Disrupting Mughal Imperialism: Piracy and Plunder on the Indian Ocean

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 128-142
Author(s):  
Srinivas Reddy
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Indian Ocean ◽  
South Asia ◽  
Western Indian Ocean ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
Broad View ◽  
The Indian Ocean ◽  
Shed Light

Abstract This paper examines five distinct events from seventeenth-century South Asia: a pirate raid, two battles and two more pirate raids, all of which represent varying acts of defiance committed against the great Mughal imperium. Perpetrated by the Portuguese, the Marathas and the British, on land and by sea, these events seen in sequence shed light on the evolution of geopolitical players and the aqueous shifts in power dynamics related to maritime supremacy in the western Indian Ocean. By taking a broad view of this area over the span of a century, this paper seeks to explore the how notions of piracy, privateering, imperialism and colonialism evolved and changed in correspondence with a diverse, vital and hotly contested seascape.

Editorial Introduction

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Editors of the JIOWS
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Indian Ocean ◽  
Western Indian Ocean ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Fourth Volume ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Indian Ocean ◽  
Complex Relationships ◽  
Indian Ocean World ◽  
Shed Light

The editors are proud to present the first issue of the fourth volume of the Journal of Indian Ocean World Studies. This issue contains three articles, by James Francis Warren (Murdoch University), Kelsey McFaul (University of California, Santa Cruz), and Marek Pawelczak (University of Warsaw), respectively. Warren’s and McFaul’s articles take different approaches to the growing body of work that discusses pirates in the Indian Ocean World, past and present. Warren’s article is historical, exploring the life and times of Julano Taupan in the nineteenth-century Philippines. He invites us to question the meaning of the word ‘pirate’ and the several ways in which Taupan’s life has been interpreted by different European colonists and by anti-colonial movements from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day. McFaul’s article, meanwhile, takes a literary approach to discuss the much more recent phenomenon of Somali Piracy, which reached its apex in the last decade. Its contribution is to analyse the works of authors based in the region, challenging paradigms that have mostly been developed from analysis of works written in the West. Finally, Pawelczak’s article is a legal history of British jurisdiction in mid-late nineteenth-century Zanzibar. It examines one of the facets that underpinned European influence in the western Indian Ocean World before the establishment of colonial rule. In sum, this issue uses two key threads to shed light on the complex relationships between European and other Western powers and the Indian Ocean World.

India’s Strategic Interests and Partnership with Island States of Africa in the Western Indian Ocean Region

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 227-243
Author(s):  
Raghvendra Kumar
Keyword(s):  
Indian Ocean ◽  
Western Indian Ocean ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
Indian Ocean Region ◽  
Island States ◽  
Global Power ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Ocean Region ◽  
Indian Ocean Island ◽  
The Indian Ocean

The Indian Ocean has turned into the new geographical centre of power, where global power dynamics is being revealed. It has been transformed into a geostrategic heartland, forecasting new challenges and opportunities, and at the core of this is an emerging power, India, which, being located at a strategic juncture in the Indian Ocean, shapes much of this geostrategic transformation. Therefore, sustaining and improving security and continuing economic expansion, with an increased strategic presence in the region to safeguard its national, regional and global interests are some of the elements which greatly influence India’s involvement with the strategic island states of Africa in the Western Indian Ocean Region. In this backdrop, this article has tried to contextualise the ‘Western Indian Ocean Region’ and ‘situate the actors’ to explore the various contours of geostrategic engagements the region is witnessing. Further, the article examines India’s strategic interests in the Western Indian Ocean, which are critical for its global power aspirations. It discusses the linkages between India and the Western Indian Ocean island states of Africa, which would become the precursor for newer strategies and help in harnessing the potential of mutually beneficial cooperation. Lastly, the article seeks to re-engage with the island states of Africa to help forge a deeper cultural and strategic bond, which would be crucial in balancing the power equation in the region.

Indian Merchants and the Western Indian Ocean: The Early Seventeenth Century

1985 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 481-499 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashin Das Gupta
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Indian Ocean ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Western Indian Ocean ◽  
Ocean Area ◽  
European Expansion ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Indian Ocean ◽  
Work Done

Researches in Indian economic history have stimulated curiosity about India's connections with the Indian Ocean area. Work done on European expansion in the non-European world has also contributed to the development of this area of enquiry. Recent writings on the Indian Ocean and the Indian maritime merchant have indicated important possibilities of further research. I shall first briefly consider some of these, and then pass on to an examination of a concrete historical problem where Indian economic history meets the history of European expansion and the two themes are held together by the Indian Ocean.

“MUSIC OF THE SLAVES” IN THE INDIAN OCEAN CREOLE ISLANDS: A PERSPECTIVE FROM THE SEYCHELLES

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Marie-Christine Parent
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Indian Ocean ◽  
Western Indian Ocean ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
Musical Practice ◽  
African Heritage ◽  
Musical Practices ◽  
The Indian Ocean ◽  
Resistance Form ◽  
Over Time

This article examines the development and expression of the moutya from Seychelles, in relation to the sega from Mauritius and the maloya from Reunion.  These musical styles and their associated practices are recognised as evidence of an African heritage in the archipelagos. To better understand their connections and singularities, I utilise a diachronic and synchronic approach, at local and regional levels. The purpose is to demonstrate the mobility of musicians and the permeability of musical practices in these islands over time, using history and narratives from the colonial period (from the end of the seventeenth century) to the present, and fieldwork observations. This approach shows how music and dance elements from Africa are creolised on the islands and how they are further adapted as islanders travel around these islands. In the process one musical practice becomes many, although they fall into a matrix of styles sharing similar features. The article approaches the emergence and the transformation of (what would become) moutya in the Seychelles by first describing the emergence of musical creativity in the Mascarenes and Seychelles. This is followed by a discussion of the transition from a marginal and resistance form of music to new musical categories. Finally, the article describes circulations and musical exchanges between the islands, opening the door to a better understanding of Creole culture and music in the south-western Indian Ocean islands.

Maritime Expansion and (De)globalization? An Examination of the Land and Sea Trade in Seventeenth-Century Mughal India

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jagjeet Lally
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Indian Ocean ◽  
South Asia ◽  
Global Trade ◽  
Economic Relations ◽  
The Indian Ocean ◽  
The Impact

This chapter explores the maritime dynamics of the Indian Ocean in the seventeenth century and the resulting impact on the process of globalisation. It analyses the global economic relations of Mughal South Asia and explores the concepts of pro-globalisation, de-globalisation, and the impact of maritime expansionism on regional and global trade. It determines that the oft-presumed link between expansionism and pro-globalisation is erroneous and that maritime expansionism was neither a de-globalising nor pro-globalising. The author calls on maritime historians to devote further research into this ambiguity.

Spatial and Temporal Continuities of Merchant Networks in South Asia and the Indian Ocean (1500-2000)

2007 ◽  
Vol 50 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 91-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gita Dharampal-Frick ◽  
Bhaswati Bhattacharya ◽  
Jos Gommans
Keyword(s):  
Indian Ocean ◽  
South Asia ◽  
The People ◽  
Merchant Networks ◽  
The Indian Ocean

AbstractWe believe ourselves to be the most astute men that one can encounter, and the people here surpass us in everything. And there are Moorish merchants worth 400,000 to 500,000 ducats. And they can do better calculations by memory than we can do with the pen. And they mock us, and it seems to me that they are superior to us in countless things, save with sword in hand, which they cannot resist.

Intersections: Peoples, ports and trade in seventeenth-century Surat and Madras

2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-122
Author(s):  
Radhika Seshan
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Indian Ocean ◽  
North India ◽  
Trade Networks ◽  
The Indian Ocean ◽  
Indian Ocean World

The article discusses the ways in which, in the seventeenth century, as India drew the attention of more Europeans, both as private traders and as part of larger east India companies, networks of contacts were established. Two ports in particular, Surat and Madras (now Chennai), became points of intersection of Europeans and Asians, through the multi-pronged trade networks that linked these two ports to other ports in the Indian Ocean world, through traders from across regions. Focus is on the English in particular, as their main port of trade for Mughal North India was Surat, and Madras, their first fortified establishment on the coast of India.

A Secret People of South Asia. The Origins, Evolution and Role of the Luso-Indian Goan Community from the Sixteenth to Twentieth Centuries

Itinerario ◽  
1987 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 72-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth McPherson
Keyword(s):  
Indian Ocean ◽  
South Asia ◽  
Indian Ocean Region ◽  
Imperial Expansion ◽  
Ocean Region ◽  
The Indian Ocean

Until fairly recently, histories of European imperial expansion in the Indian Ocean region have been written largely in terms of the endeavours of Europeans in creating and controlling empire. Only in the last couple of decades has recognition been given slowly to the role of the indigenous economic and political compradors, both large and small, who were vital to the evolution and sustenance of European colonial empires.

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