Shark Fin and Shark Bodies: Forgetting History from the Indian Ocean to the Chittagong Hills

This article explores the challenges in recalling a history of the trade of shark fin and shark meat in Chittagong, Bangladesh’s major port city. I focus on the role of Muslims from Anwara, a district on the southern bank of Chittagong’s Karnafuli River, in this industry. These are members of Bangladesh’s majority community who participate in a trade that is targeted to Chinese foreign and Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) indigenous non-Muslim consumers. This economy is co-produced by ethnic and religious minority communities and made through histories of travel to Burma and the Persian Gulf. I explore the patterns of lying, forgetting, or hiding when telling these histories, and investigate these as narrative strategies employed by majority communities to situate themselves in an economy that is both global and minority oriented.