What might the conveyance of fish by bicycle tell us about the shifting contours and material rearrangements of caste in the city? Following fish as it moves through Kolkata, strapped onto bicycles and carried across auctions, markets, and neighborhoods, I explore how mobility and displacement reconfigure caste relations. In Bengal, fishing is embedded in histories of untouchability and dispossession, even as fish has long held immense culinary and ritual significance. As a commodity, fish unsettles the occupational and ritual boundaries through which caste has been organized, moving across the social worlds that give it meaning and value. I ask what fish in motion makes visible about the ongoing making and unmaking of caste in Kolkata.

Speaker

Dr Malini Sur

Malini Sur is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Western Sydney University. She is the author of Jungle Passports: Fences, Mobility, and Citizenship at the Northeast India–Bangladesh Border (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2021), recipient of the South Asian Studies Association of Australia’s President’s Book Prize, the Bernard S. Cohn Prize (Hon. Men.), and a Choice Outstanding Academic Title. Her recent documentary film, Parramatta Redux (38 min), follows the changing landscapes and communities along the course of the Burramattagal River, bringing together First Nations histories, colonial encounters, and the experiences of migrant communities.

Chair

Dr Kriti Kapila

Kriti Kapila is Senior Lecturer in Social Anthropology and Law at King’s College London, where she is based at the King’s India Institute and the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine. Her research spans the anthropology of the state, law and anthropology, ethnographic theory, science and technology, and contemporary India. She is the author of Nullius: The Anthropology of Ownership, Sovereignty, and the Law in India (HAU Books, 2022), and has written extensively on the politics of recognition and indigeneity. Her current research examines genomics, ancient DNA, and digital state-making in India.