Edited By: Deepanshu Mohan, Sakshi Chindaliya, Ashika Thomas

This is excerpt from the chapter ‘Fish on Footpath’ from the book Vulnerable Communities in Neoliberal India: Perspectives from a Feminist Ethnographic Approach edited by Deepanshu Mohan, Sakshi Chindaliya and Ashika Thomas. The book provides an ethnographic analysis of modern neoliberal India, focusing on the daily experiences and livelihoods of marginalised, insecure, informal communities living in urban and peri-urban areas throughout the country.

The Hanji people, a traditional fishing community in Jammu and Kashmir, are facing near extinction of their ancestral fishing practices that have endured for centuries. Research findings reveal a decline in Hanji incomes due to unregulated development, unplanned urbanisation, and unregulated tourism, which has poisoned the region’s famous water bodies, destroying both fish populations and Hanji livelihoods.

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