This book explores the ambiguities and complexities of caste, religion, class and gender in the Catholic fishing community of the Mukkuvars, at the southernmost tip of the Indian subcontinent. These coastal villages have been shaped by distinctive elements: a history of colonization by Portugese Jesuits, the work of fishing, and an unusual sexual division of labour. In addition, the micro-politics of power within the villages is being redefined by the new place of the fishing industry within the world economic order. Against this background, the author traces the participation of Mukkuvar men and women in the construction of a culture that cannot be easily classified as Catholic or Hindu, peasant or proletarian. The broad scope of Mukkhuvar Women covers questions of gender and migration, capitalist development, goddess worship, healing, and the consciousness of minorities. These issues are discussed through a variety of critical approaches. In her analysis the author draws on Marxist, feminist and anthropological methodologies, while evaluating blind spots in each canon.