Kazi Sharowar Hussain

This Foundation Project, implemented by IFA, documents the relationship between boats, boat-making, Bhatiyali, and related song traditions and race cultures among Miya communities of the Char-Chapori regions in Assam. It treats boats as material-cultural lifelines and records song repertoires, boat craft, and river performance as modes of community memory and resilience. Kazi Sharowar Hussain is the Coordinator of this project.

Kazi Sharowar Hussain, also known as Kazi Neel, is a multimedia journalist, cultural activist, and Miya poet from Barpeta, Assam. His work depicts life, culture, marginalisation, displacement, statelessness, and more. Currently, he heads Itamugur Community Media- an alternative media platform to amplify the voices of the marginalised communities of Assam. Given his experience and motivation, he is best placed to be the Project Coordinator of this Foundation Project of IFA.

While the traditional boatmaking practices of several indigenous communities in Assam have been well documented, the boat-related knowledge and cultural life of the Miya Muslim community, living across thousands of river islands (Char-Chapori), has received little attention in academic or visual documentation, despite their deep reliance on boats for survival, mobility, and cultural expression. The project aims to record and understand the interdependence of craft, song, and public ritual in this community while also preserving both cultural memory and the technical know-how of boat-making in the region.

The project will use ethnographic fieldwork and soundscape documentation: participant observation in char settlements; video and audio recordings of boat-building and races; studio and field recordings of Bhatiyali and related songs; in-depth interviews with boatmakers, singers, and elders; and photographic documentation. Field materials will be edited into a short documentary and an audio collection; careful consent and ethical sharing practices with communities will guide the work. A sharing with the community through an exhibition is planned.

The outcomes of this project will be a short documentary film, an audio collection of Bhatiyali and related river songs, a visual ethnographic essay, and an exhibition. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA, along with the final reports, will include the edited film, the photo essay, and audio recordings of songs.

This project aligns with the framework of IFA’s Arts Research programme, as it brings to the fore a hitherto overlooked aspect of the material culture of a river community in Assam that has been marginalised in various ways: citizenship crisis, displacement, floods, and linguistic hybridity. Through visual storytelling and by producing knowledge in collaboration with the community rather than solely about them, the project aims to decolonise the ethnographic gaze, ensuring representation is ethical, nuanced, and grounded in lived experience.

IFA will ensure that the implementation of this project happens in a timely manner and funds expended are accounted for. IFA will also review the progress of the project at midterm and document it through an Implementation Memorandum. After the project is finished and all deliverables are submitted, IFA will put together a Final Evaluation to share with Trustees.

The Project is part-supported by BNP Paribas India.