Page 53 - K M PANNIKAR and The Growth of a Maritime Consciousness in India

MARITIME CONSCIOUSNESS & THE SHIPS OF DISCOVERY
ATLANTIC DOMINANCE OF THE INDIAN OCEAN

15th-17th centuries
The longue durée history of the Indian Ocean was primarily the extension of
the western politico-economic dominance of Asia. The studies were mostly
devoted to the commercial and sea-borne networks in terms of the transoceanic
colonial expansion along the coastal belt, their hinterlands and myriad islands.
However, the study of transoceanic consciousness has been undervalued and
thus remains under-researched. This paper delves into three aspects of the
maritime consciousness during the age of discovery – first, it identifies the
attributes of the maritime consciousness of the Portuguese that made them
the first to reach India even though they were primarily a gatherer society with
no technological acumen of building ships that could withstand the sojourn
of the ocean; second – the deliberate attempt at the hands of the Portuguese
kings to make Portugal a heterogeneous society of skilled men – a policy that
was a practical formulation of the maritime consciousness that seas are not
mere frontiers rather they are the gateways to territorial expansion. It is here
that the article will look into how the commenda and compagnie contract
systemhelped Portugal change her image from ‘end of Europe’ to the ‘gateway
to Asia’. The third aspect of this article highlights the scientific forestry under
state’s control that complemented the fruition of the mission to reach India.
Mostly the demarcation between maritime trade and shipbuilding gets blurred
in the maritime studies. This paper tried to separate them with the help of the
evidence that has been brought out to the fore by marine archaeology. Lastly,
the paper tried to answer the pertinent question of how the Iberian conception
of oceanic zone was different from the Indian maritime consciousness and
that how K.M Panikkar played a significant role in defining the modern Indian
Ocean strategy and giving it the centre stage where the future course of India
was to be decided on the sea.

23-24 March 2021 | Sapru House, New Delhi 53