives. All the
names given in the paper are real, and have been used with the consent of the
informants.

Vulnerabilities in Charlands
Vulnerability affects the poor households living in a charland environment in numer-
ous ways. They may be natural calamities such as floods and riverbank erosion, or
socio-economic ones such as an abrupt fall in the market price of agricultural pro-
ducts, or illness. In their study on the chars of Bangladesh, Brocklesby and
Hobley noted that multiple vulnerabilities experienced by the char dwellers are
the underlying cause of their chronic, persistent, and extreme poverty.52 In the
Damodar charlands the situation is not very different in respect of the vulner-
ability/poverty equation.

Physical vulnerability is rooted in the threat of seasonal flooding, the shifting of river
courses, and riverbank erosion.53 In 1990 Elahi and Rogge estimated that about one
million people were displaced every year by floods and riverbank erosion in
51
Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt, ‘Urbanization in the Lower Damodar Valley: A Case Study in Urban Geography’, unpub-
lished PhD thesis, University of Burdwan, 1985; and Gopa Samanta, ‘Rural-Urban Interaction in Burdwan and
its Adjoining Areas’, unpublished PhD thesis, University of Burdwan, 2002.
52
Mary Ann Brocklesby and Mary Hobley, ‘The Practice of Design: Developing the Chars Livelihoods Programme
in Bangladesh’, in Journal of International Development, Vol.15, no.7 (2003), pp.893–909.
53
DFID (Department for International Development), ‘Chars Livelihood Programme’, in Project Memorandum
(Dhaka: Department for International Development, 2002).
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340 SOUTH ASIA

Bangladesh.54 No equivalent data are available for India, but in 2002 Rudra showed,
in his analysis of changes in the course of the Ganga in recent times, that in the dis-
trict of Murshidabad alone no less than 10,000 people had been displaced by
erosion.55 In turn, these physical vulnerabilities can make charland people socially
vulnerable and politically marginal. Often the land is not legally owned, its bound-
aries are in a constant flux, and the remoteness and lack of accessibility mean a total
lack of health care, sanitation, water and electricity supplies. Ghosh notes in his 2004
report:

Over 70,000 people living on no-man’s-land on the fragile islands

along the Ganga are not too sure whether they belong to Jharkhand
or West Bengal. For over the past five years, the residents of
Pearpur, Kakri Bandha, Jhao Bona, Manikchak and Ratua in Malda
have had to reorient their lives with the changing river course, which
engulfed their homes and agricultural land. In the absence of any reha-
bilitation scheme, the villagers had to build their lives on the charlands
or islands along the Ganga. But living here on this uncertain terrain,
they are nobody’s children. The state government has disowned these
‘river people’ with its functionaries remaining engaged in academic
discussions about demarcation of borders.56

The Damodar charlands, too, have their difficulties with bank erosion and the shifts
in river course. For example, the Damodar used to demarcate the boundary between
the Burdwan and Bankura districts of West Bengal, and with most of the stabilised
charlands closer to the south bank, they used to be under the administrative jurisdic-
tion of the Bankura district. However, as the river shifted towards the north bank,
that is, towards the Burdwan district, the physical distance of the charlands from
Bankura, where public services and government offices, panchayats, police stations
and health centres are located, has increased.

In terms of longer-term impacts on people’s lives, the vulnerability to erosion is

much higher than for floods. Erosion is a frequent but irregular danger and creates
fundamental and catastrophic livelihood shocks through which households lose
land, shelter, and other assets. Flooding, by contrast, is not a regular seasonal
phenomenon in the Damodar Valley and therefore not so traumatic. Moreover the
54
K. Maudood Elahi and John R. Rogge, Riverbank Erosion, Flood and Population Displacement in Bangladesh
(Dhaka: Jahangirnagar University, Riverbank Erosion Impact Study, 1990).
55
K. Rudra, The Encroaching Ganga and Social Conflicts: The Case of West Bengal, India (Habra: Department of
Geography, Habra S.C. Mahavidyalaya, 2002) [http://www.ibaradio.org/India/ganga/resources/Rudra.pdf,
accessed 17 Feb. 2006].
56
Aditya Ghosh, ‘Shifting River Erases Villages and Identities’, The Times of India (Kolkata) (24 Nov. 2004).
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‘LIKE THE DRIFTING GRAINS OF SAND’ 341

people of the chars now receive advance warnings from the DVC via radio about
releases of water from the barrage upstream at Durgapur. As well, elderly char
residents with experience of major floods are able to predict with some accuracy
the height floodwaters are likely to reach in specific charlands. Prior warnings and
local experience allow the local people to move themselves and their assets to the
safety of the higher ground of the north bank at short notice.

Ill-health, especially of earning members, brings vulnerability to charland people

because of their extreme poverty. It affects both the cost and income of households
in negative ways. Women who work outside of home cannot go to work if their
children fall ill. As a result the family income decreases and at the same time
daily expenses increase for treatment. Households with only one earning member
are especially at risk in these ways. We found that illness amongst children, frequent
in poorer households, is one of the major factors determining their level of well-
being while illness was generally considered a worst-case scenario by our
informants.

Coping and Adjustment Strategies: Perceptions of Security and

Vulnerability
Human perceptions and behaviour under different environmental events, especially
those related to the natural environment, have been extensively analysed.57
Regarding the different behavioural patterns of people towards adjustment with
hazardous environments Sonnenfeld notes:

Individual and populations tend to differ in their responses to any

environment. Some achieve more in environment, some achieve less;
some adjust easily to environmental extremes, others adjust only
with difficulty. Different responses may be a function of different abil-
ities to respond to environment, or of different perceptions of environ-
ment. Understanding of the sources of variance in environmental
57
See Ian Burton and Robert W. Kates, ‘The Flood Plain and the Sea Shore: A Comparative Analysis of Hazard
Zone Occupance’, in Geographical Review, Vol.64 (1964), pp.366–85; Thomas Frederick Saarinen, Perception
of the Drought Hazard on the Great Plains (Chicago: Department of Geography, Research Paper 106, University
of Chicago, 1996); Ian Burton, Robert W. Kates and Rodman E. Snead, The Human Ecology of Coastal Flood
Hazard in Megalopolis (Chicago: Department of Geography, Research Paper 115, University of Chicago, 1969);
David Lowenthal (ed.), Environmental Perception and Behavior (Chicago: Department of Geography, Research
Paper 109, University of Chicago, 1967); James K. Mitchell, Community Response to Coastal Erosion: Individual
and Collective Adjustments to Hazard on the Atlantic Shore (Chicago: Department of Geography, Research Paper
156, University of Chicago, 1974); and Thomas Frederick Saarinen, David Seamon and James L. Sell (eds), Environ-
mental Perception and Behavior: An Inventory and Prospect (Chicago: Department of Geography, Research Paper
209, University of Chicago, 1984).
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342 SOUTH ASIA

perception is essential to an understanding of variation in man’s

environmental behaviours.58

Our understanding is that perceptions of security in the charlands are closely linked
to flood events and associated bank erosion. But in the Damodar most of the settlers
have also experienced social insecurity in the form of political turmoil, religious per-
secution and cross-border migration. The vulnerability associated with these social
factors has—ironically—increased their acceptance of natural calamities. Now let
us look in more detail at the security issues nominated as important by the people
we interviewed in Gaitanpur.

Physical Isolation
The migrants from Bangladesh who settle the charlands of the Damodar often arrive
without legal entry papers. But this in itself is not a great impediment to resettlement.
Away from the constant prying eyes of police or unfriendly neighbours, relatives find
places for the new migrants to live. And over the course of time valid papers, such as
a ration cards or voter identification cards, are obtained through an informal chain of
local political leaders, panchayat members, and community development block offi-
cials. The charlands, then, can be seen as an entry point to the mainland society and
economy, making vulnerability a temporary or transient phenomenon. The settler
Sadhan Mondal told us:

We are not planning to stay here for a long time. We are fully aware of
the vulnerability of these charlands. I have seen acres of land going to
the river each year due to bank erosion in the rainy season. Any day in
next flood the river can erode my house. I am here for four years and
have got the citizenship documents for my wife and me. Still I am
living here as I have yet to collect the citizenship documents for my
two sons.

The poverty and vulnerability of char residents like Sadhan Mondal are not simple
but complex and interlinked outcomes of (1) their illegal immigration to India, and
(2) their consequent exposure to floods and river erosion.

However, not every char resident is waiting for an opportunity to leave. Some resi-
dents, whether or not they get citizenship documents, prefer to live in the charlands
because they see them as a secure location. Isolation, usually avoided in choosing a
58
J. Sonnenfeld, ‘Environmental Perception and Adaptation Levels in the Arctic’, in D. Lowenthal (ed.) Environ-
mental Perception and Behavior (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1967), p.42.
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‘LIKE THE DRIFTING GRAINS OF SAND’ 343

place of living, in this case is often a major recommendation. Sandhya Mondal,

a 35-year-old woman, said of her charland environment:

We are much better here than we were in Bangladesh. Here we never

feel the pain of hunger. We can find work as labour in farming more
of less throughout the year. Even if one day we do not get work then
my husband and myself go to the river to catch fish. Sometimes we
can get up to five kilograms of fish a day (worth Rs250). We can sell
the fish to the neighbours. We have arranged our elder daughter’s mar-
riage with a boy who is also living here in the char. We have built a
house for them with our own labour. We are happily living here with
no dearth of food and we are not going anywhere as we don’t have
any valid document of Indian citizenship.

Social Isolation
Curiously, the distance from social networks of relatives and friends is a factor that
sometimes disposes people to live in the charlands. We came across several
instances where people felt pleased about how little was known outside about
their past lives either in Bangladesh or elsewhere in West Bengal. Dhiren Mondal,
a 50-year-old single man, has lived in Char Gaitanpur since his wife left him.
He explained:

I have left my house and land property in South 24 Paraganas to avoid

the people who were known to me. My wife had left home with one of
my friends, taking my four children with her. I could not cope with the
way people taunted me and left my home to avoid those living there. At
that time I was in search of an isolated place where nobody knows my
past life. I felt that this charland could provide me with a new life.

Dhiren perceives life in the char as more secure because of its relative isolation. Here
he has a house and some farming land, which he farms or leases out. The physical toll
of doing all the work at home and in the field is quite heavy on him, yet he feels at
peace with himself and believes he is more secure living in the charland than he
would be living on the mainland.

Tukurani’s story also helps us to understand the social isolation posed by the
charland environment. She is 32, and has been living in Char Gaitanpur for 10
years. But her husband still lives in Bangladesh. Why did she pick up and leave?

When I went to my husband’s house after my marriage I did not spend a

single day without quarrelling with my husband’s first wife. I did not
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344 SOUTH ASIA

get sufficient food; sometimes they used to beat me. I spent one year in
that house and later on, when my husband proposed for me to come
here, I accepted that proposal. We took shelter in a neighbour’s
house. Within ten days my husband constructed the hut where we
started living together. He purchased some land and a few goats and
cattle. With the help of these assets I can now run the household and
make arrangements for a minimum livelihood. I am happy and feel
secure, as there is nobody to quarrel with and to beat me. This is
quite enough for a woman like me—poor and ill-fated.

At present Tukurani has four children including a newborn baby. She owns jointly
with her absentee husband 0.6 hectares of agricultural land; a house with brick
walls and corrugated tin roof; five goats and one cow. Living and securing a liveli-
hood alone is a heavy burden indeed for her, yet she feels that she has a more secure
life here than she would have had she remained in Bangladesh. However, Tukurani is
sharply aware of the vulnerability of living in the charlands, as demonstrated in her
response to our question ‘What will you do if your land and house is lost to the river
by erosion?’ ‘I do not want to think of it. I can’t stop the shifting of the river and
erosion of land. In the case it happens, I would see what other arrangements for
us can be made. I trust my husband, he is a responsible man’. This statement exem-
plifies the fatalistic attitude of many chouras: put oneself at the mercy of nature and
try to make the best of the present.

The security in the charlands as perceived by the people like Dhiren and Tukurani is
difficult to explain by neutral, objective and absolute human knowledge systems of the
environment. They require looking into personal histories that go beyond the general.
Usually chars pose difficulties for women in obtaining water, food and other supplies,
sanitation, and access to medical care. A charwoman of Bangladesh is quoted by
Sarkar et al. as saying: ‘The worst thing about char life is women dying at childbirth
because they cannot get medical attention during floods’.59 Yet for at least one migrant
woman in Damodar, living there is apparently preferable to living in Bangladesh. This
brings us to the question of subjective perceptions of human–nature interactions. The
construction of one’s own secure home in what is commonly seen as a highly-
vulnerable environment can also reflect the inherent power differentials in society.

Availability of Cheap Land

Down to the 1970s land was free in some of the Damodar charlands. Although this is
no longer the case, the land is still cheaper here due to its susceptibility to flooding
59
Sarker et al., ‘Rivers, Chars and Char Dwellers of Bangladesh’, p.76.
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‘LIKE THE DRIFTING GRAINS OF SAND’ 345

and river erosion. The availability of cheap land attracts people like Narayan Biswas
who has expertise in farming and has experimented with the production of unusual
vegetables. Narayan came to the Damodar charlands after losing his small business
which he had set up after moving to a nearby town in India. He took land on lease and
produced marketable vegetables like capsicum and broccoli for select urban consu-
mers. He has chosen this char because of its nearness to the urban market of
Burdwan town where he can sell his produce at a fair price. However, his interest
is more in the several prizes he has won in the Burdwan District’s agricultural com-
petition, than on money. He is still poor but feels satisfied with his work: ‘I am quite
happy here as I have been able to prove my skill in producing high-priced vegetables
in the sandy soil of the chars. My wife extends her help in my experiments as there is
no false sense of prestige, common amongst the middle classes about women’s work
in the fields. Here, in all families, women can participate in farming their fields, of
great help in my experiments. Crops like capsicum or broccoli need constant care
which my wife does better than me or any other wage labour’. Narayan says that
the vulnerability of the land is not a major issue as he has few permanent assets.

‘Lottery Against Nature’

The influence of cultural adjustment over generations is evident in the different ways
the Bangladeshi and Bihari migrants—both groups are from flood-prone areas—
have adjusted to the charlands of the Damodar. Flood is an annual phenomenon
of the northern part of Bihar, from where most of the Bihari settlers originated;
and so it is in Bangladesh. Therefore, one might expect the chouras of the Damodar
to be well-versed in coping with floods—to know how to utilise the flood plains
in order to get the maximum benefit out of them. However, as the regular flow of
water in the river decreased over the years, the Biharis have found it harder to
cope with the changing ecology, and have tended to move out of the chars;
whereas the Bangladeshis, arriving without legal papers, have flourished by expertly
manoeuvring their land- and water-based livelihoods. The benefits of ‘good’ floods
(low-magnitude floods) outweigh the disadvantages of ‘bad’ floods (devastating
floods) in the chars. Low-magnitude floods are often welcomed by the charland
people as they replenish the natural fertility of the land by depositing fresh silt. In
1997 Leaf observed in a sample survey of rural people’s attitudes to flood in Bangla-
desh that 86 percent of households were satisfied with the way they adjusted to
normal inundation, and did not want any change to that situation.60 In our survey
of the charlands of Damodar, some respondents testified that they saw flooding as
a natural element—part of the natural rhythm of things. More than floods, they
60
M. Leaf, ‘Local Control Versus Technocracy: The Bangladesh Flood Response Study’, in Journal of International
Affairs, Vol.51, no.1 (1997), pp.179–200.
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346 SOUTH ASIA

are apprehensive of erosion of the scarce cultivable and liveable charlands by the
river. Bogardi observed that the intensifying use of the flood plains over many
decades has proved the willingness of societies to accept this ‘lottery against
nature’,61 having in mind (most likely unconsciously) the trade-off between potential
(but occasionally quite high) losses and fairly regular benefits. In these charlands
people are also aware of the potential damage to their property by flooding and
use the land for both agriculture and the grazing of animals to improve the odds
in the lottery that is nature.

Naren Sarkar of Char Bhasapur is one of such people. Originally from Dhaka, he
came to India with his parents in the late 1950s when he was only six years old.
First the family took shelter on a char on the Hooghly River where they had relatives.
After a few years they moved to Char Bhasapur (an attached char of the Damodar
River), where they have lived ever since. Naren’s first house and landholding
were destroyed by the 1978 flood. Undeterred, Naren paid for some more land
and built another house further away from the main water channel and closer to
the northern embankment. Even so, because of the shift of the river channel
towards the northern bank, Naren’s new house remains on the margin so far as
secure settlement is concerned. Nevertheless in conversation he expressed satisfac-
tion with his situation, noting: ‘We are like drifting grains of sand, rolling from one
place to another. In one place today, in another tomorrow, but always with the river’s
flow’. We asked, ‘Did you ever consider living away from this uncertain life in the
char?’ He replied:

I have no skills and no experience of any work other than agriculture.

My parents have taught how to till the land to make it yield more for our
families. I can only use my farming skills for living. Land is cheap in
charlands and we have no dearth of water for wetting our lands. See, we
were brought up in flood-prone areas of Bangladesh. In comparison, the
frequency and magnitude of floods are less on these charlands. We also
know how to cope with the natural calamities like flood and river
erosion. We do not want to move away from the river. If the river
does not let us stay here then we shall go somewhere else. However,
till the river destroys our entire property as well as this char we will
be here. We feel secure here as we have sufficient incomes to feed
our families.

61
J.J. Bogardi, ‘Water Hazards, Risks and Vulnerabilities in a Changing Environment’, paper presented at the Inter-
national Conference on Space and Water: Towards Sustainable Development and Human Security, Santiago de
Chile, 1–2 April 2004.
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‘LIKE THE DRIFTING GRAINS OF SAND’ 347

This statement does not only convey a sense of security, but also a feeling of confi-
dence. The belief that they can protect themselves, home and family, and others in
the community, and if necessary re-establish their livelihoods, runs strongly amongst
the char dwellers. Nor is this pie in the sky. They have established a rapport
with their environment and a keen awareness of their surroundings, an acceptance
of the river’s moods. They are prepared for sudden change. Here we come to
the crux of our argument, which is that charland people see their adjustment to
the river as a contingent, short-term, undefined process unclarified temporally.

Some charland dwellers even refuse to be described as ‘Bangladeshis’ or as

‘migrants’. Biswanath Mondal, another resident of Char Gaitanpur, said:

Do not call me a migrant. Of the three brothers of my grandfather, one

lived in Khulna whereas two others were in 24 Parganas. Partition
divided the land and we got separated in two countries. It was a matter
of chance that I was left in Bangladesh. If I came to live in India, how
am I a migrant? I do not consider myself a migrant. This is also our
land, our country. Still people say that I am a Bangladeshi migrant!’

For Biswanath, the char is home. He has a large family, and has now constructed a
pucca house—brick with asbestos roof—on the land reclaimed from the abandoned
river channel with a loan taken from the local mahajan (money-lender). He sees the
house as an investment for the future, but is aware that this might be a gamble: ‘I am
living on a dried-up riverbed. It is land that might be claimed again by the river.
Right now I do not have the money to leave the charland and settle elsewhere.
But I am trying to save some money from my crop sales, so that I can leave this god-
forsaken land in the future’. Clearly, he thinks of his stay in this char as temporary,
although there is no indication that he intends to leave anytime soon.

Lives Defined by the River

Understanding the conditions under which people live in an environment seen by
most as marginal and risky illuminates our understanding of environmental insecur-
ity, vulnerability and livelihood. It is clear from our study that perceptions of secur-
ity, insecurity and vulnerability are subjective, and may differ widely between
different segments of people—even locally. Whereas some evidently feel more
secure living in charlands than living among hostile neighbours, others perceive
these areas as suitable lands for a temporary stay, while others again consider the
chars as places totally unfit for habitation. Some try to build permanent structures
and make plans for a long-term stay, whilst other char dwellers are more sensitive
to the vulnerability of the charlands and use them purely as a temporary refuge.
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348 SOUTH ASIA

We have noted that the frequency and intensity of floods in the Damodar chars have
decreased since the construction of the DVC dams. The reduced flow and frequency
of devastating floods have added to the char-dwellers sense of security, resulting in a
more intense use of the local resources at the same time. However with increasing
competition for scarce land, more intensive kinds of farming have been introduced.
This begs the question: has the steady inflow of people into this fragile environment
and the more intensive use of the charland increased or decreased vulnerability? This
is not a simple question, as we have noted that during recent decades the older-
established Bihari fishing communities have gradually left the charlands while
even more Bangladeshis have moved in. It is clear that old occupational or cultural
traditions and experiences can have a significant influence on the ways subjective per-
ceptions operate. We must also note that adjustment is also dependent upon income
levels. Those who can afford insurance can build their homes on relatively higher
ground or with higher foundations to lessen the impact of flood damage. The
poorer people in the charlands live in homes situated on lower-lying land near the riv-
erbanks or even in the dried-up river channels. Thus, it becomes clear that poverty
intensifies insecurity. However, there are generational differences, as the awareness
of the devastation that the Damodar floods can cause is relatively higher among the
older men and women who had personally experienced the massive 1978 flood.

Developing adaptive capacity is commonly seen as an important strategy to cope

with fragile environments. Indeed the char residents have developed an intimate
understanding of the uncertain environment in which they live. Facing continuous
uncertainty, the chouras have honed their senses. They know more or less accurately
the level to which the river water will rise for different volumes of water released
from upstream reservoirs. They remain alert during the monsoons. Small boats are
kept ready to carry them away from the rising waters. It is not a simple matter of
semantics to describe this ability as resilience, as competency, or as capacity to
adapt. In our view, it is best to define this ability of the chouras in lower Bengal
as one of ‘adjustment’—as a day-to-day, continual but contingent, set of strategic
choices and decisions made by the individuals and the communities. The chouras
are in a continual gamble with nature, ‘dancing’ with the changeable moods of
the river, trying to make the best of their vulnerable situation in a marginal environ-
ment. Yet it would be foolhardy to generalise that all char people are either living
happily, peacefully and permanently, or alternatively are on their way out. As we
remarked earlier, many of them are acutely aware of the vulnerability of their river-
ine environment, but have no choice but to stay due to their problematic legal status.
The aspects of the physical environment they are particularly concerned about are
riverbank erosion and changing of the main course of the river—which changes
have the potential to destroy major parts of the char including their homes and cul-
tivated lands. However, even then, some char residents feel comfortable about
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‘LIKE THE DRIFTING GRAINS OF SAND’ 349

taking the risk. In a way, their very social marginality has helped them to adjust to
the multiple vulnerabilities they face.

In answering our version of the question we began with—‘why do people live in the
marginal environment of the chars in spite of immense insecurity’—this research
broadly confirms that the root causes of poverty and vulnerability are largely iden-
tical and usually overlap. Delving deeper, however, it suggests that subjective per-
ceptions about livelihood and choice of living space are often very personal. At
one level these issues are rooted in culture. Traditional occupations, attitudes and
feelings with respect to the environment clearly play an important role in determin-
ing how people adjust to vulnerable conditions. Our point is that the concepts of
‘risk’ and ‘vulnerability’ as used about day-to-day life, while valid as generalis-
ations, do not work so well in specialised contexts such as those provided by the
char environment. Some people simply have no choice. Individuals continuously
redefine the risks and vulnerabilities associated with a place before moving on or
staying put. Our paper illuminates the contextual dilemma of resilience, and under-
lines the part played by cultural and occupational traditions in survival strategies. We
hope it will encourage a rethinking of the terminologies currently employed in adap-
tation studies.