Fishermen in Minicoy (Maliku) : the production of Maldive fish as a sustainable economy

Abstract

The people of Minicoy (Maliku), the southernmost island of the Lakshadweep, produce Maldive fish, a delicacy widely known in India, Sri Lanka and beyond. Maldive fish, locally hikimas, is a cooked and dried tuna fillet that is as hard as wood and can be used for several years after processing. For many centuries it has been an essential part of the diet of seafarers, the pioneers of pre-colonial globalisation in the Indian Ocean. Maliku fishermen catch bait fish in the lagoon and skipjack tuna in the open ocean within a radius of 25 miles. Hikimas is produced by local women in their homes for export and partly for their own consumption. Despite the motorisation of fishing boats and other modernisations, fishing with pole and line and the production of hikimas proved to be a most sustainable form of catching and processing fish. It remained basically unchanged since it was first documented in the fourteenth century. I shall argue that fishing on Maliku is more than an economic activity, as it is a central aspect of producing home and belonging also for other occupational groups, particularly seamen, the largest professional group. Fishing and hikimas production are most inclusive economies with transparent distribution of surplus and wealth, and therefore contribute to a society that is often described as “egalitarian”.