People don’t stay long at South Salmara: if they can, they like to get out and move to other parts of Assam, especially the neighbouring areas. This is not surprising—out of 201 villages, 135 are severely eroded. In one case in Dhubri, where the river showed its lack of respect for authority by swamping a police station. ‘There lies the old thana, in the middle of the Brahmaputra,’ said one police officer, pointing in the general direction of where the building rests under water today. The land disappears under the flood waters and reappears as chars, but rarely in its original position. This sets off disputes over custody rights, claims and counter-claims.

The Diwanis of the Chars

The local government is rarely bothered about such disputes; its presence there is minimal and the chars, a world unto themselves. are governed instead by a network of powerful zemindars called Diwanis. The latter are a combination of local power brokers, landlords and businessmen; each has his private. army, men armed with lathis and traditional weapons such as daos and spears. They are often connected to political parties.

These gangs are called lathials and it is their job to seize fresh land deposited during or after the flood surges. Indeed, these terms have a cross-border resonance. There are lathials in Bangladesh too, a nation where land is infinitely more precious than in Assam, and who perform the same tasks as their counterparts in India.

The Diwanis are not elected to their jobs; far from it, they are hereditary barons, backed by muscle power. Occasionally, they are challenged by new pretenders, leading to open conflicts on the soft soil of the chars. These events are barely reported even in the local media. For most of us, this is an uncertain, dark world about which we know little; we are content with that lack of knowledge.

The Diwani has extensive, informal powers. He receives a multitude of complaints. Should a person come before him seeking the eviction of people who have settled on his land, the Diwani can force their evacuation, for a consideration, of course. This is payable in cash or in kind—a part of the harvest from this very land.

During her travels, Anindita ran into another Nurul Islam, this man being the Assistant Settlement Officer for the char of South Salmara. Islam’s job is to settle claims arising out of flood destruction and displacement (hence the title). One of his toughest jobs is presented by the appearance of new land after the retreat of the floods in the winter season. The lathials appear to enforce the orders, not of the government, but of the Diwani and whoever he chooses to support as owner of these fresh islands and sandbanks.