Cultural Policy Chaupal - Viksit Bharat@2047

Meeting Notes:

Supported by IGNCA. CPPG and colleges of DU, JNU

Rediscovering India's Maritime Heritage: Cultural Chaupal invited Sanjeev Sanyal, an economist and popular historian. He's a member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India. Sanyal described how the area of Rann of Kutch resembled the Sundarbans 6-7 thousand years ago, with Dholavira being a major port and Saurashtra being an island named Khadir Island. Dwarka served as a gateway to the Middle East. Most trade was conducted by organized ships, which had their own navy. Hindu temples were the main source of funding during that time.

Sanyal's lectures discussed ancient texts mentioning maritime activity and shipbuilding. Ships were classified as ordinary and special, with special ships being truly seagoing. There's a project to reconstruct an ancient stitched ship using ancient stitching techniques, reviving cultural memories of Indian maritime history.

Understanding how monsoons and equatorial currents shaped interactions across the Indian Ocean, including trade flows, is crucial. The project aims to sail a stitched ship from Mandvi, Gujarat to Muscat in 2025-26, followed by further voyages to other regions.

The project received appreciation from both the Sultan of Oman and the Prime Minister of India in a joint statement dated December 16, 2023, acknowledging the Ministry of Culture's efforts in recreating a maritime voyager's ship crafted with ancient Indian knowledge.