ARI Working Paper Series

This paper is part of an inquiry into the history of Indian fisheries during the period of British colonial rule, which I am undertaking with my colleagues from the South Asia Research Unit at Curtin University.  We are seeking an understanding of (i) the effects on the fisheries and fishing communities in the different regions of India of changes which derived from the nature of British colonial rule and (ii) the changes in socio-economic and socio-political structures and relationships which followed from – or were made possible by – the existence of the colonial state.

In order to fully understand such changes it is important to have an understanding of the place which fish, fisheries and fishing communities occupied in the economic, social and cultural formations of pre-colonial and colonial India.  Cultural factors seem likely to be of fundamental importance in understanding the role assigned to fisheries and fishers in different regions. The importance of fish in regional dietary and culinary regimes is likely to have a major impact on the economic importance assigned to fisheries; the role of fish in the social and religious ceremonies of regional populations, or specific groups within regional populations, may explain differing regional attitudes to fisher groups as well as the fisheries; and differing evaluations of fish, as real or symbolic objects, might explain community attitudes towards those groups within a regional society for whom fish are significant.

This paper is an attempt to open discussion on some of these questions.