BY Capt. A. K. Bansal
Ancient monuments all over South East Asia testify that our ships dominated the Indian ocean for over 4000 years. Recent excavations indicate that regular sea trade in ivory, lapiz lapis lazuli, gold, pearls, shell and bone inlay flourished between India and Mesopotamia as early as 2350 B.C. A great brick basin 15 feet deep has been discovered at Lothal of the Indus Valley Civilization, measuring 718 feet by 121 feet. Ships could be brought into this dock from the nearby estuary via an artificial channel, kept clear of silt, by controlled flow of water from the spillway. Sailing vessels of the size of country craft that still sail the Arabian sea between India and the Persian Gulf could be regularly docked at Lothal.
From 2350 B.C to Emperor Asoka is about 2000 years! Asoka sent his sister, son and daughter by ship to Sri Lanka and the far east to spread Buddhism in 265-238 B. C.
Records of the 1st century show our ships carrying Hinduism, Buddhism, artisans and traders from India with architecture, sculpture, silks, spices, aromatic wood, and gold to China, Cambodia, Java, Sumatra, and Vietnam and bringing back pilgrims. Evidence that this continued for centuries is preserved in sculptures at Mahabalipuram.
It is also found in the annals of the Moguls (1526-1707). Between 1781 and 1821, ships built on the Hoogly River alone aggregated to 1,22,713 tons. Indian built teak ships were far superior to others and lasted over fifty years. The East India Company recorded that the Bhavanager built Indian teak ship ‘Daria Daulat’ was sound even after 87 years of active sea service. Some ships in Nelson’s fleet in the battle of Trafalgar on Oct. 2, 1805 were built in India. The first steam propelled pleasure boat was built at Lucknow for the Nawab of Oudh and sailed on the Gomati River in 1819. Regular steam boat passenger service operated on the Hooghly in 1823 with the S. S. Diana, built in the Calcutta Dockyard of Kyd & Co.
As part of their plan to subjugate India to economic dependence, the British systematically destroyed the skill and superiority of our shipping. for anyone except the East India Company. In 1811, Fort William in Bengal imposed double import duty on goods carried by non British built ships. Fort St. George in Madras and Fort St. David in Bombay followed suit in 1812 and 1813.
Our rulers made it out that our shipping declined because we were averse, slow or unable to adapt to power based shipbuilding techniques after the Industrial Revolution. In fact, our people never lost their appetite for shipping and adventure as, evidenced by the fact that 102 Indian navigation companies, registered between 1860 and 1925, were forced into liquidation one by one.
Against 34,286 Indian ships which entered and cleared our ports in 1857, with 1,2,19958 tons, only 1676 ships did so with 1,09,813 tons in 1900, i.e only 9% of cargo and merely 4.89 % of Indian shipping, just 43 years later. Thus by 1947 we were left with few ships of only 1,92,000 tones, a few Indian captains and a handful of Indian officers and engineers.
MILESTONES 1890 TO 2002
1890: J. N. Tata started the Tata Line from Bombay to China and Japan. The Peninsular Oriental steamship Navigation Co. forced it to close down.
1905: Jayotindra Nath Tagore, brother of Poet Tagore, started the Bengal Steamship Company. The British India Steam Naviation Co. carried free passenger and even gave each passenger a silk handkerchief as a momento. This bankrupted Tagore’s Company within three years.
1906: V. O. Chidambaram Pillai started Swadeshi Shipping Co. in Tuticorin.
1919: March 27, Scindia Steam Navigation Company Ltd. was founded. S. S. Loyality, sailed for U. K. on April 5.
1921: Scindia started training Indian officers and engineers as apprentices on their ships.
1923: Lord Inchcape, Chairman of P & O, offered to buy Scindia to get rid of Indian competition. Scindia refused. Government restricted Scindia’s tonnage to 75,000 tons.
1927: Training ship Dufferin established.
1935: Training of marine engineers started in Dufferin.
1938: Dec.23. While declaring open Scindia House, Ballard Estate Bombay, Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel said that “on each and every stone of this building will be written the future history of Indian shipping.”
1941: June 21, Dr. Rajendra Prasad laid the foundation stone of First Modern Indian Shipyard at Vizagapattam.
1946: India Steam Ship Company was founded.
1948: Scindia resumed passenger service to U.K. with Jaljawahar & Jalazad and became associate members of Karmahom Conferences. March 14, first Indian built cargo ship, ‘JALAUSHA’, launched by Jawaharlal Nehru.
1948: Great Eastern shipping Co., National Steamship Co. and South East Asia Shipping Co. founded. Nautical & Engineering college started at Azad Maidan Bombay.
1950: March, Eastern shipping Company established with S. S. Bombay & S. S. West Bengal, Scindia share holding and management. PASSENGER SERVICE BETWEEN Singapore to Madras started with ‘JALAGOPAL’, later replaced by Jal Jawahar named STATE OF MADRAS.
1952: Coastal shipping reserved for Indian ships by law. 1952: March 1, Scindia Shipbuilding Yard Vizagapattam became public sector as Hindustan Shipyard Limited.
1954: Eastern Shipping Corporation started passenger cum cargo service to East Africa with Scindia vessel ‘JALAZAD’, renamed ‘STATE OF BOMBAY’.
1956: August 15, Eastern Shipping Corporation became fully govt. owned. Under MSA 1956, Scindia ceased as its managing agents. All Scindia officers and engineers who staffed ships of both companies were given choice to stay with Scindia or opt for Eastern Shipping Corporation. Western Shipping Corp. was incorporated.
1961: Eastern and Western Shipping Corporation were merged into Shipping Corporation of India.
1962: Indian shipping crossed one million GRT.
1975: Indian Register of Shipping was established.
2000-2001: Total tonnage handled in our major ports was to the order of about 3,000 lakh tonnes at the turn of this century, as against just over one lakh tonnes at the turn of the 20th century.
After just fifty-five years of Independence, apart from manning nearly 7 million GRT of our own shipping, about 32,000 masters, officers and engineers sail on world merchants ships, earning an estimated USD 384 million yearly for our country.
The twelve Indian major ports alone handled 1,387 lakh tonnes of cargo between April/Sept 2001. This means about 2,774 Lakh tonnes per year. As against that we handled only one lakh tonnes in 1900.
The three largest ships in the world are all commanded by Indians. This belies a statement made in 1927 in the Viceroy’s council at New Delhi, when training ship Dufferin was being established that, “Indians can never make good officers, much less Captains”.
Sources: Many Libraries across India Saga of Scindia, by N.G.Jog Encyclopedia Brittanica.