Catholic Church, Fishers and Negotiating Development: A Study on the Vizhinjam Port Project

Abstract

We examine the mobilisation and negotiation of a local community against the construction of a trans-shipment container terminal in Vizhinjam village in southern India. Initiated by the state and executed by the private capital, the project represents the wider pattern of developmental regimes characterised by accumulation by dispossession. Like several other fishing villages in southern Kerala, Vizhinjam has active associational forms of civil society, largely mediated as well as shaped by the Latin Catholic church. The common religious identity of these associational forms, however, failed to generate a consensus among the local community regarding the port project. Diverse positions emerged in the village due to different class formations and mobility aspirations of the population. The political atmosphere constrained the church from strongly opposing the project due to the fear of it being labelled ‘anti-national’, since the port project was projected as essential for the nation’s development and progress.