India, May 13 -- A nation with oceanic flanks, seaborne trade, and an inextricably maritime civilisational history cannot afford to remain continental in its imagination. The Indian Ocean has been, across four millennia, India's ocean. The nectar is there, in the depths. The churning must not stop

The ancient story of Samudra Manthan, the Churning of the Cosmic Ocean, is among the most enduring in India's civilisational memory. The Devas and Asuras, rivals bound by necessity, churned the primordial sea using Mount Mandara as the rod and the serpent Vasuki as their rope, with Lord Vishnu steadying the mountain in his tortoise form. From the depths emerged wonders - but first came Halahala, a poison of annihilating potency. Lord Shiva cons...