India’s maritime soul can win the world — if India learns to sell romance, not just research. In this address at a Project MAUSAM symposium, Rear Admiral (Retd.) Pradeep Chauhan, Director General of the National Maritime Foundation, offers a frank assessment of why India’s maritime heritage advocacy is losing ground.
He critiques India’s neglect of public international maritime law (currently rated near zero on a scale of 10), its failure to “look west” while pursuing the Look East policy, and the absence of a compelling emotional narrative around India’s oceanic civilisation. Chauhan argues that the Indian Navy and research institutions must move beyond hard security and archaeology to co-create a unifying maritime identity — one capable of speaking to the Indian Ocean region the way China’s Maritime Silk Road narrative has already begun to do.

About the Speaker:
Vice Admiral Pradeep Chauhan has been CEO and DG of National Maritime Foundation for past seven good years. He, alongwith the eminent historians and ASI stalwarts of Bharat (India) is committedly endeavouring to bring India, not only boosting the protection of the Indian territory, but also exploring the profoundest ways in which India soars as a global parallel in all respects.