Paper short abstract:

to follow

Paper long abstract:

In this paper, I examine the contested discourses on land and sea in coastal villages on the southern tip of Tamil Nadu around a site designated to be Asia?s largest nuclear power plant, Koodankulam. I consider the local fishing communities? perceptions and conceptions of the land and sea, as well as the threat of change that the nuclear power station, backed by the central state, poses to their lives and livelihoods. It is clear that very distinct ideas emerge from local and settler state authorities. The beaches are home to the fishing communities by way of tradition and precedent. Legalistically, however, they are government land, subject to coastal management strictures. The fishing communities are appreciative of the sea, applying almost a religious conception to their view of the sea: it is their /amma/ (mother), their provider of daily sustenance amongst other benefits. The statist view sees the sea as, on the one hand, a resource to be desalinated in order to provide much-needed water to the construction of the nuclear plant in a parched area; on the other hand, it is also a potential waste tip for water coolant can be released into it once the reactors go critical, thereby posing a grave danger to fishing communities. Such views are at loggerheads with each other with profound implications for both sides.