Ocean of Churn: A Sea of Knowledge

Book review of The Ocean of Churn by Sanjay Sanyal

I read the Ocean of Churn half asleep, leaning on my bean bag, my only resort to passing the time away. But as I read past the foreword and acknowledgements, my slumber ebbed away, and I sunk deeper into the story of how a prince from Southern India was smuggled by a coup of palace brahmans, and shipped over to Malaysia in Eastern Asia, only for him to come back at the nick of time and reclaim what’s rightfully his. Now this could be a good screenplay for a commercial Baahubali rip-off, but as the writer delves into the socio-economic implications of that little transaction and how it affected the churn of events, I began to see the consequences of a butterfly effect of its own. I would say be warned for spoilers, but all of this has already happened before.

It’s fascinating to look at the biggest picture, like turning the dial of time to when mankind was just a crawling mess of hunter-gatherers in Africa, and a few centuries later we’re on the brink of self-destruction. But the awkward moment between the former and the latter was where some of the groundwork was laid to elevate the Indian ocean as the centre stage to the biggest advancements made by humankind. From the silk trade in the east, to the Conquests from the West, and the introduction of the samosas from the Middle east, the oceanic rim has seen it all. The waves of the book are ripe with stories about how minute details turned out to shape the way civilisations thrived.

History is a double edged sword. It can be so bland and unnecessary at times, or completely enrapturing, stoking the flames of the readers’ imagination, which depends entirely on the narrative. Sure, he could’ve begun with the basic textbook method of talking about the importance of history and why we’re here and all that, but he chose to open with a pivotal scene in Indian and South Eastern history: the migration of the Nanda dynasty to Malaysia. And he picks up the pace to take us back to the monolithic age, to the Egyptian civilisations, musing on how the forefathers conformed to agriculture when hunting was a much better investment.

He then steers us towards how religion came into the mix, with its obstinate Hindus, vandalising Khans, meditating Buddhists and crusading Christians claiming their version of God is the best, like a bunch of nerds at a Book club, only more violent. And in the midst of all this, the winds of change have the Portuguese and Dutch sailing east, sniffing after our spices, ultimately drawing out the Brits from their potato infested “toons”, and lay siege to the Indian Ocean, and the other colonies.

Sanyal also draws our attention to some of the minor happenings around this time that don’t get a lot of attention, like how the Dutch lost Manhattan to the British for a field of Nutmeg, and how the Japanese went after the Chinese in the middle of the World War I. Indian mercenaries also make the occasional appearance, fighting alongside Alexander, and for the Indian National Army. It truly is like watching a play unfold on the stage of the Indian Ocean. Sanyal also depicts the way the Indian Ocean was side-lined with the advent of the Atlantic Ocean.

The entire book makes us appreciate and acknowledge the heaving miracles our ancestors have achieved, and the cultural and scientific advancements they’ve made to their specific countries, recognised and otherwise, have all been crucial to the present day comforts we all enjoy. But it’s not the end of the story for the Indian Ocean, he says, as the equilibrium is shifting yet again, and the commercial and cultural exchange of the surrounding civilisations strengthening by the years, preparing to put the Indian Ocean back on the spotlight.

Most of the stuff you come across is something you’ve either learnt in your history class or somewhere in the black hole of YouTube, but Sanyal makes it seem like you’re reading the history of the world with India in the centre stage. The author has travelled to all the places he’s ever written about, and this first- hand experience helps him paint a more personal image of the place’s history. The Western accounts of History might be the most accurate ones out there, but they tend to brush past the Eastern part of the world, and dismiss the Eastern religions as Pagans. Therefore, it is refreshing to have a more desi approach to the history of the world, especially with a new perspective of the Indian Ocean. 

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