The flood-prone floodplains (locally known as chars) of the Brahmaputra in Assam, northeast India, are at the receiving end of numerous infrastructural measures (like Agri bunds, raised platforms, HYV rice) targeted at mitigating flood situations. This is the case with the Osthayi char, in the Barpeta district to the west of Assam. Ethnographic fieldwork in Osthayi char amongst the Miya or the Bengali Muslim community shows the social and ecological shortcomings of such flood mitigation efforts. This paper warns about a technocratic understanding of flood mitigation where humans and nature are segregated, which is at odds with the local perceptions of the landscape as relational. The former sees floods as only inundation, while the latter looks at it as more than inundation including activities of erosions and accretion. Through the perspective of contesting time frames in the Osthayi char, I argue how the inhabitants of Osthayi char perceive floods as an ongoing process instead of a seasonal affair. This conception is framed by agricultural and food practices central to char livelihoods. I also caution against the simplified notion of understanding the locals’ relationship to the floods as intrinsically more linked to a relational view of floods. I show how this relationship is complex, influenced by the political and economic context of the chars in Assam. Those who hold power positions in the char are aligned to the technocratic outlook of the landscape. This has consequences for the overall understanding of floods in the floodplains of Brahmaputra.
