India, Aug. 9 -- Beyond the plate, fish in India have long embodied stories, symbols, and the silent memory of a civilisation. From Harappan pottery evoking water deities to Vishnu's fish avatar in the Matsya Purana, from Kalidasa's royal imagery to matrimonial rituals in Bengal, fish have shaped our culture and identity. In art forms like Madhubani paintings and films such as Chemmeen, the 1965 Malayalam classic, they evoke abundance, longing, and the fragile rhythms of life by water.

Yet for decades, fisheries remained peripheral to public policy. That began to change after 2014 as India positioned freshwater aquaculture not merely as a source of nutrition but as a strategic driver of rural livelihoods and economic renewal. A turning p...