Neoliberal Wave Rocks Chilika Lake, India: Conflict over Intensive Aquaculture from a Class Perspective

Since the beginning of the 1990s, Chilika Lake, situated on the coast of the Indian state of Orissa, has been the scene of a conflict over intensive aquaculture practices, culminating in a process of de facto privatization of the lake. This conflict can be divided into two distinct phases that have seen the involvement from village to state level of different actors: in particular the traditional fishing people and the dominant classes in Orissa. This article analyzes the socio-economic dynamics governing the conflict. The specific aim is to investigate the dynamics of class reproduction, new forms of class oppression and the emergence of new forms of class consciousness related to the transformations caused by the new aquaculture practices. The role of class in India today is discussed and related to a fieldwork-based analysis of the two phases of this movement against intensive aquaculture.