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ID: 174937

Culture and Diplomacy: Maritime Cultural Heritage of the Western Indian Ocean / Ray, Himanshu Prabha

Ray, Himanshu Prabha	Journal Article
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Summary/Abstract

The article argues that UNESCO’s 1972 World Heritage Convention provides a global platform for projecting not only India’s maritime cultural heritage but also building bridges and collaborative networks with other Indian Ocean littoral countries for the promotion of shared cultural practices and traditional knowledge systems of the Indian Ocean. Unfortunately, this collaborative research aspect of the World Heritage Convention has yet to be tapped for nominating and inscribing transnational heritage or cultural routes across the Ocean. This is despite the fact that India was the founder member of the intergovernmental organisation, Indian Ocean Rim Association, one of whose thrust areas relates to promoting cultural heritage on the UNESCO platform. Given India’s rich maritime past, there is an urgent need to implement measures to establish academic networks with littoral countries for not only creating awareness of the maritime cultural heritage of the Indian Ocean but also harnessing linkages between maritime communities for building a culturally diverse but harmonious future.

Key Words

UNESCO ; Navigation ; Nalanda ; World Heritage ; Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA)

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ID: 174939

Sailing Ships, Naval Expeditions and ‘Project Mausam’ / Ray, Himanshu Prabha

Ray, Himanshu Prabha	Journal Article
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In recent years, sailing ships of the Indian Navy have been increasingly involved in diplomatic missions and cultural voyages across the world, in addition to their primary purpose of providing practical training in navigation techniques and seamanship. These three-masted barques built at the Goa Shipyard and used by the Indian Navy are very different from wooden sailing vessels that traversed the Indian Ocean in the premodern period prior to the development of steamship navigation in the nineteenth century. Nonetheless, these distinctions have often been blurred as these modern naval ships have been utilised to recreate historical ‘expeditions’ such as the much-celebrated Chola invasion of Srivijaya in the Indonesian archipelago. Nor is India the only country to be involved in promoting this ‘popular history’ for contemporary geopolitical interests, as is evident from China’s efforts to rebuild ships used in the Voyages of Admiral Zheng He across the Indian Ocean. What gets short shrift in the process is investment in research in underwater archaeology and the discovery and preservation of shipwreck sites. This article highlights the urgent need for interdisciplinary research in premodern shipping and seafaring activity beyond the rhetoric of valorising national heroes.

Key Words

Zheng He ; INS Sudarshini ; Chola ; INS Tarangini ; Dhow ; Jewel of Muscat

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ID: 105474

Voyages of discovery: beyond colonial history in the bay of Bengal / Ray, Himanshu Prabha

Ray, Himanshu Prabha	Journal Article
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Publication

2011.

Key Words

East India Company ; Bay of Bengal ; Sea Travel ; Maritime Networks

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