When one thinks of Southasia as a physical entity, the image that immediately springs to mind is that of the physical landmass. And yet, on the southern shores of Southasia lies the third-largest ocean on the planet, a body of water that was actually named the 'Indian' before Partition, when the term represented most of the Subcontinent and outlying areas. Thus, there is plenty of reason to describe the Indian Ocean as 'our' ocean, a resource and heritage for the whole of Southasia – as also, of course, for the other regions on its rim, all the way from the Arabian Peninsula and the east coast of Africa to Southeast Asia.
Still, there is a veritable black hole in much of the Southasian consciousness about the Indian Ocean. Perhaps this can be explained by the fact that, till recently, the ocean did not play a large role in most people's lives. For millennia, for instance, there were religious injunctions against travelling over the kala pani; and while a wide variety of goods were exported through the ocean routes, little was imported in return. The flows of peoples and goods that did take place were unmediated by states and kingdoms; and even when there was state sanction, these flows created plural societies enriched by traditions and goods from all over the Indian Ocean region.
This began to change, though, in colonial times, when the British became masters of much of the Subcontinent, largely facilitated by their control of the Indian Ocean. The Europeans were the first invaders who came over the seas, and the ocean increasingly began to grow in importance for the Subcontinent, as more and more goods and ideas flowed in both directions across the waters. Even today, though, our ocean does not figure much in the public consciousness at large, except when there is a natural calamity such as the 2004 tsunami, or when coastal security becomes the subject of public debate, as happened after the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. Cheap and easy air travel has meant that ocean routes are no longer important even for travel, thus reducing the ocean in the public mind to a mere body of water that one crosses to get wherever one is going – a flyover zone, and little more.
Though the gap in public consciousness remains, states in Southasia are waking up to the importance, and potential, of the water beyond the land. Its growing geo-strategic and trade-related prominence has led countries in the region – as also further afield, prominently China and the US – to increase their presence in Indian Ocean waters. New Delhi's ambitions have also soared, extending fully to the shores of Antarctica. Marine mineral exploration, including for oil, has acquired increasing importance, leading to standoffs between countries where resolution is, for the moment, being sought through amicable means.