The province of Gujarat, located on the western seaboard of the Indian subcontinent, has served as 'the maritime gateway to India' from the western Indian Ocean region since the 2nd century C.E. The Gulf of Cambay with its deeply indented...
moreThe province of Gujarat, located on the western seaboard of the Indian subcontinent, has served as 'the maritime gateway to India' from the western Indian Ocean region since the 2nd century C.E. The Gulf of Cambay with its deeply indented coastline was dotted with numerous ports through which this century old trade was conducted, that brought tremendous wealth and prosperity to Gujarat. The discovery of an alternate route connecting Europe and Asia via the Cape of Good Hope by the Portuguese was followed by their appearance on the western coastal enclaves at the turn of the sixteenth century. The hitherto existing trading structures were now threatened and the traditional beneficiaries of this lucrative trade stood to lose out financially. By a close reading of the biography of Afonso de Albuquerque (1453–1515), this essay tries to locate the challenges before the Portuguese in the initial years of their enterprise in South Asia. Focussing on the western coast of the subcontinent, chiefly the port town of Surat, it demonstrates through the figure of its governor Malik Gopi, attempts to resist the Lusitanian onslaught through diplomatic means. Simultaneously, the paper also hints at the close connections that existed between maritime trade, political economy and state power in early modern South Asia. By analysing the strategies of defence adopted by Malik Gopi, I argue that diplomacy was an essential ingredient of statecraft during this period and also bring out its efficacy in negotiating volatile issues beyond the arena of armed conflict.
