Songs have always chronicled social, political, historic, geographical, cultural and environmental change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many popular singers have responded to the climate crisis \u2013 Billie Eilish with All the Good Girls Go to Hell<\/a><\/em>, Kelly Lee Owens with Melt!<\/em>, Anohni with 4 Degrees<\/em>, to name a few. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Editor\u2019s note<\/p> This is the first of two projects documenting the songs of communities displaced by flooding. Listen to songs from Bangladesh\u2019s river basins here<\/a>.<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n In Assam, in northeast India, local singers are also voicing the pain of the changing climate in their music. The Third Pole travelled through the state to record songs along the Brahmaputra river.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Assam is extremely vulnerable to climate change. Much of the state is in the basin of the Brahmaputra<\/a>, a river that has changed its depth and width many times in history. Now the floods have worsened due to climate change, while erosion has increased because the river no longer carries as much silt as before \u2013 the silt is being trapped in dams upstream<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All this has come on top of the 8.7-magnitude earthquake in 1950 that changed the topography of the region. It started a massive displacement of people from the riverbanks, a process that is accelerating now. Many have used songs to describe the pain of losing homes and livelihoods along the Brahmaputra river.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sunen Hindu Musalman\/Boli ekti dukher gaan\/Brahmaputra bhainga nilo Tarabari gram<\/em> The opening lyrics of 72-year-old Moinul Bhuyan\u2019s song refer to an issue that affects all people in this area irrespective of religion. Bhuyan’s song is about his village Tarabari, which was washed away by the Brahmaputra river after the earthquake. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cTarabari was a big business hub before the 1950s, a traditional dockyard,\u201d recalled Bhuyan. \u201cBig ships used to come and halt there for trade and commerce. We used to trade jute from there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nAssam and climate change<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Song of the displaced<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Listen Hindus and Muslims\/Let me sing a sad song\/Brahmaputra broke Tarabari village<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n