Crossing Legal Boundaries: Illegalization and the Dhow Trade in the Western Indian Ocean

• In Event: Licit and Illicit Lives in the Indian Ocean

Abstract

Based on ethnographic research, this paper offers a window into the maritime lives of modern dhow sailors from Kutch in the context of the global “war on terror” and economic liberalization in India. It examines how dispossessed participants of the dhow trade are implicated in networks that fund Al-Shabaab in Somalia, ultimately leading to increased insecurity in the region. It highlights how dhow sailors and owners negotiate multiple regulatory regimes across the Indian Ocean by operating in both, licit and illicit ways.

Author

• Nidhi Mahajan, Leiden University