A Mahanian moment for India’s rise as sea power

The recent move by Government of India to revitalise the country’s shipping sector through a Rs 69,725 crore package is being considered asa step forward towards the Mahanian theoretical endeavour to sea power.

- AMIT KUMAR VADODARA

It’s intriguing to witness how a nation that has long been preoccupied with security concerns emanating from the northwest frontiers and continuously criticised for its sea blindness is working to place itself strongly into three tripods and six principles of the grand vision of sea power propounded by Alfred Thayer Mahan, a renowned US Navy strategist in the late 19th century.

The recent move by Government of India to revitalise the country’s shipping sector through a Rs 69,725 crore packageis being considered as a step forward towards the Mahanian theoretical endeavour to sea power that evolved around the unification of a robust maritime commerce, formidable naval fleet, and strategic outreach.

This is the vision which consequently helped Britain and the United States to become leading sea powers of the world in the past. In the near future, it would be interesting to observe how India and China, a near-ideal case for the Mahanian sea power of the future, are utilising the vision of naval strategist Alfred T. Mahan in developing their maritime doctrine and consequent strategic manoeuvring in the Indian Ocean or Indo-Pacific region. Delhi's recent push for the development of ports and the shipping industry, whether it is the Sagarmala project or the Rs 69,725 crore package to transform the country’s shipbuilding and maritime sector, must be viewed as a significant step forward to-

wardsits riseasa sea power, an acceptance of the grand vision of Mahan as well as its own visionary thinker, diplomat and historian of modern India, K.M. Panikkar.