Merajur Rahman Baruah

This Foundation Project implemented by IFA will facilitate research and creation of a documentary film tentatively titled Riders of the Shifting Sands. In addition, findings through the research and making of the film will also be shared through a booklet or brochure. The documentary film proposes to look at the long-standing tradition of Jorhat Horse Race not as a colonial leisure but as a living heritage that rests on collective pride, resilience and cultural continuity of the Mishing community who inhabit the bank and riverine islands of Brahmaputra. The film attempts to position itself as cinematic ethnography and a cultural archive. This project is in collaboration with Vintage Hub, in Jorhat, Assam. Located in the heart of Jorhat, Assam, Vintage Hub is a vibrant cultural place that has a diverse collection of archival materials and objects pertaining to Jorhat, in an attempt to gather the many histories of the city which rests with its people. The primary vision of the space is to conserve and disseminate resources related to the history of Jorhat and Assam, offering open access to both researchers and the general public. Merajur Rahman Baruah is the coordinator of this project. 

Merajur Rahman Baruah is an independent documentary filmmaker. He has received the Commonwealth Vision Award 2006 for his film Beyond the Zero Line from the Royal Commonwealth Society, United Kingdom. He has received Rajat Kamal for best film on social issues at the 55th National Film Awards for his film Shifting Prophecy. His other films have been widely screened in various film forums, universities and international film festivals receiving appreciations, rave reviews and accolades. He has a Master’s degree in Sociology, Mass Communication Research from AJK Mass Communication Research Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia, and Film Appreciation course from Film & Television Institute of India, Pune. Merajur hails From Lakhimpur, Assam and has been researching the Mishing community, their living tradition, relationship to the riverine valley of Brahmaputra and the precarity of their lives in face of climate crisis. Given his interest in the region and accomplishments in documentary filmmaking, Merajur is best suited to be the Project Coordinator of this Foundation Project of IFA. 

While archives or museums premise themselves on collection of objects and materials, Vintage Hub in Jorhat seeks to activate the city of Jorhat as a space where collective lived histories are gathered, questioned, contested and shared. The archival collection at the Vintage Hub is therefore a site where objects are not only deposited and collected, but is a space where collection of stories, gathering of people, and donations to the archive reveal the city as a living record. Merajur through his project aims to add to this endeavour, where the proposed documentary film brings forth an under-studied aspect of the city – its tradition of horse racing – the lives of people who are an integral part of it and yet have never been recognised.

The Jorhat Horse Race is unlike any equestrian traditions found anywhere in the world.  Unlike traditional races, where horses are bred and trained throughout the year, in Jorhat, the race sustains on semi feral horses who live in the sandbars of Brahmaputra. Prior to the race, they are caught, trained for weeks, raced and then released back into the wild for the rest of the year. The race which is held annually at Gymkhana Club is only the final culmination of an equestrian ritual that embodies centuries of ecological knowledge sustained through collective cooperation and intergenerational discourse of the Mishing community. Therefore, the Mishing Community and their contribution is at the heart of this tradition. The research and production of this documentary film will explore how barefoot boys of the Mishing tribal community from the riverine villages of Jajhimukh and Amguri regions of Jorhat district have been riding semi feral ponies bareback without reins, saddles and modern gears for over 142 years across the very track that was once reserved for the British. Every year boys and men of the community return to Gymkhana Club race ground not merely to race but to reclaim a piece of their history. The act of racing becomes a rite of passage, a communal affirmation of belonging and a repository of ecological wisdom. 

In this way the film fits right into the vision and attempts of Vintage Hub to gather and bring conversations about Jorhat and its people which usually fall off the mainstream discourse of heritage and cultural tradition. Supporting this project, also addresses the vision of the Archives and Museums programme at IFA which seeks to nurture spaces like archives as sites of new discourse. The usual conversations around the race in Jorhat have primarily revolved around the Gymkhana Club and its endeavours. The proposed film shifts the lens of looking at this tradition of the race from the colonial and upper-class preoccupation to the Mishing youth who have transformed this elite vestige of empire into a living heritage practice. 

This tradition, even though rooted in deep ecological wisdom, currently exists in a precarious state owing to erratic flooding of the Brahmaputra. This not only threatens the survival of the feral horses, but also poses great threat to this inter-generational heritage. Positioning itself within this susceptible framework, the film assumes an urgent archival significance, to register the presence of a cultural practice before ecological disruption causes a historical erasure. 

The Project Coordinator has designed the visual approach of the film in an observational style adopting ethnographic cinematic tradition. Being a seasoned film-maker and having a long-standing relationship with the community, Merajur decisively will keep the camera as an unobtrusive tool, using natural light, ambient sound and cinematography to trace the natural bond of semi feral horses and Mishing community as a living continuum. Archival photographs, weathered trophies, and memorabilia will be juxtaposed into live footage, layering memory over the footage of community members articulating their emotional generational inheritance, collective yearning and negotiation for continuity. This approach will allow conversations and reflections to unfold progressively in everyday moments, revealing an ecology of kinship, resilience and belonging amidst the shifting riverine bed. The film will also weave in seasoned representatives, active members as well as officials of the Gymkhana Club confabulating about the essence of the unique race from historical perspective to the contemporaneity. 

Owing to the nature of the project and the seasonal characteristic of the Jorhat Horse Race, the Project Coordinator has created an overlapping system of work. The starting point of reference for the documentary film will be the announcement of dates about the Jorhat Horse race approximately end of December or first week of January. From this period the film will follow the activities related to the race, shooting elaborately the cyclical processes of capturing, training, racing and releasing the ponies in the wild. However, as per the requirement of the narrative, the shooting will resume during the monsoon and post monsoon months, when Brahmaputra swells and floods the riverine islands. In tandem, the various additional narratives will also be built by shooting the everyday life of the community. In the concluding phase, the film will be in post-production for edit, colour-grading and sound editing. At this stage, Merajur will also work with a designer to create the draft and digital version of the brochure/ booklet that gathers the research findings, images from the field and archival objects if any, and if willingly shared by the community for the purpose of the booklet. On completion, Merajur hopes to organise screenings of the documentary for the community members as well  at Vintage Hub and Gymkhana Club. 

The primary outcome of this project will be a 30-minute documentary, along with a booklet or brochure that narrativises the research. The Project Coordinator’s final deliverables to IFA along with the final reports will be the film and copies of the booklet/brochure. 

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.

This project is supported by Tata Trusts.