Maritime History Society celebrated its 45th Founder’s Day at Mulla Auditorium on 17 May 2023. VAdm MS Pawar (Retd) was the guest speaker for this event. He delivered a talk on "Inception of Maratha Navy". He spoke of Maratha Armar being an indigenous naval establishment, founded under leadership of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, built to stand up to the challenges posed by colonial powers. He brought out Shivaji Maharaj’s constant engagements with Mughals, Siddis, Dutch, French and Sawants.
Drawing parallels on the importance of sea and Sea Control, VAdm Pawar spoke about Shivaji’s historical saying ‘he who owns the Navy owns the Sea’ while postulating significance of maritime power. He also highlighted battle of Basrur where Shivaji carried out a surprise attack at midnight, a day before Shivaratri. The commemorative lecture was followed by release of book ‘Bharat’s Military Conquests in Foreign Lands (900 BCE – 1680 CE): Indian Military Operations and Expeditions from the Mediterranean to the Pacific’ authored by Mr. Venkatesh Rangan.
The book focuses on history of dynastic and native naval military operations for 3000 years through 11 operations in PersianGulf, RedSea, SouthChinaSea and parts of IndianOcean and Indo-Pacific. VAdm Dinesh K Tripathi FOCINC WNC was Chief Guest of the event and delivered the keynote address. The event was attended by around 800 people that included naval personnel, academia, retired naval officers and civilians.
