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020 _a9789390327584
082 _a915.404 CHO-S
100 _achoudhury, Samrat
245 _aBraided river :
_ba journey along the Brahmaputra /
_cSamrat Choudhury
260 _aIndia
_bHarper Collins Publishers
_c2021
300 _a409p.
365 _aINR
_b599.00
500 _aThe Brahmaputra is by some margin the largest river in India. After its confluence with the Ganga in Bangladesh, it becomes the largest in Asia. In The Braided River, journalist Samrat Choudhury sets out to follow its braided course from the edge of Tibet, where it enters India, down to where it meets the Ganga at a spot marked by the biggest red-light district in Bangladesh. He meets suspicious Indian spies, gets packed off on the back of a cement truck by soldiers, visits a shelter home for baby rhino and elephant orphans in Kaziranga, and hops from river island to riverside town, meeting the locals. The tales of these encounters spice up a story that weaves in the history of the emergence of the border between India and China in Arunachal Pradesh, the formation of the Assamese identity -- a matter of great contemporary relevance owing to the National Register of Citizens and the Citizenship (Amendment) Act -- and the ecological challenges posed by proposed dams. This genre-bending book touches upon several hot-button issues -- environmental, military and political -- as it blends travel, memoir and history with the present.
650 _aTravel
650 _aAsia--Brahmaputra River Valley
650 _aNortheastern India
650 _aSociety and Culture
999 _c79019
_d79019