India was the lynchpin of sea-based trade: Ansari

AHMEDABAD: Vice President M Hamid Ansari today said that India was the lynchpin of sea-based trade and commerce for at least four millennia.

"India was the lynchpin (a source of support and stability) of sea-based trade and commerce for at least four millennia. The world's first tidal dock is believed to have been built at Lothal around 2300 BC during the Harappan civilisation, on the Gujarat coast," Ansari said, at a book release function here.

He released the book entitled "Gujarat and The Sea" edited by Dr Lotika Varadarajan and its Gujarati translation by Prof Makrand Mehta.

The book, a treasure trove of facts and facets of a bygone era, includes the role of earthquakes in changing the course of rivers and causing civilisational decline, and the accuracy of ancient wind charts and maps.

It covers the textile traditions of Gujarat and the impact it has had in West Asia, Europe and South East Asia.

"Any study of Indian history cannot be separated from the context of the three large water bodies that surround the Indian sub-continent," Ansari said.

Each of our coastal zones -Gujarat Coast, Malabar Coast, Coromandel Coast and Bengal Coast- had their commercial sectors of specialisation, their commercial interlocutors and geographies of affinity, he said.

With trade came politics, cultural and human interaction. Mutually beneficial trade yielded to more narrow and selfish concerns causing Indian merchants to lose their control over India's maritime commerce, Ansari said.