ADMIRAL KATARI MEMORIAL LECTURE BY SHRI K.R. NARAYANAN, VICE PRESIDENT OF INDIA
NEW DELHI, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1994
India and the Indian Ocean - a Peep into the Future
It has been said that the 21st century will be the century of the Ocean. In fact the present world system itself has been characterized as an oceanic system marked by the use and the control of the sea on a global scale. And it has been noted that "only those disposing of superior navies have, in the modern world, staked a good claim for world leadership."
With the larger part of the globe covered with oceans it is not surprising that the sea should be such a major factor in economics, politics and international relations. It has indeed, been a major factor, from ancient times. One cannot forget that the history of the world was changed by the naval battle of Salamis between the Persians and the Greeks and the battle of Actium between the naval forces of the Roman Empire and those of Egypt under Cleopatra and Mark Antony. Much later the Spanish Armada, Trafalgar and the battle of the Midway Islands also did change the course of history. For us in India the naval engagements with the Portuguese off the coast of Malabar and Goa were as important as the famous battles of Panipat in determining the destiny of India.
To-day sea power is not an isolated factor but part of a complex and co-ordinated apparatus of power. Perhaps that was so in olden days also, in a simpler way. Socrates is quoted as having said that there were three miracles in the world -- the way of ship in the sea, the way of a bird in the sky, and the way of a man with a maid; for the purpose of this lecture let us take the third miracle as meaning the ways of the human being on earth. To-day from the military angle it appears that the three miracles have materialised as the navy, the air force and the army ! At the highest level of strategy they have joined together in harmonious co-ordination like "triphibions", to use a Churchillian phrase about the Normandy landings, or the concept of "integral power" that Admiral Gorshkov advocated in the combination of sea, air and land forces and, which, it was left to General Colin Powell to apply in practice in the Gulf War.
Whether in perfectly co-ordinated combination or in well-calculated independent action sea power is an indispensable factor in modern defence and offence as well as in protecting and promoting, in peace and in war, the trade and commerce and the larger economic interests of a country. India, though both a continental and rimland nation, has devoted in its long history very little attention to developing naval power. In the Ramayana we fought an epic war across the sea in Lanka, not in naval engagements but by building an incredible bridge across the sea and taking the entire army to the other side of the sea. It is interesting that at the height of India's naval power the wars between the Sailendra Kings of Sri Vijaya and the Chola Kings were not naval engagements but battles on land, the Chola King carrying whole armies across to the Malay Peninsula.
The naval battles in Indian history were Coastal engagements like the ones waged heroically by Admirals of the Zamarin of Calicut and those of the Maratha and the Gujarat rulers and the Mughal Emperors. Even when we had strong coastal navies and great Captains and Admirals they had no sense of sea power as such. Our strategy was to keep the enemy away from the coast or to drive them into the sea and not to gain control of the sea around us or to venture into the deep sea beyond. As Sardar Panikkar pointed out the idea of the sovereignty of the sea was not known to India or to the rest of Asia in those early days of world navigation. Even after the British came through the sea and subjugated India, and maintained the Empire by control of the seas, realization of the importance of the ocean had not dawned upon the political consciousness of India. Lulled by continental psychology and withdrawing into narrow grooves of life Indians in those days of colonialism considered that even crossing the sea was a sin.
It was the nationalist movement that awakened Indians from this torpid state of mind. In this context the statements made by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru on the importance of the sea for India were revolutionary. "India's destiny", he said, "can bee fulfilled in its entirety only when India becomes again a sea-faring nation. We have developed this continental psychology which was that of aloofness, the narrowness of vision; but it is when we open ourselves, our nation to the seas on the three sides of this great land and play our part there and interact with peoples inhabiting this ocean and beyond that this India can really fulfill its destiny." Here Nehru was thinking not merely in naval terms but of the larger significance of intercourse with lands and peoples in and across the ocean.
There was also a strategic aspect to his thinking. Sitting in the solitude of the Ahmednagar jail, he wrote in his "Discovery of India" some time in l943 or l944:- "The Pacific is likely to take the place of the Atlantic in the future a nerve centre of centre of the world. Though not directly a Pacific state, India will also develop as the Centre of economic and political activity in the Indian Ocean area, in South east Asia and right up to the Middle East. Her position gives an economic and strategic importance in a part of the world which is going to develop rapidly in the future."
That was indeed far-sighted insight into the future. Though written when India was undivided, a substantial part of this futuristic vision still holds good. The Pacific has become the nerve centre of world politics. Indeed, following Admiral Mahan's concept of " the indivisible sea", it has joined together with the Indian Ocean into a vast new economic, commercial and strategic entity. At present India plays no vital role in the Asia-Pacific. She is not part of the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation nor a full dialogue partner of the ASEAN like Japan, China, Australia, not to speak of U.S., Canada, Britain, France, and Russia. And yet, in the years following independence, India played a leading role in political developments in South East Asia and East Asia at the rim of the Pacific, when the politics of the rest of the Pacific was almost quiescent.
India has contributed to Asian awakening and to the creation of a new sense of common destiny, and also played a crucial political-diplomatic role in the pacification of conflicts in East Asia and South East Asia-- conflicts that might well has escalated into world war. What is noteworthy is that at the time India did not have its present level of industrial and economic development or military and naval strength. I may be a little chauvinistic, but historically no country in the Asia-Pacific region had contributed so much to the resolution of conflicts, to the objectives and the missions of the United Nations, and to world peace than our country.
And yet we are not integrally involved to-day in the various new arrangements for co-operation in the region, nor is India one of the countries named for the permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council. It is time we pondered over these facts. In any stocktaking on our part we will find that our failure to devote sufficient attention and resources for the building up of our sea power and to continue effectively the pursuit of our interests in the region were some of the reasons for this. It was, however, not due to lack of awareness as is evident from the statements by the first Prime Minister of India that I have just quoted.
In his book, "A Sailor Remembers", Admiral Katari wrote: "The safeguarding of our frontiers and interests which were bound to grow in years to come should extend into areas well away from the coastline. With this in view plans were prepared as early as l948 for establishing a two-ocean navy whose presence would be felt well into distant waters both to the East and to the West. Although the plan was accepted in principle its implementation suffered delay after delay for a variety of reasons..." It is understandable that faced with colossal tasks of economic and social development and threats to the country's integrity and security across land frontiers, we could not devote adequate resources or priority to naval development, though to-day we have a naval force that is by no means negligible. Now that the country has built up its industrial and economic base and a substantial technological infrastructure and also its armed forces through all-round and balanced development, time has come to determine priorities and allocate resources in the economic as well as in the defence field according to well-thought-out strategic requirements of the 21st century. On any reckoning the navy deserves to occupy a higher place on our scale of national priorities.
As pointed out India is both a continental and rim-land nation. Surrounded by sea on three sides it has a coastline of 7600 kilo meters and islands like the Andamans and Nicobars and Lakshadeep. It is the largest and, geographically, the most domineering feature in the Indian Ocean. It has an Exclusive Economic Zone of over 2 million sq. kilo meters. Nearly 70% of India's indigenous oil and 80% of natural gas come from the EEZ and its crucial oil supplies from the Gulf is transported by sea. The Indian Ocean is all important for India's foreign trade. India has built a merchant marine of 750 ships. Today 25% of our imports and exports are carried by Indian ships and its planned to raise this to 50% and the size of our merchant marine by two or three times. The Indian Ocean is also an important source of food for us. It has been estimated that the Exclusive Economic Zone, if fully exploited, can increase fishing catch from the present 1.4 million tonnes to 10 million tonnes.
Apart from the living resources the sea-bed is a depository of minerals. It has been said that the oceanbed is the last mineral frontier of the world. The seabed of the Indian Ocean in our Exclusive Economic Zone is equal to two-third of our land area and is a treasure-house of polymetallic nodules containing such minerals as manganese, nickel, copper, cobalt, molybdenum, zinc, lead, cadmium, etc. India has been allocated by the United Nations a site of 150,000 sq. meters in the Central India Ocean for deep-sea mining as a pioneer investor. We have prepared a perspective plan in collaboration with Engineers India Ltd. Which envisages commercial scale extraction of minerals by 2010 A.D. Our laboratories at Bhubaneshwar and Jamshedpur are working on extraction technologies on the polymetallic nodules our ships have picked up from the ocean depth. We have also been working on projects for generation of wave and tidal energy from the sea. Another development of long-term significance is the Antarctic expeditions that we have undertaken and the research stations we have set up there making India one of the members of the Antarctic Treaty system. Apart from trade, economic and scientific interests India has in the world nearly 1.5 million of its citizens, most of them in the Gulf region, and has also established over hundred joint enterprises in the Indian Ocean region. Above all, we have our defensive and strategic interests in the India Ocean. It has been the experience of history that those who control the Indian Ocean will dominate the Indian sub-continent. It is not necessary to argue the importance of the Indian Ocean for India and the need for a strong maritime force.
One remarkable feature of the Indian Ocean today is that foreign naval presence in it much greater than that of the littoral countries. This is no doubt, a legacy of Asia's colonial past. In 1968 when the British finally withdrew from the Indian Ocean and East of Suez the Western powers took certain steps to ensure the continuance of their naval dominance in the area extending upto the African continent. It was to meet this end that Diego Garcia was leased to the U.S.A. and converted into a major naval centre. It was for the same purpose that the Five Power Defence Agreement in South East Asia was arrived at involving Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia and Singapore.,
The Asia-Pacific dominated by U.S.navy is today linked to the Indian Ocean. The largest naval formation outside the United States, the Seventh Fleet, operates in the Indian Ocean. There is also the Rapid Deployment Force and the Central Command with responsibility for the Gulf, the African sector of the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea. U.S. has also major logistic facilities in Oman, Egypt and Kenya and port of call facilities in Pakistan. While there is no alliance arrangements in the region as a whole there exists bilateral arrangements between U.S.A. Canada, Japan, the Philippines, Australia, Thailand and Indonesia. These PACEX arrangements are aimed at co-ordinating logistics and inter-operability during emergency situations. India has also conducted recently joint exercises with the U.S. Navy. Thus naval co-operation in the Asia-Pacific and the Indian Ocean region is an important fact of our times.
The objective of India since independence has been to create conditions for the independent development of the countries of Asia and Africa, not in isolation but in the midst of international co-operation. India had rejected the theory of the power vacuum which was sought to be filled by the great powers divided into two cold-war blocs. India held that if there was a vacuum it should be filled primarily through the growth and development of the countries of the region themselves in co-operation with outside powers. That indeed was the substance of the policy of non-alignment and peaceful co-existence. Until the end of the eighties most countries of the third world managed to keep the essence of their independence in varying degrees with differing forms of co-operation with the great powers. Today the old world balance has collapsed and in a world that is less tense and more peaceful the third- world countries are, paradoxically, facing economic and technological pressures that undermine their independence.
The Asia-Pacific region is, from this pint of view, stronger and much better off. The region has emerged as a political, economic and strategic power centre. In January , 1988 a Special commission of the U.S. Congress on Integrated Long Term Strategy brought out a Report forecasting that by 2010 A.D. China and Japan will possess economic potential to act politically and economically as leading world powers and medium regional powers like Korea and India will grow and play a role comparable to the major West European states. I believe the countries of East Asia have gone beyond what was predicated in that Congressional Report. Indeed great powers, great in political, economic and even in military terms, have emerged in the region though in military and technological terms their power is not comparable to that of the United States. Japan, on the top of its economic and technological position, is developing a military dimension future significance.
Its naval responsibilities now extend to an area of 1000 k.m. from the main island of Honshu. In the 21st century Japan is bound to become a military and naval power in the region apart from being a global economic giant disposing of considerable political power. China is well on the way to realising its great power ambitions mainly through its economic growth and nuclear missile status. China will also develop a blue water navy which will have its impact in the Indian Ocean. The ASEAN has already grown into a cohesive economic grouping and is gradually evolving security dimensions relevant to the South East Asian region. The Middle East and the Gulf region, following the Israeli-Palestinian accord, might well take a less turbulent path of development, God willing.
The emerging environment in the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean region poses challenges and opportunities for India. The challenges are today formidable. The basic and foremost challenge is to set our house in order. When we have, in an objective sense, all the wherewithal’s for emerging as an economically and even militarily strong nation? Do we have the political will to continue with our basic approach of self-reliance in the midst of the freest and the widest possible international co-operation. I do believe that ultimately our sense of destiny will assert itself,. While I am optimistic it is important to reckon with the image of India that is being disseminated abroad. Recently an American journalist, Ross Monroe, wrote: "Indeed as an ally as weak and vulnerable--economically, politically and militarily -- as today's India, is not an asset but a burden." Fortunately we are not anybody's ally, but simmering in the minds of many, has got to be grappled with and wiped out. Only united action at home can do this.
India's navy has a role to play not only in the defence of our coast line, in the protection of our trade and oceanic economic resources, but in carving out a position for us in the Indian Ocean, and in projecting the influence and the image of India in the neighbourhood and in the world. Whenever India took steps to strengthen and expand its naval forces, or intervene in situations like that which arose in the Maldives, apprehensions have been expressed abroad about the ambitions of India in the region. As has been indicated earlier India's only ambition is to safeguard its legitimate defence and economic interests and to help create conditions in the countries of the Indian Ocean region favourable to the maintenance of their freedom and independence.
We do not cavil at their efforts to acquire defensive power, including naval power. because only that will result in the reduction of foreign naval presence in the Indian Ocean enabling the countries to develop according to their own interests and aspirations. With the growth of economic and naval power of the countries of the region a system of stable and strong states will emerge which would facilitate a certain balance of forces in the Indian Ocean conducive to peaceful co-existence among them: anew kind of equilibrium which can perhaps be described as 'a balance of co-existence.' With the rise of some great powers in the region such a balance of co-existence, with reduction in foreign presence but not necessarily its withdrawal altogether, appears to be the most constructive development that can be envisaged. U.S.A. will remain as a power factor in the pacific and the Indian Ocean. Ultimately as Henry Kissinger once put it that could be as a balancing agent and not as a player in the old game of power politics.
India can play its role in such a situation as it is entitled to and destined to, only if it develops a modern naval force. We ought to be prepared to adopt all relevant modern technologies in order to build up a two ocean navy which Admiral Katari advocated. The resistance to new technologies has been and is still an impediment to progress. Lord Fisher once complained of the inability of the British Admiralty to grasp the importance of the submarine in warfare. He revealed as was reproduced in the London "Economic", "There is a strong animus against the submarine- of course there is! An ancient Admiralty Board Minute described the introduction of the steam-engine as fatal to England's navy. Another Admiralty Board Minute vetoed iron ships, as iron sinks and wood floats".
Another British Admiral A.K. Wilson described the submarine as "underhand, unfair and damned on English". Fortunately we have no resistance in the Indian Admiralty for the introduction of new technologies in the Navy. Thanks to the persistent demands and efforts of our Admirals the Indian Navy today is a modern force. Admiral Katari was a pioneer in this modernisation and upgradation of our sea-power. of all the instruments of power that could enable us to carve out for India a place in the region and in the world the Indian naval forces stand in the forefront.
Thank you
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