Nidhi Mahajan, Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and recipient of the Fatema Mernissi Postdoctoral Fellowship in Social and Cultural Studies at The Africa Institute (2020–2022), has published Moorings: Voyages of Capital across the Indian Ocean. The book was developed during her residency at The Africa Institute.
Published by University of California Press, Moorings spans 272 pages and is available in print and as a free ebook through Luminos, the University of California Press’s Open Access publishing program. It is also available for purchase on Amazon or receive 30% off at ucpress.edu with code UCPSAVE30.
Moorings traces the voyages of Muslim seafarers from the Gulf of Kachchh, India, who sail mechanized wooden vessels known as vahans or dhows across the Indian Ocean. The book examines the production of capital through “moorings” understood as spatial, moral, material, and conceptual anchors. It offers a richly layered account of the social worlds of these seafarers, who navigate complex regulatory regimes shaped by colonialism, neoliberalism, the rise of Hindutva, insurgency, climate change, and border regimes.
Based on extensive historical and ethnographic research conducted aboard ships and at ports, religious shrines, and homes across India, Kenya, Tanzania, the UAE, Qatar, and the UK, Moorings reveals how capitalism extracts value from long-standing social practices involving caste, gender, and community-based regulation.
The book has received high praise from leading scholars:
Laleh Khalili, author of The Corporeal Life of Seafaring, describes it as “a brilliant book” that “sensitively tells the stories of seafarers on dhows traversing the Indian Ocean,” highlighting their struggles with caste, class prejudice, racism, and Islamophobia. She notes that these seafarers “are rendered lovingly here, in three dimensions and with all the requisite appreciation of complexity and respect for their trajectories.”
Johan Mathew, author of Margins of the Market: Trafficking and Capitalism across the Arabian Sea, calls it “a stunning multisited ethnography of the ships and smugglers that underpin the global economy,” praising Mahajan’s incisive analysis of how “borders, shrines, and meals are the moorings that enable mobilities across the Indian Ocean.”
Jatin Dua, author of Captured at Sea: Piracy and Protection in the Indian Ocean, emphasizes how the book “draws from rich, intimate, and challenging fieldwork,” showing how seafarers from Western India “contest and challenge their marginality by turning to the sea… seeking out possibilities amidst perilous circumstances.”
Commenting on her research, Mahajan said that her time at The Africa Institute was foundational to the book as it offered a vibrant intellectual community, the gift of time, and, ability to continue research even during the COVID-19 pandemic.
During her fellowship at The Africa Institute, Mahajan advanced the book manuscript and undertook research exploring the intersection of dhow trade, state sovereignty, and capital across the Indian Ocean. She continues to engage contemporary questions of sovereignty and belonging in coastal East Africa, with a particular focus on the Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia Transport Corridor Project and its sociopolitical impacts.
In addition to her scholarly work, Mahajan is an artist whose multimedia exhibitions have been presented at institutions including the Fort Jesus Museum in Mombasa, Khoj International Artists’ Association in New Delhi, the 2019 Sharjah Architecture Triennial, Hayy Jameel, and the Diriyah Biennale in Saudi Arabia.
We congratulate Nidhi Mahajan on the publication of Moorings. Her work exemplifies the kind of rigorous, interdisciplinary scholarship and critical engagement that The Africa Institute, Global Studies University is committed to supporting. We look forward to her continued contributions to the fields of anthropology, maritime studies, and African studies.
The Africa Institute continues to support scholarly work through its full-time residency fellowships in Sharjah, UAE. Applications for the 2026 cycle are now open. Learn more.
Nidhi Mahajan, Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and recipient of the Fatema Mernissi Postdoctoral Fellowship in Social and Cultural Studies at The Africa Institute (2020–2022), has published Moorings: Voyages of Capital across the Indian Ocean. The book was developed during her residency at The Africa Institute.
Nidhi Mahajan, Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and recipient of the Fatema Mernissi Postdoctoral Fellowship in Social and Cultural Studies at The Africa Institute (2020–2022), has published Moorings: Voyages of Capital across the Indian Ocean. The book was developed during her residency at The Africa Institute.
Published by University of California Press, Moorings spans 272 pages and is available in print and as a free ebook through Luminos, the University of California Press’s Open Access publishing program. It is also available for purchase on Amazon or receive 30% off at ucpress.edu with code UCPSAVE30.
Moorings traces the voyages of Muslim seafarers from the Gulf of Kachchh, India, who sail mechanized wooden vessels known as vahans or dhows across the Indian Ocean. The book examines the production of capital through “moorings” understood as spatial, moral, material, and conceptual anchors. It offers a richly layered account of the social worlds of these seafarers, who navigate complex regulatory regimes shaped by colonialism, neoliberalism, the rise of Hindutva, insurgency, climate change, and border regimes.
Based on extensive historical and ethnographic research conducted aboard ships and at ports, religious shrines, and homes across India, Kenya, Tanzania, the UAE, Qatar, and the UK, Moorings reveals how capitalism extracts value from long-standing social practices involving caste, gender, and community-based regulation.
The book has received high praise from leading scholars:
Laleh Khalili, author of The Corporeal Life of Seafaring, describes it as “a brilliant book” that “sensitively tells the stories of seafarers on dhows traversing the Indian Ocean,” highlighting their struggles with caste, class prejudice, racism, and Islamophobia. She notes that these seafarers “are rendered lovingly here, in three dimensions and with all the requisite appreciation of complexity and respect for their trajectories.”
Johan Mathew, author of Margins of the Market: Trafficking and Capitalism across the Arabian Sea, calls it “a stunning multisited ethnography of the ships and smugglers that underpin the global economy,” praising Mahajan’s incisive analysis of how “borders, shrines, and meals are the moorings that enable mobilities across the Indian Ocean.”
Jatin Dua, author of Captured at Sea: Piracy and Protection in the Indian Ocean, emphasizes how the book “draws from rich, intimate, and challenging fieldwork,” showing how seafarers from Western India “contest and challenge their marginality by turning to the sea… seeking out possibilities amidst perilous circumstances.”
Commenting on her research, Mahajan said that her time at The Africa Institute was foundational to the book as it offered a vibrant intellectual community, the gift of time, and, ability to continue research even during the COVID-19 pandemic.
During her fellowship at The Africa Institute, Mahajan advanced the book manuscript and undertook research exploring the intersection of dhow trade, state sovereignty, and capital across the Indian Ocean. She continues to engage contemporary questions of sovereignty and belonging in coastal East Africa, with a particular focus on the Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia Transport Corridor Project and its sociopolitical impacts.
In addition to her scholarly work, Mahajan is an artist whose multimedia exhibitions have been presented at institutions including the Fort Jesus Museum in Mombasa, Khoj International Artists’ Association in New Delhi, the 2019 Sharjah Architecture Triennial, Hayy Jameel, and the Diriyah Biennale in Saudi Arabia.
We congratulate Nidhi Mahajan on the publication of Moorings. Her work exemplifies the kind of rigorous, interdisciplinary scholarship and critical engagement that The Africa Institute, Global Studies University is committed to supporting. We look forward to her continued contributions to the fields of anthropology, maritime studies, and African studies.
The Africa Institute continues to support scholarly work through its full-time residency fellowships in Sharjah, UAE. Applications for the 2026 cycle are now open. Learn more.
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