CHAIN/சரம்
The project started as a gradution project for my master’s degree at National Institute of Design. I wanted to go back to my roots and understand my story from there.
Acknowledgment
I am deeply indebted to the photography department, family, friends and the people in the different villages who were willing to share their knowledge with me.To name a few who impacted me with their support and words, in no particular order, Rishi Singhal, Vedasahaya Kumar, Jawahar anna, Venice, Fr.Romald, Bishop of Kottar diocese Fr. Nazarene, Xavier, T.Peter, Majeed, Majeendran, Mahesh, Jegath, Shain, Jerof, Milkeas, Vareethiah, Lal Mohan, Fr. Anbarasan, Jasiah, Julius, Berlin, Nityanand Jayaraman, Amrithraj Stephen, PEP Collective, Paul Salopek, Arun Vijai Mathavan, Selvaprakash Lakshmanan, and my grandmother Amalorpavam.
Original idea
The Indian sub-continent is surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Arabian Sea, and Bay of Bengal. It has a 7500 km long coastline which includes the coasts of Andaman & Nicobar and Lakshwadeep islands. In the non-services GDP India hasa significant logistics cost. It is estimated to be 25 lakh crore or 19% of GDP. This compares to 12-13% in other countries like China and the UK. The modal mix of India logistics is skewed towards road at 55% and railways at 33%. The modal share of coastal shipping and inland waterways remain low at 6%. It should be noted that the cost per ton kilometer of moving cargo by sea or inland water routes can be 60 to 80 percent lower than by road or rail.Sagarmala project of the Indian government plans to link all the ports in the country through road, rail and sea, the idea was envisaged by the Ex. Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2003. When Vajpayee was the prime minister his government was responsible for the creation of the golden quadrilateral which connected all the major metro cities of India. From 2004 to 2014 the Sagarmala project was renamed to National Maritime Development Programme(NMDP) by then shipping minister T.R.Baalu. The NMDP formed in 2004 one year after Mr. Vajpayee’s announcement. The major undertaking by the program was the Sethusamudram Channel Project and the building of the transshipment port in Vallarpadam, Cochin. When the government changed in 2014, the Sagarmala project was reignited with vigor. The concept of Sagarmala was approved by the union cabinet on 25th March 2015. The national perspective plan for the comprehensive development of India’s coastline and maritime sector was released by Honourable PM Narendra Modi on 14th April 2016 in the Maiden Maritime India Summit 2016 held in Maharashtra, the day commemorates the 125th birth anniversary of Dr.B.R.Ambedkar. The Sagarmala Development Company was incorporated on 31st August 2016. The idea of the project was to have a port-led development in the country by tapping into the 7500 km long coastline and 14000 km long navigable inland waterways. The project explains that, by linking all ports, waterways with the rail and road a well-connected network for the movement of the cargo can be created. The Sagarmala project is projected to be Rs. 8,57,050 cr project which will take India’s ports on par to the likes of China, Sri Lanka, and Singapore.
Enayam is a fishing hamlet in the Kanniyakumari District of Tamilnadu. Taking Enayam port as the point of interest as I hail from Kanniyakumari district. The in-principle approval for a major port at Enayam was given by the union cabinet on 5th July 2016. The Container transshipment terminal port was planned in Enayam, Kanniyakumari (Tamil Nadu). The fishermen in that region and the hinterlands of Kanniyakumari district came together. They protested through mass movement and the judiciary. This movement forced the government to move the port to a new location about 20kms away from the first location but within Kanniyakumari. This location which falls between Keezhamanakudi and Kovalam is, even more, affecting the environment. The port that is planned is a transshipment port. New protests had started, and the project is stalled now, and no-one is ready to discuss it due to the upcoming election.
When a port is built in a location, several environmental considerations has to be met, one of the major effects is the displacement of the people from their livelihood, environmental impact, the receding and increasing tideline, sea erosion, climatic changes, and many more.
The coastline of India is divided into Coastal Regulation Zones as a notification from the ministry of environment andforests in 1991. These zones are created to safeguard the coasts due to their environmental importance. The CRZs areclassified as I, II, III, and IV. The environmentally sensitive and important regions and the land between the High Tideline and Low Tideline fall under the CRZ I. No construction is allowed in this region. The coastline region between Manakudi and Kovalam falls under CRZ I. Also, the Manakudi region has mangroves forest, an estuary for the Palayar river, agricultural lands within 500 meters, bird sanctuary and few other aspects. In the Kanniyakumari district, 48% of the land is cultivated, the major cultivation is Coconuts, food grains, and rubber. There is no presence of huge industries to export cargo. The Vizinjam port which is about 60kms away from Kanniyakumari is another transshipment port though not a major one is being built by the Adani Group. Cochin port which is another transshipment port has utilized 50% of its capacity in the past year. The reality is the port in such a location has to reassess. Also, it has to be noted that Kanniyakumari has a rich marine biodiversity. Also, the region experiences high sea erosion. To construct a port in the proposed site requires dredging into the sea which will cause more damage to the seabed. The groyne which was constructed in the Kovalam village is presently breaking and falling apart. This groyne has caused sea erosion in the nearby region between Kovalam and Manakudi. We can realize how aggravated the problem will be if a port is built there. The locals are against the port and are not allowing any outsiders coming inside their village with cameras or other equipment. They are stopping the detailed project being made by the government on the location where the port is planned.
- By walking along the coastline of Kovalam village with the inquiry on how the interaction between men and the sea takes place. Listening to the local stories and making a visual narrative out of it. Writing, collecting artifacts, and bringing out the psychogeography of the place.
- Visually documenting the places that will become lost or inaccessible after the port is built and build a comparison with the already existing port like Vallarpadam, Vizinjam, Tuticorin, Chennai, and Ennore. The environmental impact of the ports are visibly seen, the marina beach is itself an aftermath of the port built-in Chennai by the British. The lives of the people displaced and the new buildings built will form a visual. Also, bring about the improbability the fishing population face in daily lives.
- Using the poems from different literatures and texts like ‘Shenbagaraman Pallu’ which is believed to be written by a poet Shenbagaraman from Kovalam. With me as an outsider who changes by engaging with them daily. The diary entries and other written thoughts to make an argument from the experiences.
- The stories of the childhood of my grandmother along with the parallels of the stories of today’s village. Also, bring in the different historical aspects of each location that are relevant.
- Subverting the aspect of development by bringing in aspects of absurdities as development to the people and record them reacting to it. For example, asking the fishermen to become vegetarians so that it is easier for them to get used to the development, make them find ways to add value to imported food items.
Visual and literature references
Literature References
Aazhi Suzh Ulagu (Ocean Ringed World)
Jo D’Cruz a Tamil writer, novelist born in Uvari a coastal village, has authored a book about the livelihood of thefishermen from a fictionalized village. The book was written from his childhood memories. The book is rich in picturing the life intermingling with different historical development and how it affects the fishermen affectively.
I was interested in reading how to effectively and truthfully tell the stories which are close to your heart.
Enayam Khakka Enaivom (Let us save Enayam together)
Kurumpanai C Berlin a Tamil activist writer, hailing from Kurumpanai a village in Kanniyakumari. The book is a collection of essays written by him in the
Aazhi Suzh Ulagu (Ocean Ringed World)
Jo D’Cruz a Tamil writer, novelist born in Uvari a coastal village, has authored a book about the livelihood of thefishermen from a fictionalized village. The book was written from his childhood memories. The book is rich in picturing the life intermingling with different historical development and how it affects the fishermen affectively.
I was interested in reading how to effectively and truthfully tell the stories which are close to your heart.
Enayam Khakka Enaivom (Let us save Enayam together)
Kurumpanai C Berlin a Tamil activist writer, hailing from Kurumpanai a village in Kanniyakumari. The book is a collection of essays written by him in the
catholic magazine ‘Nam Vaazhvu’ as the
Enayam protests were happening. This book helped me in understanding the details at the ground level reality for the villages I was photographing.
Shenbagraman Pallu
Compiled by Kalingarayan is literature written on the land of Kovaikulam the landscape where the port is planned to be built. I was interested in reading the text which described the present fishing village of Kovalam as a farming village. The fieldwork for the book was done by Mr.Vedhasahayakumar. He hypotheses reasons as to why the farmland has become a fishing village due to the trade efforts taken by the king of that region. This was helpful to me to bring how the efforts of development affect the land, people and the ecosystem as a whole.
Enayam protests were happening. This book helped me in understanding the details at the ground level reality for the villages I was photographing.
Shenbagraman Pallu
Compiled by Kalingarayan is literature written on the land of Kovaikulam the landscape where the port is planned to be built. I was interested in reading the text which described the present fishing village of Kovalam as a farming village. The fieldwork for the book was done by Mr.Vedhasahayakumar. He hypotheses reasons as to why the farmland has become a fishing village due to the trade efforts taken by the king of that region. This was helpful to me to bring how the efforts of development affect the land, people and the ecosystem as a whole.
Prologue
I started the project with the idea of walking along the coast of India from Gujarat to West Bengal. Since I am from Kanniyakumari, I drove along the coast of my hometown meeting experts of the seashore in different villages. By tracing the news and the latest books written on the sea, I was able to identify what is plaguing the people’s lives near the coast of Kanniyakumari. In the coastal land between the villages of Kovalam and Keezhamanakudi of Kanniyakumari a major container transshipment port is planned to be built.Ports are the gateways of trade and culture. All major developments in the world were accelerated due to the advancement of sea routes. Today, Ports play a major role in everyday life from electricity to e-commerce. Our power plants are powered by the coals that are shipped through the ports. Our exports which feed and drive the people are also shipped through them. This has led to a realization that only port-led development can make India a powerful country in the world.
All ports in India fall under the Sagarmala project of the government. In simple terms, the Sagarmala project is an allocation of funds to connect all the ports through sea, road, and rail, build new ports, modernize the existing ones, build new industries near the coast and train the community to accommodate the port in their lives and lands.
India has thirteen major ports and 200 notified minor and intermediate ports. Ports play a vital role in the overall economic development. About 95 percent by volume and 70 percent by value of India’s international trade is carried out through maritime transport.
Major Ports vs Minor Ports
India has thirteen major ports viz. Kolkata Port, Paradip Port, New Mangalore Port, Cochin Port, Jawaharlal Nehru Port, Mumbai Port, Kandla Port, Vishakhapatnam Port, Chennai Port, Tuticorin port, Ennore Port, Mormugao Port, and Port Blair Port. Out of them, the Mumbai, JNPT, Kandla, Mangalore, Cochin, and Momugao are located at the western coast while Kolkata, Vishakhapatnam, Paradeep, Chennai, Tuticorin, and Ennore are located on East Coast. Port Blair is located in Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
There is no strict association of the traffic volume with the terms as major and minor. For example, the Mundra port ofGujarat is a minor port, but it has registered a traffic volume much larger than some of the major ports. The classification of Indian ports into major, minor and intermediate has administrative significance. The maritime transport falls under the “concurrent list” of the constitution and thus is to be administered by both the Central and the State governments. So, while the Union Shipping Ministry administers the major ports, the minor and intermediate ports are administered by the relevant departments or ministries in the nine coastal states viz. West Bengal, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Goa, Maharashtra, and Gujarat. Many of the 200 minor and intermediate ports are merely “notified”; little or no cargo handling takes place there.
To illustrate how the landscapes are changing when a port is built, it was decided to travel to different locations on the east and west coast. The landscapes around the following places, Kattupalli, Ennore, Chennai, Thoothukudi, Vallarpadam, and Vallarpadam, were captured. Each of the landscapes have different problems faced by them, it can be brought under a uniform conclusion that the built environment is degrading. The following explanation will delve deeper into each location, the include the realities observed during the visits, Vizinjam and Kanniyakumari have also been added as ports being built and proposed to be built there respectively.
Vallarpadam, Ernakulam, Kerala
Located on the Willington island on the South-West coast of India and the crossroads of the East-West Ocean trade. The port is called a natural gateway to the vast industrial and agricultural produce markets of the South-West India.
India’s first transshipment port was built in Vallarpadam, Ernakulam, Kerala. It started its operation in 2011 with a capacity to handle ten lakh containers. Before this port was built, India depended on Dubai, Sri Lanka, and Singapore for its Transshipment needs. Last year, Vallarpadam had onlyreached slightly more than fifty percent of its total capacity. India spends two to three percent more of the containers are transhipped in other countries. About twenty percent of India’s transshipment needs is taken care of by Vallarpadam, the rest are transhipped outside India. With this reality, about one hundred and eighty kilometers south of Cochin a transshipment port is being built in Vizhinjam with the maximum capacity to handle 40 lakh containers for a planned cost of 7500 crores. Even further down south the coast about eighty kilometers away, in Kanniyakumari another transshipment port is being proposed to be built with the capacity of handling one crore containers for a projected cost of 27570 crores.
When speaking one of the fishermen from Fort Cochin, he called the transshipment port a failure as the mothership does not reach the port. Rather another ship transports the containers form the mother ship to the port. The coast does not have the minimum depth needed for the mother ship, if the depth is increased by artificial means it affects the seabeds and the sea loses its fish bank and the fishermen in the region will lose their only livelihood. Hence the dredging the sea floors is not carried out for the ship to enter to save the environment.
Vizhinjam, Thiruvanthapuram, Kerala
Vizhinjam port was planned due to the protests of the people in Thiruvanthapuram. The port in Cochin brought in industries and jobs in the Ernakulam area, but the capital of Kerala state did not such attention. A major transshipment port was to be built on the coast of Thiruvanthapuram. After several hurdles, the Adani group was brought in to build the port with a Public-Private- Partnership and is predicted to function by the end of 2019.
The port is being built near the fishing harbor of the coastal village of Vizhinjam. The fishermen of the land are beingdisplaced to new colonies. The port is being built at a high cost of sea erosion in the nearby villages. The sea works in a complex manner when some amount of land is reclaimed from the sea. The sea, in turn, starts to take that amount of land and more from the nearby shores by moving into the land by excessive erosion.
Kanniyakumari, Tamilnadu
The Kanniyakumari landscape is unique, one can reach a seashore or a mountain in 15 minutes by car. This landscape of 20 km stretch of plain is what I call home. In 2015, the then state minister Pon Radha Krishnan had announced that Rs.30000 crores is allocated to build an international container transshipment port around the Enayam village region of Kanniyakumari. This was part of the Sagarmala project. The small land strip of Kanniyakumari with its numerous engineering colleges, rubber produce, coconut harvest, salt production, and high literacy rate does not have any huge industries. The minister wanted to develop his district. The previous representatives with political power were felt to have not brought any development to Kanniyakumari.
This port has been now renamed as V.O.Chidambaranar Port. It is located in the Gulf of Mannar. Tuticorin is the only port in South India to provide a direct weekly container service to the United States.
The pearl city, now a port city had an old port that handled trade from antiquity. Now it is a land filled with severalenvironmental problems due to unprecedented and uncontrolled industrial growth. The industrial growth fostered by the port development has influenced all the activities of the land. The infamous Sterlite protest which lead to the police firing and death of thirteen people took place in Thoothukudi.
Chennai, Tamilnadu
Chennai Port is the largest port in the Bay of Bengal and the second largest port of India after JNPT. It is the largest port on the east coast. Chennai Port is one of the oldest port, its construction started in 1881. The port has become part of the everyday lives, all the goods container, containers of fuel and oil have become another object in the horizon. If some people might have been part of the livelihood when the port was built have gone into oblivion. Now the fishermen livingnearby have been given spaces to occupy. This plan reeks of devious plan to remove the people from their land so that the land becomes valuable to the people in power.
The world-famous Marina Beach of Chennai is an artificial seashore. Widely touted as the longest sandy urban beach in India is manmade. After the Chennai port started its operation, Marina beach slowly built up. The beach is the best example of sea erosion. The land and the sea are connected by a narrow strip of sand, this sand is not stationary. It can be considered a river, as there is constant movement. This river of sand moves northward for about nine months and southward for three months. Making any change in the shore affects the other parts in several unpredictable ways. We have to realize building a port is similar to building a wall into the sea. This wall affects the movement of the sand by building up on one side and depleting on the other side. Marina is an example of building up.
Ennore creek is a water bank for the city of Chennai also it serves a major part in accepting the water during floods. The major port which is known as Kamarajar port is in Ennore. The Kamarajar Port is the only corporatized major port. It is the first corporate port of India and is registered as a public company with a 68% stake held by the government. It was originally conceived primarily to handle thermal coal to meet the requirement of the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) and was endowed with large chunks of land (about 2,000 acres). The scope was expanded taking into account subsequent developments such as the plan of Government of Tamil Nadu to set up a 1,880 MW LNG power project in association with a private consortium, a large petrochemical park and a naphtha cracker plant. The major problem affecting the land of Ennore today is the Fly ash leakage from the pipelines. The lands look desolate, the environmentalists think that the hope for the Ennore creek to revive to its former self can be achieved only if corrective measure is done immediately. But the Government is busy with the building, modernizing and expanding the port through the Sagarmala project and degrading the land further.
This is the reality in the ports that had been traveled to. Along with this, the land is further affected by the different connectivity developments made by the government to build roads, rails, and other supporting infrastructure for these projects.
Visual Approaches
First phaseIn the first phase of the shoot, I traveled along the coast of the Kanniyakumari to understand the landscape. Even though it is my hometown I only knew about the very basics of the district. I wanted to understand the reality it is in, that I am cocooned from. So I visited all the regions which had a history and the influence on Sagarmala in it. Along with that, I was meeting the committee members and environmentalists in the district to share with me their idea of how the future of the port that was planned here. I went to a dried fish factory to see how they are made and weave a story around them, as a whole lifecycle around it. I was also interested in how any governmental development plan was planned to affect the indigenous people of the land. The visuals were mostly around the seashore and the areas that surround it.
After receiving feedback from my guides, I learned that the project visuals have been more of an exploration of the landscape and the narrative is missing. This realization made me look at why I had started working on this project and what is my connection to the sea other than my namesake caste. During the period of the project, I was staying in Nagercoil which is next door to my Grandmother. She brought me up telling stories of her childhood. This was my connection with the seashore. I was trying to narrate how my presence in the village of Kovalam was felt as if I do not belong to that place. I was making images trying to capture that. For predicting how the landscape will change when the port is built-in Kanniyakumari I was making arrangements to travel to Chennai, Thoothukudi, and Ennore. I was talking more to the people involved in the protests, demonstrations and the people’s movement against the port.
I was interested in the mass dissemination of the project to bring awareness about the ways the development project was affecting the people. I thought that mass dissemination will make the people feel that if similar developmental projects come to their locality, they will have the hope to fight it out. magazines, websites and working with the non- political organizations were my ideas through which I was thinking of sending out my project. I had traveled to more places where the port was built and could bring in the comparison of landscapes.
After this review, I was concentrating more on making portraits of the people I come across in Kovalam. I was trying to capture the people in their environment at their ease. This helped me to hone my skills as a photographer making the people comfortable to be photographed. This approach made me think about how I am representing the people who were my kin. I was confused as to why I should present them as an exhibit for the viewer to consume as already the visual of the fishermen is present in the viewer’s mind.
Methodologies
I started researching about Sagarmala, and the eight-lakh crore that is spent among the coastal states and the planned inland waterway. The different data were collected to understand the project.Initially, I was interested in the mass dissemination of the work and started thinking of different approaches so that people will get awareness of the project. This was motivated by the speech I heard from a movie director. She was visibly cringing by the way the hinterland people treat their coastal counterparts. It was not even 20days after the major crisis of cyclone Ockhi which shook the fishermen to their core. More than 200 fishermen were missing in the sea, the rescueoperation was still under process, the people in the inland were worried that they are not getting the usual amount of fish to eat. This affected me, that the plight of a fellow group of human beings is not even felt and I was interested in creating an awareness to them. I started with the idea of making one-page zine which will tell the story of the fishermen every day and with the awareness poster inside it.
After making an initial design I started making small twelve- page booklets with images of the different places I had traveled with each image showing the way how landscapes are being damaged for the sake of development. In one of the explorations, I was interested in satirical narration of events, making a mockumentary on special people in the village. For eg. Vegetarianism - A vegetarian fisherman, A fisherman’s child grows up without looking or touching the sea, fisherman buying fish from the market, fisherwoman learning to sell flowers, and sell groundnuts, etc. But the explorations did not go ahead because it deviated from the scope of the project.
Our economy is based on the capitalistic model. For a capitalistic model to grow every year, people have to consume. Their consumption must be felt as if it is a reward for themselves. It has to motivate them to buy. The companies which produce goods want the consumers to crave their products. Craving is beyond need, there has to be no logical thought to crave for something. I wanted to use the word as a play for bringing in development. That people need development when they do not need it and the government is selling it in neat packages. People who are protesting are still on the process of craving for development.
The fishing methods show their relationship with the sea. A normal mundane day. Not a spectacle or show of their strength but their daily bread. The development policies will affect these. Make it inaccessible. Build structures of power and impact them. For the main story to revolve around a fishing hamlet, there is a need to show what else happens other than fishing. What is the life of a fisher? How is it shape? Other than fishing. What is the story? The different location shows how a port, or a power plant has become a part of them, their landscape. The mentality that the government is all-powerful and can pull the ground off their feet whenever it wants is not democracy. This thought should be changed.
An old woman in Kovalam asked about the reason for me to walk around her village so many times. Her trust was in god, if it is his will then no one can stop it. If the minister has his way, he is responsible for the lives of all the people in the village. The ill fate is in his hands. Karma, we arrive at karma at the end. When all hope is lost. We do not know how to move forward; we turn to these forces which are beyond us to take of the people whom we cannot do anything. Karma will be responsible. God will be responsible.
Zines
When working on making the images I was interested in how to make the work reach the masses. I made a one-page zinewhich could tell the story of how the fishes reach the market after it is caught by the fishermen. I found this approach didnot help in what I wanted to achieve. For mass dissemination, I would have to make several thousand of this print and spread to the people who are not interested in this story. This approach I found to be superficial and did not help in my narration.
Along with making photographs, I was also making videos from the places I had visited. I had an idea of creating afictional story from the places I have been to. The characters were planned to be Dogs, Birds, and Dragons. The reason behind choosing these animals was one cannot go to the seashore without encountering at least one of these animals. I tried to imagine these animals as the stakeholders in building the port and how they react when someone comes to take over them and their land. These animals have been assumed to have a common trait of fighting for the territory, works in groups and as individuals. This approach was not evident in the videos as they need a narrative voice-over in them. The narrative voice-over or the god voice was not a trope that I wanted to use in this work of mine. But since the medium of video has the sound and moving images, I was inclined to identify what will work for the video.
Video Edit Two
From the South Korean artists’ inspiration, I tried to imitate their style but with moving images as the background and mocking the whole exercise I was doing telling an already common story of land being taken from the people for development. The cyclic nature of what was happening was to be portrayed. This approach worked to a certain extent, but I had used a piece of Jazz music played in the background similar to the original artists’ work which did not deliver the mood with which I wanted the viewer to see the work.
Motion Graphics
While trying to identify other ways of telling the story more simply I started looking into motion animation. This method of storytelling I was not experienced with, but the medium had the potential to give strong stories within a span of seconds with the use of sound as well. But since I did not have expertise in the medium, I did not want to go by trial and error method and make a half-baked narrative.
Personal Journal
Simultaneously I was writing about all that was happening around me. I was dedicatedly documenting whatever I was feeling about doing the project. I was staying alone in my hometown which was much different from how I was used to the place.
Ports are required for progress and economic growth of the country. But as an intervention to mother nature how are we making it a healthy port? I have been walking along the shore, I have noticed there is only a sick sea. The way human beings take up any space seems to affect detrimentally than constructively. The ports have always been a way of controlling the land . While we take care of the bleeding wound, care should be taken to stop the occurrence of such wounds in future.
Subverting the notion of what is development by using the techniques of the government which never tells the truth about why certain decisions are made.
The importance of Cows to the fisherman.
Vegetarianism - A vegetarian fisherman,
bringing up their child by not allowing them even near the sea. We have been making documentaries, after documentaries on the same subject but not having any response from the general population.
The fisherman buying fish from the market
Fisherwoman learning to tie flowers, sell groundnuts
If I keep on looking at at the community as an outsider? How am I an outsider? What are the aspects that make me an outsider? I grew up on tl inland with no contact with the fishermen whatsoever. Did my parents think of the profession as undignified and kept me away from it? Who dictates that a certain job is not dignified? A cog in a whole apparatus this work is to bring a defiance to set norm and showing how my forefathers had lived and so I am able to tell these stories.
Mapping and place the photographs with the local history of the port. Colonialism, religion, language, people, trade and other seemilgly insignificant in our daily lives today has brought in all the changes in how we live today, eons differetn from our forefathers.
How do you look at development? What is the historical way of looking at development? What is development? Angrily ask what is the need for development?
Walking or going on a two wheeler doesn’t make a good project. You have to engage. The project is more like a look into the community. So how do you mingle with the community in a way. I am an outsider feeling out of place. I feel strongly of the cause, that don’t mean the project should make sense. The project is more about me looking at the people who practise the caste I am said to belong to. I am reaping the benefits my caste gives me. Questioning that is the aim. How do you visually question your lineage? Heritage id different this not it. How do you visually question that?
I do not want to make new photos? Am I sure of that? Using the footages of the people involved? Using the tropes of what is called development.
Going to Ennore you realise how the sea has come in and how the port has created a new beach. The sand river between the sea and the land is the porous membrane for the people and the environment. I want to question the namesake development, what are their projections? Who is benefitting?
Seated alone I cry
For a day that I will stop worry
The nature needs not my attention
It can take care of itself
The wise crow never stays still or trusts. It has the motive, it take what is sets it’s attention to.
The innocent dog is shrewd but is impulsive .
HOME
Home, I never had home. The travel felt like home, the uncountable buses passed. The trains, the bike, the cars, all those mechanical mobotolotes felt like home. What is home? Somewhere you are said to belong to. The travel is home, the stops are the wait for home.
LAND
Land is everything, the identity, the culture, the community, the clan, the empire, the grave. Land. Land is everything. When it is sought unnaturally from you, what else to do but to fight for the land.
FIGHT
Why is the need to end something to win? Is winning that important? Have you forgotten what you are fighting for? How do I remind you? Stop your dirty fight. Look back and think on why you took this path. Justify.
CRAVE
Capitalism is the way, but there is a revolution blooming in ways that has not happened before. Like the French Revolution. Democracy is getting a face shift with the coming of an honest movement. It will be celebrated and held hight util it will get corrupted and another radical new change will come. It is a cycle. So we don’t need it. We actually crave for it, the change. Mountains and the sea port of kanniyakumari the story is relevant only for kk. Nowhere else for now. But can resonate. The work is not about activism but more about creating something of an awareness looking at your own society in a way that it is dealt with but not noticed. That is the way I want to work on this project.
I do not know how to swim
I am said to belong to a fisherman’s community how funny is that Four of my friend’s died because they do not know swimming One of them belonged to the fishermen’s community
I am a stranger
I do not belong anywhere
I was born in Nagercoil
I did my schooling there
My school vacations were in Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi, Chennai
I did my graduation in coimbatore
Worked in Hosur for two years
Doing my post graduation in Gandhinagar
Each of out lives has the same story to tell
Where do I belong
Where is home?
What do I fight for?
Capital I fight for?
No problem is my mine alone
I empathise and look at the problems which makes me feel
But what is the problem that is affecting me that I have to show the world about it?
I worry about the hidden mundane
The things which are present in front of our eyes and we fail to notice
What is development? What do you call as development? How do you what you got something no what do you call as development.
How do you go about making project? is it worth it? How is it going to impact ? It is not activism. Their path of development is they know what is good for the country no body can question that. The lives lost in bringing that good does not matter. Their aim is to show that they are better than the other. They want complete control. Who owns the land anyway. If the king decides to take the land who is going to stop him?
Crave: The present human economy is based on the capitalistic model. For a capitalistic model to grow every year, people have to be consumers. They consumption must be felt as if it is a reward for themselves. It has to motivate them to buy. The companies which produce goods want the consumers to crave for their products. Craving is beyond need, there has to be no logical thought to crave for something. I want use the word as a play for bringing in development. That people need development when they actually do not need it and the government is selling it in neat packages. People who are protesting are still on the process of craving for development. The fishing methods show their relationship with the sea. A normal mundane day. Not a spectacle, or show of their strength but their daily bread. The development policies will affect them. Make their land inaccessible to them. Build structures of power and impact the ecosystem. For the main story to revolve around a fishing hamlet, there is a need to show what else happens other than fishing, the life of a fisherman, How is it shaped other than fishing. What is the story? The different location show how a port or a power plant has become a part of them and their landscape. The mentality that the government is all powerful and can pull their feet off their ground whenever it wants is not democracy.
While talking to an old lady about the reason for me being in her village. As I explained to her about what I was trying to do and help them in their protests and movements as much as I can. She replied simply that her trust was in god, if it is his will then no one can stop it. If the minister has his way he is responsible for the lives of all the people in the village. The ill fate is in his hands. Karma was her answer, a stout catholic who accepted my truth only after I told her I have the permission of the parish priest to do the project in their village. It felt as if like we have to keep our hope on something so we can get through the day and how will my project help that. When all hope is lost. We do not know how to move forward, we turn to these forces which are beyond us to take of the people whom we cannot do anything. Karma will be responsible. God will be responsible.
I have stopped noticing dragon flies now, they seem to have gone somewhere else the past few days. But today I saw a few. I hate the walls of my house they have seen a lot and they are closing in on me. These dragonflies can be seen only if I go out. Tried videotaping it, they become one with the background and make it hard to video-graph.
The day begins slowly, the roaring sea singing me a symphony now, though it was a lullaby yesterday night. The crow caws, wishing a good morning. The dog wakes up stretching its front legs and walked towards the bone nearby. Paper boats on a rainy day.
You build something as a development today for example laying a rail track between Bengaluru and Chennai to export a product through the port in Chennai. But the Karnataka state has a new Mangalore port which can serve the purpose. The next government uses this port saying that the product made in the state is sent outside and then shipped, why not make some rail tracks here and ship through Mangalore. The capitalistic development paradox.
I kept on taking such notes throughout the project phase to align and give direction
to my thoughts. This helped me to direct my visuals in a meaningful way.
I started working on the video to show how the land is facing a change from its natural state by moving from Kovalam to the port cities. This approach was simpler to communicate without the use of any language and held to the story. The structure of the narration in photo or video was planned to follow the below structure
setup
confrontation
resolution
self
Explaining about my history along with the colonial history of the place and where I am today
How the personal life of yours does not make you belong to one place? How everything feels alien to you.
Understanding that the change is inevitable and be taken as such and finding a place in all these cogs of continuation. But the humanity stays the same, you are empathetic to the fellow human’s struggle. And by every change the struggle remains the same.
My need to understand my relationship with the sea
How the family has moved inland to sell dried fish, and that is how it all started
I am from the fisherman community
I am a stranger in this land
The government wants the people out of this land
A strangers in the place which I am said to belong to
sea
The Sagarmala, how a major port is panned in this location of Kovalam
The history of shenbagaraman pallu where farmers lived on this land and trade has happened which is now no more
The need for sand to be kept open and the ecological impact of it
The way other ports have shaped the people and the environment, talk about the economy of the people
The 7500km long coast line, the government plans for it, and bring the focus on Kovalam
What are the other protests happening in the places where the ports are already built. What are the facts there?
How do protests help and what to do if the government wants the land, and how people have a different stake on the land that what the government has in mind
Ex shipping minister of the state not listening to the people and acting on his own to bring in the port. Asking the people to leave their lands and sell groundnuts by using the sand
How these fishermen are strangers on the land
Shenbagaraman Pallu and the past of the place. How thelandscape in fiction makes the place look like a farming village. All the markers given in the poem are physically present. How this past had ceased to exist because of the need for the king to build slat pans and trade. The salvation army when the British came to india prayed kneeling down for these people who were displaced for the trade to happen. The history of change is visible and the future looks can be found in the places where other ports are built.
sea+ self
Dogs, birds and dragonflies
The ebb and flow. The constant movement between different places how no place seems to like home
The sea needs no saving, likewise the earth, nature, ice bergs, and that of earth will find a way to cleanse itself. Human beings are just part of mammals in the animal kingdom trying to find a place here and stop extinction. At what cost and who pays that cost is the struggle.
The process of taking something completely innocent and corrupting it
Print Exhibition
Print exhibition is the medium that I wanted to explore as it was the least explored way of presentation for me. Also, it gave the viewer the space to spend however long she wanted to look at the picture and it added a materiality to the experience. Initially, I was using the strategy of sampling from each port and giving a narrative out of it. But then Iunderstood that was not sufficient and changed that plan to give a more detailed view of each place I had visited. Also, the usage of map and text was advised hence I arrived at two strategies of exhibition out of which I had worked out one way for the final exhibition.
Photobook
Photobook is a medium that brought a way to express the different phases I underwent during the period of graduation project. It contains all the different information I had come across and the different learning I had in the photography design course.
Observations
The plans for development come in different forms to the citizen. They are often touted to be for growth and improvement. These are planned in such a way to increase the value of the land but the people who plan it do not look into the ground reality. The planned major port in Kanniyakumari looks like a good plan for the people for the short term. In the longer-term, such an influx of concrete and tar will only affect the productivity of the land. Our historical texts and markers have often pointed at how the indigenous people had cohabited their environment with a minimal effect on it. Without rapidly increasing population and consumption along with the multinational companies trying to attract this population for their ends these development activities are often not for the people on whose land this development is built.
Activists and Environmentalists are clear on their argument that we have to learn from our past mistakes of building the ports. The project visually proves how the land is deteriorating continuously but these superstructures. Of course, life on earth learns to coexist with all this development for today. But in the longer run, it accelerated the end of life as we know it.
With a proper study on the land and local experts’ knowledge, any development plan can come to fruition for the growth of the country. The growth often time adding a motor to their boat and their children having a better future than what they had. No one I met was against such an idea that this development is going to result in the improvement of their future and ecosystem.
Self Inference
Traveling along the coast across different landscapes gave me the realization that calling a land home is very important for a sense of belonging. All my access to shoot and information was because I could claim that I belonged to Kanniyakumari. This further accelerated me to understand what need these protest movements and actions were coming from. This was the first extensive photo project which helped me understand the different hurdles faced when working on a single project for an extended period. At certain times it felt as if the project will not hold together and will fall apart along with self-doubt of doing justice to the people I meet and the stories I gathered from them. This exhibition and photobook do not mean the end of the project which needs more stories from the coastlines which I had not traveled until now.
The most interesting insight I learned is the need for hope for any deteriorating condition to improve. The Kanniyakumari major port is not going to be built in the present proposed location between Kovalam and Keezhamankudi if the rule of the land is followed. But the government often forgets to answer to nature’s rule to coexist as they feel their decision is for the greater good of the country. We all need development and growth so that our efforts can be better utilized, and we can live longer. The balance to achieve that development has been often overlooked to make the task simpler. Inclusivity and respect might achieve a balance today to begin a new cycle again.