Coastal Erosion, Enclosure and Displacement: The Impact of the Vizhinjam International Seaport in Kerala

ABSTRACT Following India's neoliberal reforms in the 1990s, the central government encouraged coastal resource extraction through industrial aquaculture, deep‐sea mining and port infrastructure under the banner of the ‘Blue Economy’ framework and the Sagarmala Programme. This shift was also embraced by the State of Kerala and has led to significant transformation of its coastal region, including a profound reshaping of coastal economies and intensifying environmental degradation, livelihood disruption and social conflict. This article analyses the narratives and practices of one such project: the Vizhinjam International Seaport, a deep‐sea container transshipment facility in southern Kerala managed in a joint venture by the Kerala government and private investors. The study follows the project from inception to implementation and finds that the safeguarding of fish workers’ livelihoods and their views about development were squarely neglected in the process. Local and national capitals were afforded unregulated accumulation opportunities around the construction and operation of the port at the expense of impoverished and marginalized fishing communities that were excluded and evicted. Through denying fishing communities the right to meaningfully participate in the formulation of the region's development strategy, dismissing the assertion of their political demands and failing to recognize their heterogeneity and the power differentials within the community, the Kerala government and its private concessionaries disrupted and destroyed the livelihoods of excluded groups in the name of development. In so doing, they contributed to reinforcing the prevailing caste hierarchies that sustain socio‐economic marginalization.