Ezhimala. 14 October 2017. The fourth edition of the Dill’ Seminar on “India and Southeast Asia – Maritime Trade, Expedition and Civilisation Linkages” concluded at the Indian Naval Academy (INA). Ten papers were presented during the seminar, covering various topics like ‘India and Southeast Asia: Echoes of Memories’, ‘Indian Shipping and maritime trade in 16thand 17th century Southeast Asia’ and ‘Tectonic shifts in Geopolitics of Asia-Pacific’ and ‘The economic background to India’s early maritime trade’ on the first day.
Sessions largely dwelt with the Socio-Cultural Exchanges between India and Southeast Asian countries, Look and Act East policy of India in the developing Geo-political context and Maritime military campaigns to and from Southeast Asia. The seminar proceedings had kick started with a mesmerizing and insightful keynote address by Vice Admiral Anup Singh, PVSM, AVSM, NM (Retd), Advisor Naval History Project to Integrated Headquarter Ministry of Defence (Navy) and former Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Eastern Naval Command.
The two day seminar was attended by large delegation of serving senior Naval and Coast Guard officers, eminent academicians from the field of Maritime History like Prof (Dr) Srikanth Kondapalli, Prof (Dr) La Na Swamy, Prof Priyadarsi Mukherji, Prof Ajay Pratap Singh, Prof Binda Paranjape and Prof (Dr) Ruby Maloni, representatives from Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and cadets of the INA.
Rear Admiral MD Suresh, NM, Deputy Commandant and Chief instructor, INA delivered the closing address and thanked all paper presenters, chairpersons, and eminent academicians and luminaries present, for the intellectually enriching experience provided to the audience and especially to INA cadets through high quality deliberations on the subject. He also advised cadets present to consider the inputs as nuggets which need to be built upon with future research and study on these important region.
The Indian Naval Academy christened the Annual Seminar as the ‘Dilli’ series after MountDilli located at Ezhimala, which has been a witness to the developments of the maritime history of the region. The lighthouse insignia reflects the need to ‘look back to see forward’. The initiative taken by the INA, as the center for “Shaping Future Naval Leadership”, has been an enriching experience and the ‘Dilli’ series promises to become an important event in the calendar of maritime history studies of the country.
