The Indian and the Pacific Oceans have been under extensive debate in scholarly circles around the world, especially in Asia Pacific. The past few years have seen the construct “Indo-Pacific” become a buzz word in academia, at international seminars and conferences. While the USA and its allies embrace the term “Indo-Pacific” in their respective doctrines and policy papers, China rejects it and deems it to be an attempt to stem Beijing’s economic rise. It is true that Atlantic and Pacific Oceans saw many wars in history but the Indian Ocean too had its share of conflicts and expeditionary operations by external powers. Wars here however usually began with interests in trading and commercial activities over raw material and local commodities.
Pakistan Navy formally discouraged the use of this quotation way back in 2013. But during a conference when the attention of a scholar was drawn by this scribe after the former used the fake quote while presenting his paper, the reply from the presenter was interesting: “when a fiction is used and propagated extensively, it becomes an accepted truth”
India was once well known for its riches. This drew in the great powers of the time and impelled commercial activities in the Indian Ocean region. Protection of merchandise at sea became indispensable. Navies and naval war fighting gradually became a norm. Arabs were great traders but they were replaced by Portuguese in the early 16th century. The regional designs of the Portuguese became clear when they first began their expeditionary missions capturing strategic ports like Colombo (1505), Goa (1510) and Hormuz (1515).
The principal aim was to achieve a stranglehold over the Asian trade, particularly in pepper and spices. The monopoly of the Portuguese over Asian spices, then in great demand in European markets, returned huge profits. By the early 17th century however the Portuguese hold in the Indian Ocean region was in shreds. The Dutch sensing an opportunity commenced trading activities in 1604. The Dutch mainly traded in spices, cinnamon, cloves, pepper and nutmeg.
The decline of Mughals and the rise of British in India amongst other factors is attributable to the former’s obsessive landward concerns. Mughals developed outsized armies for land battles, forsaking the Indian shores and its large coastline that provided an ideal strategic position in relation to major maritime trading routes. It was an affliction described in common parlance as sea blindness (also maritime blindness). This is a menacing threat in which large segments of the general population and governments remain ignorant of maritime future and matters related to oceans.
During 20th and 21st century, the strategic importance of the Indian Ocean has primarily resided in another commodity, oil. On the shores of the western Indian Ocean sit countries with world’s largest known reserves of fossils fuels. The energy products that travel on the maritime highways thereon have consistently underpinned economic growth in the wider Asia Pacific. The shift in economic center of gravity from the Atlantic to the Asia Pacific was the raison d’être behind the USA’s Asia pivot of 2012. It called for reorientation of US marine and naval forces from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
The Indian Ocean has seen Indo-Pak wars of 1965 and 1971, Iran-Iraq war from 1980-88, a combined coalition operation of 34 countries codenamed Operation Desert Storm in January 1991, Operation Enduring Freedom in October 2001 and later Iraqi Freedom in March 2002. This is not to mention the EU, US and NATO naval operations against Somali piracy beginning in late 2008. The piracy had paralyzed shipping in vast swathes of the Indian Ocean. Somali piracy extracted a phenomenal cost from commercial shippers and the world at large.
Because of their geographic location, the Islands especially in the western Indian Ocean have lately shot to politico- strategic prominence, sparking contests between powers. These Islands are ideally positioned to serve as naval and military outposts for monitoring or influencing sea lines. Alongside, they facilitate flexibility for naval operations. The governments in these tiny Islands are offering themselves for sale to the highest bidder notwithstanding local diaspora. The stakes are high for all contesting parties in Seychelles, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Djibouti, Mauritius, and so on.
The USA has long maintained a military base in tiny Diego Garcia. But to demonstrate its power in the unfolding race for dominance in the Indian Ocean, a US navy ballistic missile nuclear submarine (USS West Virginia) sailed into Diego Garcia early this year. The submarine had previously surfaced in the Arabian Sea and participated in a joint, US Strategic Command-directed communications exercise to validate emerging and innovative tactics in the Indian Ocean. One of the 14 Ohio-Class SSBNs in service with the US Navy, the boat is capable of carrying up to 20 Trident II submarine-launched ballistic missiles with multiple, independently targeted warheads.
The most enduring and widely cited quotation on the Indian Ocean, especially by scholars and naval community in Asia, is attributed to famous American naval strategist Alfred Thayer Mahan. The quotation reads: “Whoever controls the Indian Ocean will dominate Asia. This ocean is the key to the Seven Seas. In the 21st century the destiny of the world will be decided on its waters”. There is also a slightly different version of the said quote, “Whoever controls the Indian Ocean controls Asia. The ocean is the key to the Seven Seas.” Like navies around the world, the Indian navy and the Indian strategic community has too drawn tremendous inspiration from this quote. China is not far behind as its analysts have often made use of this statement in previous as well as recent works.
It is however firmly concluded that this is a fake and completely fictional statement, one wrongly attributed to Mahan. The quotation has no relevance to the maritime thinker or to his famous work, The influence of Sea Power upon History. The authorities at the US Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island, have verified to this writer that Mahan never said so. The earliest reference to this imaginary Mahan quote appeared as an English translation in an article in Atlas World Press Review magazine of November 1979. It was captioned, “Will the Indian Ocean become a Soviet Pond?” The article was originally written by Italian journalist, Guido Gerosa, under the heading, “La flotta sovietica presidia nuovi mari”, and translated from the Italian publication l’Europeo (Milan) of 6 August 1970. It subsequently found its way in the Asian press.
Pakistan Navy formally discouraged the use of this quotation way back in 2013. But during a conference when the attention of a scholar was drawn by this scribe after the former used the fake quote while presenting his paper, the reply from the presenter was interesting: “when a fiction is used and propagated extensively, it becomes an accepted truth”.
