The Ocean of Churn

Title: The Ocean of Churn – How the Indian Ocean Shaped Human History

Author: Sanjeev Sanyal

Publisher: Viking Penguin, 2016 (First)

ISBN: 9780670087327

Pages: 297

The Indian Ocean is smaller in size to the Pacific or the Atlantic, but civilization and history took roots on its rim. Considering that the human species originated in east Africa, it is likely that the first sea ever seen by human eyes must have been a part of the Indian Ocean. Then came an age of great migrations and the rise of spice trade as the historic period dawned. Ancient trade ebbed and flowed with the growth of civilizations around the ocean. America was discovered quite accidentally as Columbus was desperately egging on to find a new route to Asia, bypassing the Indian Ocean. The churning of men and material effected by the waves of this ocean stands unparalleled in human history. This book is an enjoyable attempt to scan the history in a matter-of-fact way and present pertinent facts and interesting incidents. There are many books that study the features of the ocean’s historic past, but two approaches usually lead them. One is the western perspective, where the history of the Indian Ocean is deemed to have begun with the arrival of the Portuguese fleet and Asian empires are relegated to appendices or background information. The indigenous approach is limited to a particular country which always happens to be the author’s homeland. No broader picture comprising all regions has appeared in any of them. This book seeks to remedy this malady. Sanjeev Sanyal is an internationally acclaimed economist, urban theorist and a bestselling author. He was one of the few Indians who had won the Rhodes scholarship which makes up sit up and take notice of his dabbles in history even though he is an economist by profession.

Sanyal traces the transition as well as continuity of the human endeavour linked to the ocean. Strange it may seem to us, but Indian soldiery was the common factor in most of the wars waged in Asia, Europe and Africa from the dawn of history till 1947 when India became independent. The Persian army which met Alexander’s troops did contain Indian fighters. They fought for the Shia party led by Hussain ibn Ali in the ill-fated Battle of Karbala. The English East India Company’s choice always fell on Indians whenever the question of mercenaries crossed their mind. The Indian army fought heroically in the two world wars too. With the attainment of freedom, the successive governments were not keen to follow the practice. They were used in UN peacekeeping missions, but never for combat operations in foreign soil, except perhaps for an unintentional short period in Sri Lanka in the 1980s. The closest it came to troop deployment was in 2003 when the US invited India to Iraq as part of a multinational effort, but India wisely turned down the invitation. Another facet of continuity is those Indians who work in the Middle East for a living. Mesopotamian inscriptions mention that Meluhhans (people from the ports of Gujarat and Sindh) were so numerous in Sumer that entire villages and exclusive enclaves were built for them around Sumerian towns. Harappan civilization had a brisk trade with them through the now land-locked harbours at Dholavira and Lothal. Sanyal maintains that the sea level in that part of the geographical area was higher than it is now and that Saurashtra was an island! It was also the time when the Ghaggar river (Vedic Saraswati) flowed in full force to the Rann of Kutch which was a water body. Even now, Indians continue to work in the Gulf countries in large numbers.

The major elements explored in the book includes deep links of trades and culture across the Indian Ocean, the back-and-forth movement of people and the importance of the female lineage found in many countries in the rim. The book includes some bold assertions such as the implausibility of the Aryan invasion theory which is not supported either by historical or genetic evidence. The author suspects this to be a back-handed attempt to lend credibility to British rule by inventing a precedence of the country being conquered by fair-skinned invaders from abroad. This argument is in general agreement with the modern notion that terms like Aryan and Dravidian refer only to families of languages rather than human races. However, claims such as iron’s invention in India and its transfer to the world through Mitanni tribes are much more sensational. Occasional hints of such ahistorical intuition are seen in the work. While surveying the murals in the Vaikuntha Perumal Temple at Kanjipuram, the author detects oriental features in the portraits and goes on to highlight this as proof of Khmer ancestry of later kings of the Pallava dynasty. Such guesswork sparked by a subjective analysis of the paintings is uncalled for.

China is now actively engaged in building ports, trading posts and military bases in the rim of the Indian Ocean as part of its grand scheme of rebuilding the Silk Road. India is understandably riled over growing Chinese influence in the region. What we learn from this book is that such maritime rivalry between the two great powers is nothing new and goes back a thousand years to the Chola period. The Srivijaya and Javanese kingdoms in Indonesia fell out with each other. The former sought Chinese help and the latter appealed to the Cholas of the Tamil country for assistance. Rajendra Chola’s naval expedition in 1025 CE defeated the Srivijayans. Curiously, the raid was repeated in 1068 but this time, the allies were interchanged. However, in the fifteenth century, a large Chinese fleet under Admiral Zheng He established dominance in the entire ocean. The Majapahit and Champa kingdoms of Indonesia and Vietnam respectively, withered away as a result. Surprising its competitors, China unilaterally decided to call off further voyages after 1433 and destroyed their entire fleet. It is a fateful coincidence that the stage vacated by China was occupied first by Portugal and the European powers thereafter which grew into colonialism.

A strong nationalist sentiment is clearly visible in this delightful narrative by Sanjeev Sanyal. He examines the lesser known face of Tipu Sultan as a religious bigot citing historical sources. The role played by revolutionaries and rebellious British Indian soldiers in India’s freedom struggle is also given prominence. India’s official histories typically play down these contributions and concentrates solely on the part played by the Indian National Congress. A drawback of the text is the missing out of Kunjali Marakkar who posed a grave threat to Portuguese dominance in the ocean. Besides, a reference to Hindus in the Vedic era is anachronistic in a strictly historical sense.

The book is highly recommended.

Rating: 3 Star