Trapped in a gulf of hope and despair: the Wagher small scale fisheries on the Kutch coast of Gujarat, India

Abstract

This paper discusses a case study located on the northern shore of the Gulf of Kutch in the western Indian state of Gujarat. Specifically the paper explores the major characteristics of small scale fisheries practiced by the Muslim Wagher community and investigate the challenges and dilemmas faced by them in their pursuit of a livelihood in fisheries. Wagher fishers have occupied the lowest rungs in local continuums of social and economic status historically. Their livelihoods and conditions of living have become particularly precarious since the early 2000s when the government of Gujarat embarked on an ambitious plan for port-based industrialisation and privatisation of vast tracts of wastelands, grasslands and coast line. Given this context, the paper focuses attention on the relations of exchange like market-tying informal credit contracts widely used by traders to consolidate their control over marketing processes and their impact on the lives and livelihoods of Wagher fishers. It is argued that the unfreedom that arises from the embeddedness of market transactions in social interactions constrains the ability of Wagher fishers to effectively resist ongoing processes of economic exploitation and coastal expropriation, or to advocate for their fair inclusion in social and economic development.