Talmiz Ahmad

In March this year, during a visit to Mauritius, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced India’s new maritime vision — “MAHASAGAR,” which means “ocean” in Sanskrit. He said that this acronym stood for “Mutual and Holistic Advancement for Security and Growth Across Regions,” though the geography it embraced was not clarified.

Ten years earlier, Modi had first expounded his maritime vision, “SAGAR” (“sea,” standing for “Security and Growth for all in the Region”), in the same island nation. He has now announced an updated and even more ambitious vision of India’s role in the waters of the Indian Ocean and, possibly, beyond.

India stands at the center of the Indian Ocean. With a coastline of 7,500 km, 12 major ports, more than 200 minor ports and several hundred islands, India’s interests are crucially linked with the ocean, which carries 90 percent of its two-way trade, including most of its energy imports. Besides this, over the last two decades, India has viewed with concern burgeoning acts of piracy in the Gulf of Aden and off the coast of Somalia, the movement of terrorists by sea into Mumbai before they perpetrated their horrendous attacks in November 2008, and the expanding footprint of international navies in the ocean.

SAGAR was India’s first attempt to project a maritime doctrine that would define its interests in the Indian Ocean and spell out its policy approach. Within this........

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