There were times, when a sea was considered a barrier and countries derived naive security from oceans bodies. Indian seafarers always considered oceans as bridge between countries. In 10th to 13th century, the Cholas influence encompassed South East Asia. Sri Vijaya Empire in today’s Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and Indonesia and the Khamboj Empire of Cambodia were the result of the seafaring activities by Chola empire builders, who projected their soft power to distant lands. The influence was so widespread and benign that a road ‘Jalan Raja Chulan’ is named after King Rajaraja Chola in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia to this day. The capital of Brunei is Bandar Seri Begawan is also a distorted version of Sanskrit version of ‘Abode of Sri Bhagwan’. Lord Vishnu’s temple at Angkor Wat in Cambodia is also an evidence for spread of Chola influence: Also, do not forget the island of Bali that virtually has preserved its ‘Hindu cultural and religious heritage’ standing as a last bastion of Hindu identity, when Islamisation deluged thousands of Indonesian islands and the neighbouring countries of Malaysia and Brunei. In this region of the world, the Islamization took roots peacefully without the elements of violence, which otherwise is a characteristic of such mass conversions. The Hindu empires, which held their sway for a thousand years and later the Islamisation of the region could take place due to spread of Chola and Arabic influences through the medium of sea. Hence huge water bodies of sea and oceans are bridges that bind the planet into one whole. Though the Indians used the sea to spread its influence and carry out trade to distant lands, they did not envisage it as avenues of threat. Indian history is always replete with instances of how foreign forces invaded; such as Greeks, Huns, and Mohd Ghori, raids by Mohd Ghazni followed by the Turks, Mughals, Persians and Afghans to vindicate the requirement of secure land borders. Later the Chinese offensives both from the North and North East reinforces our thought process of land centric threats facing the country. Even now, we are concerned about the offensives from land frontiers, where we are preparing for a two and a half front war with simultaneous offensives by China and Pakistan and the externally supported insurgency and terrorism fulminating internally. The situation portrayed; no doubt needs deliberate consideration, however the threat can be overcome and the war can be won by intelligent use of all the three services operating in conjunction with other elements of national power. It no doubt; needs strong land forces as the land can only be held and occupied by boots on the ground. No technology can hold ground, as has been proved beyond doubt in the unending US war in Afghanistan for the past 16 years with President Trump further giving an impetus to enhance ground force levels in the restive country.
In India, we rarely talk of the Portuguese, Dutch, British and French, came to our soil from seas. Interestingly, they could come only after the decline of Chola’s Naval Power in the 14th century. Chatrapati Shivaji also raised a Navy in mid-17th Century, which no doubt played havoc against Portuguese and British Navies, however one has to agree that the ‘Maratha Navy’ was basically a ‘Coastal Navy’ that too; ‘a dark brown water navy’ with no bluish tinge in its capabilities. We finally lost our independence, when we lost our command over the seas. No other Indian Raja of the various coastal states ever had a navy worth its name except probably the Zamorin of Calicut who had a small naval fleet. This gave a field time to the European Powers to come and colonise our country. In 1741 the Dutch Marine forces sailed from Ceylon and lost decisively to Travancore State Forces of Raja Marthanda Verma in the land battle at Colachel that virtually ended the Dutch aspirations in India. Due to our lack of sea power, we could not prevent its landing but managed to win the land battle. Thereafter the British ruled the waves and established an empire, where the sun never set. It was possible for them, as they were a naval power.
Our strategy for a two and half front war needs to be drawn with ocean as prime focus. Then; what do we do far a country that has not formulated its ‘National Security Strategy’ in the last seven decades, since our independence? It is this strategy that empowers us to optimize all elements of National power and orchestrate to achieve our National Security Objectives. Strangling of Pakistan from the seas and cutting of energy and trade routes to China from the Indian Ocean is adequate to get a favourable victory on the land frontiers in the envisaged two and an half front war. Our ability to choke all the entry points into the Indian Ocean; the Straits of Malacca, Sunda, Lombak and Timor Sea would give us the capabilities to choke the Chinese trade. It would result in domestic glut of manufacturing goods, overfilled warehouses and large scale retrenchment of labour causing serious internal strife. China’s obsession of ‘ Communist Party’s control over the nation is enough to see its red lines much before such a situation could occur. Internal dissent is the ‘Achilles Heels’ of China and it is hypersensitive to such a situation, however remote the probability of its occurrence. The ridiculous Chinese constitution that empowers the ‘Chinese Communist Party’(CPC) to own the ‘People’s Republic of China’(PRC) entailing the entire population to be the members of CPC is very difficult to comprehend to a civilised world but has been made into an artificial and enforced reality in China. This weakness of China has to be exploited by Indian in its two and half front war strategy. It is not necessary to implement the strategy as we need friendly relations with all in our neighbourhood. India just need to develop capabilities to empower ourselves to execute the strategy. Such capabilities are enough to prevent a war and ensure the safety of our land and sea frontiers: Strength deters wars and weakness invites it. These capabilities take decades to build and the earlier we take a decision; the better it is for our country.
India’s dependence on Indian Ocean is overwhelming. 90% of our trade by volume and 90% of our oil imports are carried on the seas. The SAGAR initiative is for security and growth for all in the region. There are 21 countries in the Indian Ocean Rim Association(IORA) and India need to knit them together so that all the countries together maintain peace and harmony in the Indian Ocean Region. India need to actively promote this association to ensure that these countries do not give their territories as foreign bases to big powers. Already US, UK, France and China have made bases in the Indian Ocean. They are security concerns to the countries of the region. Ideally the Indian Ocean Rim Countries should ensure all the countries of the world have freedom of navigation and trade in the Indian Ocean with IOR Countries being the net security provider to all the ships, which are traversing the Indian Ocean. Providing logistic support to all ships traversing the Indian Ocean and trading with them will ensure mutual prosperity of the region. India should initiate Annual Naval Exercise with all countries of the IORA to ensure inter-operability and coordination to rise to be the net security provider to all shipping traversing the Indian Ocean. All the countries of IORA have high stakes in the Indian Ocean and India with likeminded countries like Australia, Indonesia, Iran and South Africa have to provide the lead.
Pandit Nehru had said prophetically “To be secure on land; we must be supreme at Sea”. It is sad indeed that he could not implement his own wisdom on national security and neglected the Armed Forces severely, demolishing his vision of India with dreams broken and pride shattered at the time of his death. It is time we achieve the vision of SAGAR to all the countries of the region.
