- As India gears up to celebrate the 60th National Maritime Day (NMD), which marks the inevitability of defending, shielding, and preserving our maritime zone, an article on Indian Ocean – key to power & prosperity will help our readers to understand its significance
- Maritime India Vision 2030 aims to overhaul the Indian maritime sector.
- The downfall of Mughal Empire can be attributed to absence of naval force that could safe guard its economic interests based on export of products from ports of Bharuch and Surat in Gujarat
- Countries in Indian Ocean should utilize their holistic, cultural and bilateral relations to strengthen one another, in face of diplomatic pressure exerted by countries like China, USA or European Union that intend to exploit the region to maintain their supremacy by all means.
ABHIMANYU JOON
In 1919, the first Indian commercial vessel had set sail from Mumbai to London — SS Loyalty, of Scindia Steam Navigation Company Ltd. This was also the first ever largest large scale shipping company which was entirely owned by Indians. And once the ship sailed, it was a historic moment for Indian Shipping as at that time the sea routes were under the control of the British.
VAdm Atul Anand, AVSM, VSM has assumed charge as the Director General Naval Operations #DGNO today #01Apr 23.
Commissioned in the #IndianNavy on 01 Jan 88, the Flag Officer is a specialist in Navigation & Direction (1/2).https://t.co/7oxXnyxWfP pic.twitter.com/Z9Oar6Kqdu— SpokespersonNavy (@indiannavy) April 1, 2023
April 5, 1964, was identified to spread awareness about intercontinental commerce and economy globally. India gears up to celebrate the 60th National Maritime Day (NMD), which marks the inevitability of defending, shielding, and preserving our maritime zone. This day is dedicated to the importance of maritime trade and also defence in India, as it holds a very strategic location. According to the data of the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, the country’s maritime trade is almost 95 percent and 70 percent by value.
Maritime India Vision 2030
Visionary Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced a 10 year blueprint in 2021. And this Maritime India Vision 2030 aims to overhaul the Indian maritime sector. And almost Rs 3 lakh crore investments is planned in various ports projects across the country and will help to generate employment for 20 lakh people.
‘AtmaNirbhar Bharat’ gives more fire power to Navy
Furthermore, under ‘AtmaNirbhar Bharat’ plan, the PM has been strengthening the Indian Navy with more indigenously built submarines, aircraft carriers and missiles to have deterrent effect and the best defence unit in the Indian Ocean.
Indian kings effectively used naval force to conquer the world
Power highlights the influence of an entity over a specific region. This becomes the basis to avail benefits in the form of human and material resource, so as to further boost the strength of the concerned entity by enhancing its propriety.
Prosperity implies how well a region is developed and to what extent are the inhabitants able to fulfill their needs on their own. It gets reflected in the form of ‘rich’ status of the people residing in the region, near absence of crimes arising due to ‘inequality’ in the society and interest of the population to trade with far-off regions, based on their wealth. In ancient times, India was described as the ‘land of wealth’ because the various dynasties such as Nandas, Mauryas, Guptas, Cholas and kingdoms like Vijaynagar exercised considerable control over the natural resource of the area under their influence, which they had achieved through their victory in battles.
According to Rig Veda, “one, who rules the sea, shall be supreme over the land”. This gets aptly reflected in the history of India, as people of Harrapan culture were able to live in an urbanized manner owing to their prosperity that they achieved by their sea trade with countries of Arabian peninsula like Oman, Bahrain and nations such as Iraq. The great conquerors of Persia and Macedonia, namely Darius and Alexander, where successful in conquering large maritime frontiers as well as deep inland regions, owing to their strong naval force. Similarly, the Maratha Empire became a powerful contender during medieval period owing to its ability to control sea-based trade through its island based forts, such as ‘Underi’ and ‘Khanderi’.
Downfall of Mughal Empire
The downfall of Mughal Empire can be attributed to absence of naval force that could safe guard its economic interests based on export of products from ports of Bharuch and Surat in Gujarat. Moreover, the ability to commander the sea assisted foreign powers such as Portuguese, Dutch, British and French to establish colonies in far flung areas of Africa, America, South and South-East Asia. Seas and oceans not only provide livelihood to coastal communities but also act as a conduit for cultural and materialistic exchange that can lay the foundation of an evolving society, displaying tolerance and broadmindedness. Countries with extensive presence over their territorial waters have always flourished as identified from primitive civilizations such as Chinese, Nile Valley and Greek civilization.
Carpet of connectivity
Indian ocean since long before the creation of modern world acted as a ‘carpet of connectivity’, bringing together people from different parts of eastern Africa, Arabia, Indian subcontinent and parts of South East Asia such as Java, Sumatra, Borneo and Malayan peninsula. Owing to it, we observe people of different ethnicity have migrated and settled in non-native countries because of long time cultural exchange, the people of different lands surrounding the Indian Ocean considered each other as members of one ‘big’ family. Significance of Indian Ocean can be ascertained from the fact that it links three large water bodies present on earth, namely Atlantic Ocean, Pacific Ocean and Antarctic Ocean. The 28 countries forming the ring around Indian Ocean constitute nearly 17% of the global land area, while the ocean itself contains nearly 20% of the water available on the planet. Indian Ocean region is home to 35% of the world’s total population.
Apart from containing rich marine biodiversity owing to it location within the tropics, Indian Ocean has historically provided the basis for trade, culture and military interaction. Its location enables maritime trade to take place from countries situated on east coast of America and Europe with countries like Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and India. Its presence, affects geography based economy of the littoral countries. Despite being located in high temperature zone of earth, nations like Madagascar, Kenya Tanzania, India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Indonesia have agriculture based society due to moderating influence exercised by Indian Ocean, over the harsh climate of equatorial region.
Water tourism
Indian Ocean has blessed the coastal states and island nations with unique ecosystems such as coral reefs that are known as tropical rainforests of the sea because of large species of fishes and marine mammals supported by them. The nations who benefit most from such an ecosystem are Mauritius, Seychelles, Maldives and Thailand, who are earning income from creation of dedicated tourist destinations, at locations of sea-based natural beauty. Moreover countries like India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Pakistan, Iran and Oman also benefit from the steaming fish resources, made available by the Indian Ocean. The above countries account for nearly 4.5% of global frozen fish exports, since the 1950s.
Also the tropical cyclones originating over Indian Ocean bring ample rainfall, making South and South-East Asia one of the largest fresh water resource region of the world, resulting in creation of thick tropical vegetation brimming with variety of terrestrial trees such as Sandalwood, Red Sanders, Eucalyptus, Cherry blossom, Almond, Coconut, Bamboo and Oak. These trees provide good quality wood, which is used for making houses, furniture and costly items such as musical instruments. Hence, countries like Myanmar, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka and Tanzania have flourishing industries based on forestry, which caters to demand of quality wooden products from across the globe.
Indian Ocean has blessed even the barren lands of Arabian Peninsula and Ethiopian Highlands by providing them with rich resource of crude oil and natural gas. It is well known that countries like Iraq, Iran, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, Oman and Yemen have nearly 16% if the world’s proven oil reserves and 27% of gas reserves. This has raised stature of such countries in the world, in terms of trade in energy resources. This has enabled them to become one of the richest and dense regions of the planet.
Hot-beds of sea piracy and bilateral clashes
Not only from natural resource point of view but also from locational aspect Indian Ocean has acted as a boon for its littoral countries by enabling them to develop natural harbors into ports of commercial utility, such as container ports of Singapore, Dubai, Mombasa, Colombo, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Klang. Owing to such ports the volume of trade between Europe, Asia, Africa and America has increased four times from 46 billion tons to 166 billion tons, in the last quarter century. Hence to secure the sea-lanes of communication that connect different countries through Indian Ocean, have become important from strategic point of view. Due to this several countries such as USA, France, Great Britain and China have established military bases in and around the Indian Ocean at locations like Dahlak archipelago and Djibouti in Red Sea, Renunion Island, Chagos archipelago and at Hambantota. Unfortunately, owing to large density of island nations, least developed countries and under-developed regions, Indian Ocean region has become relatively ‘unstable’. Choke points such as Bab-el-Mandab in Gulf of Aden, Strait of Hormuz in Gulf of Oman, and Strait of Malacca near Sumatran province of Indonesia, have become hot-beds of sea piracy and bilateral clashes.
Chinese hegemony in Indian Ocean
Over and above countries such as China that does not share any maritime boundary with Indian Ocean is trying to increase its presence under different schemes such as ‘belt and road initiative’, ‘maritime silk-route’, and ‘string of pearls’, to get access to mineralogical resource such as poly-metallic nodules located at the bed of ocean. These nodules contain vital elements such as nickel, cobalt, copper and manganese that are much sought after, owing to their usage in resource intensive industries such as steel manufacturing, special alloys for developing space vehicles and energy storage systems. China, which identifies itself as a contender of USA in becoming the world leader is rapidly expanding its presence in Indian Ocean and in its littoral states such as Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan by offering financial and military assistance to them, thereby ensuring for itself unlimited and unobstructed access to resource of Indian Ocean.
Such a move not only threatens the territorial sovereignty of the littoral states but also has the potential to give rise to neo-colonialism, whereby foreign powers attempt to grab either a port or an island within the Indian Ocean, so as to fulfill their domestic motives at the cost of littoral states. Also the delicate political situation in Yemen, Somalia, Djibouti, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Maldives and Pakistan provides a reason to the foreign powers to defend their presence under the garb of humanitarian assistance and for ensuring world peace. The need of the hour is for all the Indian Ocean littoral states to unite and put up a brave front against such modern day colonial tactics. They must ensure that resources of Indian Ocean are not misused by foreign countries to feed their greed, as many of such countries belong from the first world countries, also known as developed nations that are directly responsible for the present day climate change and associated anomalies, whose impact are being faced largely by economically poor or developing nations.
Maritime power and energy security
India should take the lead in this endeavor as its geographic limits extend nearly 2,000 kilometers into Indian Ocean, thereby bringing significant portion under its exclusive economic zone. India, who leads the South Asians must ensure by convincing the littoral states to prevent any misuse of the resources endowed by Indian Ocean for the benefit of countries not located in or around the maritime limit of this water body.
On the contrary, presence of foreigners in appreciable scale within the region threatens the energy security of countries like India who are dependent upon imported crude oil products. If the foreign powers get control of Indian Ocean’s sea-lanes-of-communication such as those in Red Sea, Persian Gulf and Andaman Sea then all the nations around India Ocean, would virtually become crippled and be at the mercy of foreign powers. To begin with, platforms such as Indian Ocean Naval Symposium should be utilized to enhance maritime security by cooperatively curbing the menace of sea-piracy, thereby preventing the foreign powers the chance to capture the choke points in Indian Ocean, under the garb providing maritime security.
Also efforts should be made to enhance the intra-regional trade among the littoral states, so as to decrease their dependence on foreign countries with regard to capital investment, for achieving economic objectives. This can be achieved by establishing a free-trade zone on line of SAFTA and ASEAN Free Trade Area, where access to required articles could be granted on nominal terms and easy mode of payment based on mutually agreed contract, as exists in European Union.
The nations of Indian Ocean maritime zone must realize that water body is not only a mode of economic activity but owing to its location en-route global trade routes and presence of export-oriented ports such as Kandla, Chabahar, Mundra, Sittwe is the key to become empowered and attain prosperity in an unlimited manner. The only condition which should be satisfied is the countries should utilize their holistic, cultural and bilateral relations to strengthen one another, in face of diplomatic pressure exerted by countries like China, USA or European Union that intend to exploit the region to maintain their supremacy by all means.
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