India’s Maritime Strategy

• 14 Jan 2026

For Prelims: Indian Ocean, Cholas, Indo-Pacific, Blue Economy, SAGAR vision, Belt and Road Initiative  

For Mains: Evolution of India’s maritime strategy and naval doctrine, India’s role as a net security provider in the Indian Ocean Region, Maritime India Vision 2030

Source:TH 

Why in News?  

India’s evolving maritime Strategy has come into sharper focus following insights from The Routledge Handbook of Maritime India, which provides a comprehensive analysis of India’s maritime evolution.

Summary 

• India’s maritime strategy has evolved from a historically land-centric outlook to a comprehensive, rules-based approach, drawing on civilisational seafaring traditions and modern initiatives such as SAGAR, MAHASAGAR, and the Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative to position India as a net security provider and maritime hub. 
• India faces challenges from China’s expanding IOR presence, capability gaps, climate risks, and underwater domain vulnerabilities. 
• Strengthening legal integration, maritime technology, regional rule-shaping, climate-resilient infrastructure, and human capital is key to securing India’s maritime future and major-power aspirations.

How Has India’s Maritime Strategy Evolved? 

• India’s Early Maritime Orientation: India’s strategic geography is defined by the Himalayas in the north and the Indian Ocean in the south, creating both continental and maritime imperatives. 
  • Historically, while invasions came via land routes, India projected influence seaward through trade, culture, and navigation. 
  • Ancient and medieval maritime networks connected India with Southeast Asia, the Arab world, and East Africa. 
  • The Cholas and later the Marathas demonstrated organised naval power, overseas expeditions, and maritime statecraft. 
    • The Cholas are described as “Nautical Tigers,” symbolising organised naval power and overseas expeditions. 
  • This early civilisational experience established the Indian Ocean as a space of opportunity rather than threat. 
• Colonial and Early Post-Independence Period: British colonial rule subordinated Indian maritime power to imperial interests, dismantling indigenous naval traditions. 
  • After Independence, India inherited a largely continental security mindset shaped by Partition and hostility with Pakistan, the 1962 war with China, and persistent border and internal security challenges.  
  • As a result, maritime issues remained secondary despite early strategic warnings.  
  • Although Jawaharlal Nehru cautioned that control of the Indian Ocean directly affected India’s trade and independence, policy attention continued to remain predominantly land-centric. 
• Maritime Reorientation:  The mid-1980s marked a strategic shift as rising dependence on seaborne trade and energy imports, naval modernisation, and improved ties with Australia and Southeast Asia led India to view the seas as strategic highways rather than mere defensive buffers.  
  • Economic liberalisation deepened integration with global maritime supply chains, while the maritime vision expanded from the Indian Ocean to the Indo-Pacific, enabling convergence with Japan, France, Australia, and ASEAN and reinforcing a rule-based order.  
  • In the early 2000s, the Indian Navy’s expanded reach and anti-piracy operations in the Arabian Sea established India as a net security provider, with maritime diplomacy, joint exercises, and humanitarian assistance becoming key tools of influence. 
  • India’s maritime strategy now integrates maritime security with capacity-building in neighbouring states and extends beyond defence to include the Blue Economy, underwater domain awareness, maritime technologies, climate resilience, and coastal security, treating oceans as strategic, economic, and ecological assets. 
• Legal Backing and Regulatory Modernisation: India has modernised its maritime governance by replacing colonial-era laws with the Merchant Shipping Act, 2025, Carriage of Goods by Sea Act, 2025, and Indian Ports Act, 2025.  
  • These reforms align Indian law with global conventions, strengthen safety and environmental standards, and improve ease of doing business through a rules-based regulatory framework. 
• Policy Vision: India’s Maritime Vision, through Maritime India Vision 2030 and Maritime Amrit Kaal Vision 2047, aims to transform India into a global maritime hub.  
  • India’s maritime strategy is guided by the SAGAR vision, which frames the Indian Ocean as a shared commons based on collective security and growth, especially for the Global South.  
  • This approach has been expanded globally through the MAHASAGAR Vision, integrating maritime security with development and sustainability. 
• Institutional Preparedness: It has been strengthened through the Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative, extending India’s focus to the wider Indo-Pacific.  
  • Engagement with ASEAN, IORA, and BIMSTEC, supported by the Information Fusion Centre–Indian Ocean Region, reinforces a cooperative, rules-based maritime order.

What are the Challenges to India’s Maritime Strategy? 

• China’s IOR Penetration: China’s systematic expansion in the Indian Ocean Region—through dual-use ports under the Belt and Road Initiative (Gwadar, Hambantota, Kyaukpyu) and submarine forays has altered the regional balance.  
  • India faces a structural asymmetry in shipbuilding capacity, defence-industrial scale, and logistics reach.  The challenge lies in deterring coercion without triggering a destabilising security dilemma or a zero-sum naval competition. 
• Fragile Maritime Governance in the Neighbourhood: Weak institutions, corruption, and elite capture in South Asian littoral states have enabled external strategic leverage.  
  • Sri Lanka’s Hambantota experience demonstrates how governance deficits, rather than ideology, drive alignment with China.  
  • India’s difficulty in offering timely, financially competitive, and institutionally credible alternatives limits its ability to shape maritime governance norms in its immediate neighbourhood. 
• Capability Gaps and Force Projection Constraints: The Indian Navy operates across an expansive theatre from the Strait of Hormuz to the Malacca Strait, but faces persistent challenges due to delays in indigenous shipbuilding, submarine shortages, and dependence on imported propulsion, sensors, and combat systems. 
  • Fiscal constraints further complicate the transition from platform-centric modernisation to network-centric maritime dominance. 
• Indo-Pacific Dilution and Partner Uncertainty: The Indo-Pacific, once central to global strategic discourse, has lost momentum due to conflicts in Ukraine, Gaza, and the Red Sea, and evolving U.S. threat perceptions of China.  
  • India must now navigate Quad cooperation without formal alliances, balancing strategic autonomy, partner expectations, and avoidance of bloc politics, making sustained maritime coordination increasingly complex. 
• Economic Exposure and Choke-Point Vulnerability: India’s dependence on maritime energy routes through Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb exposes it to disruptions from regional instability, piracy, and maritime terrorism.  
• Technological Deficit in the Underwater Domain: The next frontier of maritime competition lies below the surface. 
  • India’s lag in Underwater Domain Awareness (UDA), seabed surveillance, autonomous underwater systems, and cyber-maritime integration risks eroding deterrence and situational awareness in contested IOR spaces. 
• Climate Change as a Force Multiplier: Sea-level rise, extreme weather, and coastal erosion threaten critical naval infrastructure and island territories such as the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.  
  • Simultaneously, climate-induced humanitarian crises in the IOR will increasingly draw India into disaster response and stabilisation roles, stretching naval resources beyond traditional security missions. 

What Measures can Strengthen India’s Maritime Strategy? 

• Statutory Integration: Enact a consolidated National Maritime Security Framework by aligning the Maritime Security Strategy (2015), Sagarmala, and Blue Economy Policy with clear legal roles for Navy, Coast Guard, ports, and coastal states. 
• Underwater Domain Awareness: Operationalise UDA as a national mission by integrating Navy–ISRO–scientific institutions to secure seabed cables, offshore assets, and EEZs. 
• Regional Rule-shaping: Assist Indian Ocean littorals in implementing UNCLOS-compliant maritime laws, coast guard legislation, and EEZ governance to convert cooperation into long-term alignment. 
• Climate–security Convergence: Treat ports, naval bases, and island territories as climate-critical infrastructure, aligning maritime security planning with NAPCC and CRZ norms. 
• Human Capital for Maritime Statecraft: Invest in ocean sciences, hydrography, maritime cyber expertise, and strategic studies to build civilian and military expertise essential for long-term maritime leadership.

Conclusion 

India’s maritime outlook is no longer optional or secondary; the seas now shape national security, trade and energy flows, climate resilience, and regional leadership. Oceans are central to India’s strategic, economic, and environmental interests, and India’s rise as a major power will depend as much on its engagement with the maritime domain as on developments on land. 

Drishti Mains Question:

Trace the evolution of India’s maritime strategy from a land-centric outlook to an Indo-Pacific orientation.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) 

1. What is SAGAR in India’s maritime strategy?
SAGAR (Security and Growth for All in the Region) frames the Indian Ocean as a shared commons, focusing on collective security, capacity building, and development, especially for the Global South.

2. What is the MAHASAGAR Vision?
MAHASAGAR expands SAGAR globally by integrating maritime security, development, and sustainability beyond the Indian Ocean, reflecting India’s wider leadership ambitions.

3. Why is Underwater Domain Awareness (UDA) important for India?
UDA is critical to monitor submarines, protect seabed cables, offshore assets, and ensure maritime deterrence in contested Indian Ocean spaces.

4. What are the major maritime challenges India faces today?
Key challenges include China’s IOR expansion, naval capability gaps, choke-point vulnerabilities, weak maritime governance in neighbours, and climate-induced security risks.

UPSC Civil Services Examination, Previous Year Question (PYQ)

Prelims 

Q. With reference to ‘Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Cooperation (IOR-ARC)’, consider the following statements: (2015)

1. It was established very recently in response to incidents of piracy and accidents of oil spills.   
2. It is an alliance meant for maritime security only.   

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?  

(a) 1 only   

(b) 2 only    

(c) Both 1 and 2    

(d) Neither 1 nor 2   

Ans: (d)  

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Mains

Q. What are the maritime security challenges in India? Discuss the organisational, technical and procedural initiatives taken to improve maritime security. (2022).