Towards an era of Asian oceanic sovereignty
WHEN the book Asia and Western Dominance was first published in 1953, it was hailed by the media then as “one of the classics of world history” and a “political as well as a literary event”.
In 1953, KM Pannikar's book Asia and Western Dominance was hailed as a classic of world history, a political and literary event. Pannikar argued that European expansion in Asian waters, from Vasco da Gama's arrival in Calicut in 1498 to the withdrawal of British forces from India in 1947 and European navies from China in 1949, was not a civilisation on the march or a puppet show.
Instead, it was an attempt to bypass the power of Islam in West Asia and break through the prison of the Mediterranean. The Indian Ocean, once seen as an Islamic lake, was transformed into a maritime monopoly. Pannikar viewed history through a maritime, non-euro-centric lens, challenging Asian societies and imposing its will on them.
He believed that Asian unity could be achieved through a united naval power, not confined to land-based structures. Today, the formal structures of the Vasco da Gama Epoch are dissolving, but its cognitive architecture persists in history, historical discourse, and geopolitical theories. It is time for Asian intellectuals and policy elites to rethink their historiography and prepare for a post-Hormuz era, focusing on straits, gulfs, and oceans.
Written by urgent.news from New Straits Times's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
