**(2024). “The Entangled Island: Katchatheevu and Indo-Lankan Maritime Relations,” in May Joseph and Philip Hayward (eds). Aquapelagos. New York and London, 123-143.**

Abstract

Approximately 20 miles north of the tip of the Dhanushkodi Peninsula, in India’s state of Tamil Nadu, and 20 miles to the southwest of Sri Lanka’s Delft Island, lies a contested island known as Katchatheevu (which translates to “barren island” in Tamil). It is a 285-acre uninhabited isle formed by a volcanic eruption in the 14th century. Shrouded in obscurity, Katchatheevu has a knack for resurfacing, such as in 2023, when Indian prime minister Narendra Modi indirectly referenced it in a speech in the Indian lower house of parliament, the Lok Sabha. Katchatheevu has become an Achilles’ heel of nationalist discourses from India and Sri Lanka. Posing the question of who possesses Katchatheevu ignores the aquapelagic underpinnings of the island – its potential to be simultaneously performed as a geopolitical territory in bilateral political and nationalist rhetoric while it is precariously experienced as a shared maritime geoheritage of Tamil legacies across the Indo-Lankan international maritime boundary line.