Shooting and Fishing Prohibitions in the Water Bodies of Ajmer–Pushkar During Colonial Period: The Case of Marginalised Communities

Abstract

Popular perception views the colonial regime as totally unconcerned about the notions of propriety and sentiments associated with the native population. Such a view does not bar us from studying colonial governance and the public works that it undertook under normal governance. The case study of fishing prohibitions imposed on the lakes of Ajmer–Pushkar highlights not only the regard that the colonial government had towards the religious sentiments of the masses but also the influence of modern Western ideas of environment conservation. Parallel to this runs the narrative of communal tension that erupts due to the prioritisation of religious sentiments of the majority community by the British State. The poor, whose sustenance is dependent on fishing, find ways to breach the colonial prohibitions, thereby challenging the regime’s authority. Similarly, the representatives of the vegetarian merchant class use their influence to compel the British administrators to take the steps they favoured. No consensus or conclusion is reached due to the complex nature of the whole affair, but the reading of the correspondence that emergence to and from the Chief Commissioner’s Office of Ajmer–Merwara on the subject may give us an insight into the various factors that influenced the functioning of the colonial administration and the diverse kinds of reaction that these elicited from the native population.