Tell me the price of your fish, O woman – the refrain of this song traditionally performed at weddings – is an example of the enduring relevance and adaptability of this genre. Sung by Juma Wagher, himself a fisherman from Mundra taluka, the song is traditionally meant for joyous occasions. But in the present context of what the community faces in the region, it resonates with many new social and political meanings.
The Waghers, a Muslim minority community involved in fishing in the region, have a centuries old relationship with the Gulf of Kachchh. Men, women and children from this fishing community move from their inland villages to the fishing grounds near the town of Mundra. They live on the shore for almost eight or nine months in makeshift huts to seek a livelihood from the sea. Men harvest the fish, bring their catch of the day, while women sort, dry and sell the fish.
Things began to change in year 2000 as the state government encouraged industrialisation and privatisation of the coastline. A number of projects including oil refineries, cement and fertiliser plants, salt pans, bauxite and limestone mining, and shipping-related activities, drastically affected the living environment of the community.
They were losing their fishing grounds with construction and pollution; the coastal ecosystem and natural tidal flows were disrupted. The Waghers suffered a significant drop in income with the reduced size and diversity of their catch and were forced to go further into the sea for fishing. And with it came the loss of traditional knowledge practices, like pagadia fishing, for the community.
A decade ago fisherfolk from the region even sought to file a lawsuit against the World Bank’s private investment agency International Finance Corporation (IFC) in a US federal court for funding a mega coal plant that brought destruction to their livelihoods. The nature of ‘development’ in the region has only deepened the vulnerability of this community already living on the margins among the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) in Kachchh.
