One Ocean Connects us all. Nations have gone to war over access and conquests, while pirates have pillaged vulnerable vessels for ill-gotten wealth over the millennia. Among the oldest written documents mentioning maritime attacks are the clay tablets from the reign of Pharaoh Akhenaten (circa 1350 BCE) that mention rogue sea raiders intercepting shipments across the Aegean, eventually starving regional economies, resulting in the collapse of Bronze Age trade routes.
Peering through the eyeglasses of modern times reveals that not much has changed. Only the lens and perhaps the frame. Nations are investing in large naval fleets, still at overt and covert wars and piracy has shifted the parameters of plunder. All international laws and limits have been put to the test, tugging at the fears and tears of humanity. Despite seamless air and data connectivity across continents and humans reaching the moon, the ocean remains the biggest open battlefield of our time.
Marking the World Maritime Day on 24 September, V.D. Satheesan, chief minister, Keralam, announced plans under Mission Samudra to establish a world-class Maritime Museum and Oceanarium to showcase the maritime heritage that has connected the Indian peninsula to global trade, cultural exchange and diplomacy spanning three millennia.
The newly announced Maritime Museum is aligned with the Muziris Heritage initiative – India’s largest conservation project. The legendary port of Muziris (modern-day Kodungallur), which emerged around 1,000 BCE as the epicentre of the global spice trade, is mentioned prominently in classical Roman, Greek and Tamil Sangam literature, with seafaring Phoenician, Egyptian, Greek and Roman traders seeking Keralam’s prized Malabar black gold (pepper), cardamom and sandalwood. The discovery of the monsoon winds by Eudoxus and Hippalus allowed Roman ships to cross the Arabian Sea directly, forging a deep economic link that flooded ancient Keralam with Roman gold coins.
Following the decline of Muziris after a catastrophic flood in 1341 CE, Kochi and Kozhikode (Calicut) rose as the new maritime giants under the Zamorins. The free trade drew Arab, Persian, African and Chinese navigators to the emerald shores of Keralam, including the famed Ming Dynasty Admiral Zheng He. The arrival of Vasco da Gama in Calicut in 1498 CE marked a turbulent shift, introducing European colonial ambitions and religious conversions. Despite Portuguese, Dutch and British attempts to monopolise the waters, Kerala put up fierce resistance. The Kunjali Marakkars, the legendary naval chieftains of the Zamorin, pioneered early guerrilla naval warfare, while the 18th-century ruler Marthanda Varma of Travancore (Venad) famously crushed the Dutch Navy at the Battle of Colachel in 1741.
Kerala's maritime legacy thrives through its bustling modern ports handling over 2 million TEUs annually, with the emerging Vizhinjam deep-water port enabling larger vessels to dock. Roughly 95 per cent of India's trade by volume moves through maritime routes via major and non-major ports. India’s ocean-based blue economy contributes about 4 per cent to the national gross domestic product (GDP) and supports 30 million people.
While ports are usually deemed functional industrial hubs, isolated in their logistical locale, what is often overlooked is the potential for cultural osmosis that maritime trade offers. History shows that port cities naturally evolve into premier cultural hubs as the flow of commercial goods invariably brings a fluid exchange of people, languages, ideas and art. When sailors, merchants and immigrants settle around bustling harbours, their native traditions blend with local customs to create vibrant, cosmopolitan societies like Alexandria, Venice, New Orleans, Marseille, Nagasaki, Rotterdam, Shanghai and others. Interestingly, the oldest international port city of Lothal (circa 2400 BCE), with its unique tidal dockyard, is being reimagined into the world’s largest Maritime Museum complex spread over 400 acres.
India’s Blue Economy model adopted by the 2025 Niti Aayog Report does take into consideration multiple allied sectors, including tourism. Perhaps a wider net needs to be cast to set in motion the soft power of ocean diplomacy and cross-cultural synthesis as an exercise in experiential engagement.
Imagining cultural hubs around ports offers portals of progressive exchanges beyond mere economics, enriching lives in conjunction with livelihoods beyond the confines of a curated museum experience that pans to the past. Building relationships, melding hearts and minds germinate the connective tissue of cultural diplomacy vital to ocean conservation, secured shipping lanes in international waters and shared bounties of fishing, energy, minerals and recreation. With the ocean covering 70 per cent of the planet, its pain and power call for nations to unite to sustain our collective futures. No single country can address complex problems of global warming, sea-level rise, coastal economies, plastic pollution and overfishing.
Oceanariums can bring awareness to both the beauty of marine biodiversity and threats driven by indiscriminate human avarice. While beach lovers flock to coastal destinations like Goa, there is potential to raise the bar for ‘smart cities’ beyond mere tech by weaving a generational vision into urban planning that is ocean-sensitive. As the saying goes, alone we are but a mere drop, but together we are an ocean.
The author is a world-renowned museologist and emeritus board of directors, International Council of Museums of the US and Canada. Chief advisor to Oceanariums and Climate Museums UNEP, he is also the founding president of several award-winning institutions