Eviscerating the Sea

Abstract

Abstract Contemporary infrastructure projects in the sea reterritorialize port environments, continuously discarding historic occupants and coastal occupations in their wake. In this article the authors dwell on the ongoing histories through which fish and fishers are eviscerated in Mumbai's seas via the proliferation of massive infrastructural operations currently being staged by the Indian state. In so doing, they make two arguments. First, they show how infrastructures at sea are accretive forms that are simultaneously articulated at different time scales. New infrastructures currently being built in the sea in postcolonial India only intensify the expropriations of colonial projects that were staged in the sea. Second, urban fishers work not only at sea but also on the dry land of the city. As chances for making livelihoods at sea are steadily foreclosed, fishers are increasingly turning to their small parcels of land in the city, exploring how and if these might be made real estate to secure their futures.