India’s maritime policy: how it has evolved and what lies ahead

The two most prominent geographic features of the Indian subcontinent, with India at its centre, are the Himalayas and the Indian Ocean. They not only defined India’s geographic boundaries but also shaped its history, culture, and civilisation. While foreigners came to India through the land route in the north to establish empires — some great and some not-so-great — in the south of the Vindhyas, where the presence of the sea is constant, Indians sailed east and west for trade, cultural exchange, and the occasional conquest.

In this broad historical context, a question arises — what is the significance of the maritime domain for India, as viewed through the lenses of history, strategy, economics, and technology? A comprehensive and scholarly work, The Routledge Handbook of Maritime India, edited by Alluri Subramanyam Raju and R. Srinivasan, presents a multidimensional response to this fundamental question.

On maritime history

History has taught us the all-pervading significance of the maritime domain. The capabilities of Indian sailors to reach the far corners of the west and the east in ancient and medieval times is a source of pride and inspiration. As Jawaharlal Nehru observed, “History has shown that whatever power controls the Indian Ocean has, in the first instance, India’s seaborne trade at her mercy, and, in the second, India’s very independence itself.”

The first part of the handbook, comprising five essays by different scholars, traces the historical evolution of India’s outward reach, focusing on the Cholas, the Marathas, Europeans and Indo-Arab maritime trade. Author N. Manoharan called the Cholas “The Nautical Tigers.” The chapter on scholar-diplomat K. M. Panikkar critically analyses his ideas and establishes their continuing relevance to contemporary geopolitics. Varun Sahni, in his futuristic take, urges that the Indian Ocean needs to be viewed “less as a space — an ocean of transit — and more as a place — the home of a majority of the world’s human population and settlements”.

India’s maritime strategy

Chapters in the book shed light on India’s strategy and relations with multiple nations, including Australia, Japan, France, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Myanmar, Thailand, Indonesia, and China. India took the initiative to demarcate its maritime boundaries with all its neighbours and succeeded in every case, except Pakistan. The latter delayed a settlement based on “motivated assumptions.” Huo Wenle’s chapter on Sino-Indian maritime rivalry offers a deep dive into the thinking of Chinese and Indian scholars and recommends extensive discussions between the two governments to lay down the rules of engagement on the high seas. The aim should be to prevent “the clash of interests that are detrimental to both nations.” Other chapters bring out the reasons for the turnaround, in the mid-1980s, in India-Australia ties in the maritime domain; the essential similarities between India and Japan; and the rationale of the Indo-Pacific vision for India and France for maritime multilateralism.

In another cluster of four chapters, the book endeavours to analyse maritime institutions, connectivity, and governance of the following South Asian states — India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and China. Zou Zhengxin presents a comparative analysis of the maritime security governance of India and China to bring out the risks of a “zero-sum game evolving owing to the U.S. influence.” He recommends joint consultative mechanisms to advance maritime development. R. Srinivasan’s chapter on Sri Lanka demonstrates how “pitfalls” such as corruption, clan politics, and a lack of enlightened leadership drive nations to join China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), thereby undermining sound maritime governance.

Power projection

As per the handbook, India has been doing quite well in shaping its maritime power projection. In the first decade of this century, the Indian Navy played a stellar role in curbing piracy in the Arabian Sea. This marked the Navy’s transformation from an observer into a net security provider. Two other chapters provide a critical analysis of ongoing geopolitical rivalries: one argues for “a hedging system” that considers the U.S. strategy for the Indo-Pacific, while another advocates for increasing India’s maritime presence, thereby creating a “political and economic confluence” of like-minded regional powers.

Other essayists have shed light on India’s vision, strengths, and partnerships in the Indo-Pacific, a concept that has dominated strategic discourse over the past two decades. In recent years, its salience has been eroded somewhat by crises in other geographies (Ukraine, Gaza, Iran, Red Sea, and Venezuela) as well as by the new U.S. National Security Strategy (NSS) 2025, which takes a softer view of China as an economic competitor rather than as a geopolitical adversary. How India needs to refine its Indo-Pacific strategy in this context warrants a separate debate.

The final cluster of seven chapters addresses economic and technological developments in the maritime domain. A variety of topics, ranging from underwater domain awareness (UDA) and underwater systems to maritime security; the Blue Economy revolution and shift; climate resilience; and coastal security have been addressed in a highly thoughtful manner. With an abiding interest in all dimensions of the Blue Economy, the contributors have successfully packed the handbook with the latest research and analyses to benefit readers. Recommendations made in this volume merit close consideration by policymakers.

Rajiv Bhatia, Distinguished Fellow at the Gateway House, is a former Ambassador with extensive diplomatic experience in several Indian Ocean capitals.

Published – January 12, 2026 08:30 am IST