Does Shivaji’s royal seal in Indian Navy flag finally give him recognition as the father of the national navy?

On September 2, Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled a new Indian Navy flag at the Cochin shipyard, while commissioning the Indian Aircraft Carrier, INS Vikrant. The new flag had the tricolour intact on the upper left side. But the St George’s Cross, which had been part of the flag ever since the British Raj, was replaced by the Indian National emblem, with the Satyamev Jayate motto inscribed inside a blue octagon with a gold border on the lower right hand side. This golden border of the octagon is borrowed from the royal seal of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, who ruled the seas with his sea forts during his illustrious reign. The new flag is shorn of its colonial past, no doubt, but by incorporating Shivaji Maharaj’s seal in the naval insignia, India has perhaps acknowledged for the first time that the Maratha hero was the progenitor of the idea of a modern national navy. To know more about this, we have with us today Vaibhav Purandare, deputy resident editor at The Times of India, Mumbai. Having written the book, Shivaji: India’s great warrior king, Vaibhav is perhaps the best person to talk about this. What does PM Modi and the Indian Navy’s decision to pay tribute to Chhatrapati Shivaji by shaping the Navy emblem along the lines of Shivaji’s royal seal signify? This is the first official acknowledgement by an Indian government that Chhatrapati Shivaji is the father of the Indian Navy. And this recognition has taken place because of the pioneering role that Shivaji played in building an indigenous naval fleet. And he built this fleet at a time when coastal power in India was completely dominated by the foreigners. And by foreigners, I mean the British, the Portuguese, the French and the Dutch. It so happened that we know that the Chola dynasty ended in the mid 1250s. And after that we know about the Islamic invasions and the establishment of the Mughal Empire and sultanates in the Deccan. But what happened was that the Indian powers all lost sight of the significance of the sea. And gradually, in the medieval era, the sea came to be dominated by these foreigners. So, the Portuguese came in, the Dutch came in, the British came in, and then the French came in. And, by the time of Shivaji’s birth in the 17th century, in the year 1630, these four paths are completely dominating India’s massive coastline. So, to give an example, if say, the Nizam Shah of Ahmednagar, or the Adil Shah and his family, or the Mughal emperor and his relatives want to go to the Islamic holy shrine of Mecca and Medina, then they would have to seek approvals and licenses from these coastal powers to get onto a ship. Or if they wanted to trade in commodities and goods, then for commodities to go out of India or to come into India, again they needed the approval and licenses of these coastal powers, which were all foreign powers. And this neglect of the seas happened in spite of the fact that the Arabs were very famous seafaring tribes. But by the 17th century, all that power had diminished and it was in the hands of these four foreign powers. And Shivaji recognized very early on in his life and career that sea power was extremely important in terms of defence as well as trade. And he built his own strong Maratha naval fleet. And because he was a pioneer in this regard after the collapse of the Chola Dynasty, that is, after a gap of nearly seven centuries, he is regarded as the father of the Indian Navy. Unofficially, he was always regarded as the father of the modern national navy, but this is an official recognition of the fact that he is the father of the Indian Navy. What was Shivaji's role in building a Navy? What Shivaji recognized was that a Navy was necessary for defence as well as trade. So, in the first place, by capturing a few forts along the western coastline, and by beginning to build some very basic ships and a small naval fleet, he began his construction of a naval fleet. So, his early naval vessels used some rudimentary technology. It wasn't very sophisticated technology because the Marathas did not have sophisticated naval technology. Such technology was in the hands of the foreign powers, whether it was the British or the Portuguese. So, Shivaji did not hesitate to borrow that technology and to buy that technology from both the British and the Portuguese on the western coast. He employed some Portuguese experts to build his own ships and also to train his own people and the local population of the Deccan in shipbuilding, so they could also acquire these skills, they could also acquire the kind of machinery that was necessary to build powerful ships and combat vessels. He also employed British engineers for the purpose and in the British factory records, the Britishers at Surat and at Rajapur and other places along the coastline have written complaining that many of the engineers have gone over to Shivaji side, and they’re building ships for him now instead of building ships for the Britishers. That’s because they say that Shivaji is paying them handsome wages and far better wages than the Britishers are paying them. So, Shivaji did not hesitate to use foreign technology and, at the same time, to work on developing indigenous skills in shipbuilding with the help of that technology. So initially, he builds his rudimentary vessels. Slowly, he starts building sophisticated vessels and big ships. So, his big ships are known as the gurabs, and he builds quite a number of them. Then there are the Galbats and other ships which are sleek and very swift moving vessels. Then there are some vessels which are heavy, but which can carry a lot of armed equipment, which can carry a lot of guns. They can carry some cannons on them, so he builds a variety of naval equipment and a variety of ships, really, so that he can engage in all manner of battles, whether it’s a quick battle, whether it’s a battle that’s going to last for some time, whether it’s a battle that’s going to require some serious fighting with the help of heavy guns and ammunition, or a battle that will that will require very light guns, in which case one of the light lighter and swifter moving naval vessels will be useful for the Marathas. And he starts having combats along the waters, armed combats with the Britishers, with the Portuguese and with the Siddis who control the port of Janjira on the western coast. Now this port of Janjira is very strategically located. The Siddis are Africans, Abyssinians and they’ve controlled the sport for a long time. But Shivaji knows that, considering its position bang in the middle of the Konkan Coast, if he wins it, it will be greatly useful for his political and naval enterprise, and he mounts the relentless assault on the Fort of Janjira. Now it so happens that the Britishers and the Portuguese, they are always helping the Siddis with sophisticated military and naval technology. So, the Siddis succeed in thwarting Shivaji’s assaults and in in beating back the Marathas and forcing them to retreat. But Shivaji keeps up the assaults nevertheless and builds up tensions and creates a lot of alarm for all the powers along the coast. Now, in a decade and a half, as these activities are on, Shivaji has built more than 50 combat ships, combat vessels of different kinds. He starts his naval activities in the year 1658, 1659 when he is 29 years old. By the time he gets coronated and he crowns himself king in the year 1674, then within a decade and a half almost, he has more than 50 strong combat vessels. And if you include the trading vessels, because he started trading also in those waters, he realizes the significance of controlling trade and also of carrying out trade. So if you count those vessels, the trading vessels which are applying in the waters, and you know, he carries out some trade with other countries as well, then the number of his vessels go up to 700 in the year 1674. So, within a decade and a half, he’s achieved a great deal in building his own navel fleet so this is how it goes about systematically building his naval enterprise. So, you mentioned how many ships he had, who all were there in his Navy? Uh, there were people from the areas that he was working in, that is there were the local fisherfolk community, the Kolis who lived along the Konkan coastline. There were the Bhandari, again fisherfolk along the western coast. There were several Muslims from the western coastline that he engaged in his work and employed in his Navy. In fact, it is remarkable that for a man who was building what was clearly a Hindu polity, he showed absolutely no discrimination, showing the inclusive nature of his Hindu polity. And two of his chiefs of Navy, two of his Navy Admirals, one was called Daulat Khan, the other was called Darya Sarang Ventjee. These two were Muslims, so he does not hesitate at all, even when he was fighting many of the Islamic powers in the land to appoint Muslims to top posts in his Navy. How did Shivaji rivals like the Mughals look at his naval fleet? Did it create any concerns in the rival camps or were they dismissive? Oh, it created a lot of concerns. Initially, of course, the foreign powers were dismissive, the Britishers were dismissive and they thought the Maratha fleet was filled with very pitiable little ships, because the initial ships were built with the help of very basic technology. But as Shivaji’s fleet started growing in number and in strength, and Shivaji started displaying a remarkable resilience in the waters, just as he was showing on land, they began to get really concerned and worried. And, once he had a reasonable amount of combat vessels and when they saw the nature of the combat that the Marathas were waging, because the Marathas were fighting spiritedly in spite of all the odds, in spite of the fact that the Westerners had far more developed technology, the Marathas put up a real strong fight in the waters so that really rattled all the powers in the region. And it rattled the Muggles as well, because in the year 1660, Shivaji raided the commercial center of Surat, which was controlled by the Mughal Empire. Then in the year 1664, he raided Surat and then once again in 1670, he carried out a second raid in Surat. Now, as his naval strength grew, the Muggles got really worried because both the raids were conducted by Shivaji by taking the land route. But in 1670 they really started getting worried that his naval fleet is now strong enough. What if he takes the sea route and lands directly on Suvali along the coast of Gujarat because the entry to the town of Surat goes through Suvali and it’s a pretty easy entry from there. So, if he comes as a surprise, to Surat one fine day, then it’s going to be further trouble for the Mughal Empire. So, they get really worried about that. They get worried about the manner in which he’s fighting in the waters. The Britishers get worried, the Portuguese get worried. The Portuguese were ruling over Goa at this point in time. They are alarmed and they are worried because increasingly reports start coming in that Shivaji may invade Goa anytime. And while the Portuguese are getting ready for his anticipated arrival, Shivaji springs another surprise, because what he does is he actually gets onto a ship, takes his fleet along, and while everyone believes he’s on his way to Goa to invade that place, he very neatly bypasses Goa and lands at Karwar further down the South. And he raids that place and the people, the rulers of Karwar, are taken completely unawares, and he attacks that place. So, whether it’s the Mughals or the Britishers or the Portuguese, they are all extremely worried by the developments they’re seeing all around them. And by the manner in which Shivaji is, in a very determined manner, building his naval fleet and putting it to use in combat as well as in peacetime. Audio production: Sahil Gupta