Donald Trump was not the first man to send out ships to assert his country’s freedom of navigation. (This summer, the US sent two aircraft carriers to the South China Sea to intimidate China). In 1025, Rajendra Chola I—the most powerful king in southern India—sent out ships to Srivijaya (now in Indonesia) to make a similar demonstration of power.
According to an inscription at the biggest temple in Thanjavur, the heart of the Chola dynasty, his ships raided Srivijaya and 14 other ports. The Chola raid has been woven into the larger nationalist narrative of India as a muscular superpower. However, the Cholas never actually took over Srivijaya. Newer research suggests that the reason to invade was not expansionist, but rather a commercial one. “The Cholas were interested in maintaining free maritime lanes,” says Dennard D’Souza, a young researcher at the Maritime History Society in Mumbai.
The Chola invasion illustrates that, whatever the century, trade rivalries can be fierce. And India, exposed to water on three sides, has a rich maritime past. The Chola raid was just one chapter of a vast book of stories.
“The history that we have taught and written has implicitly accepted that there was a caste restriction to sailing across the ocean,” says scholar Himanshu Prabha Ray, the grande dame of maritime history. “This is, however, something that came up only in the 19th century—the notion of kala pani (a taboo of the sea). But it also ties into the post-economic (elitist) structure in which history has been written, which is why the only space it provides [to maritime affairs] is [related to] trade. It does not provide for maritime history, the notion of mobile communities travelling for not just trade, but also for religious purposes or just for the resources of the seas. There is a lacuna.”
This story is from the December 27, 2020 edition of THE WEEK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the December 27, 2020 edition of THE WEEK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
William Dalrymple goes further back
Indian readers have long known William Dalrymple as the chronicler nonpareil of India in the early years of the British raj. His latest book, The Golden Road, is a striking departure, since it takes him to a period from about the third century BC to the 12th-13th centuries CE.
The bleat from the street
What with all the apps delivering straight to one’s doorstep, the supermarkets, the food halls and even the occasional (super-expensive) pop-up thela (cart) offering the woke from field-to-fork option, the good old veggie-market/mandi has fallen off my regular beat.
Courage and conviction
Justice A.M. Ahmadi's biography by his granddaughter brings out behind-the-scenes tension in the Supreme Court as it dealt with the Babri Masjid demolition case
EPIC ENTERPRISE
Gowri Ramnarayan's translation of Ponniyin Selvan brings a fresh perspective to her grandfather's magnum opus
Upgrade your jeans
If you don’t live in the top four-five northern states of India, winter means little else than a pair of jeans. I live in Mumbai, where only mad people wear jeans throughout the year. High temperatures and extreme levels of humidity ensure we go to work in mulmul salwars, cotton pants, or, if you are lucky like me, wear shorts every day.
Garden by the sea
When Kozhikode beach became a fertile ground for ideas with Manorama Hortus
RECRUITERS SPEAK
Industry requirements and selection criteria of management graduates
MORAL COMPASS
The need to infuse ethics into India's MBA landscape
B-SCHOOLS SHOULD UNDERSTAND THAT INDIAN ECONOMY IS GOING TO WITNESS A TREMENDOUS GROWTH
INTERVIEW - Prof DEBASHIS CHATTERJEE, director, Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode
COURSE CORRECTION
India's best b-schools are navigating tumultuous times. Hurdles include lower salaries offered to their graduates and students misusing AI