2 - 'A little bit of India': goodwill cruises as vehicles of archipelagic connections

This paper presents a reading of Indian Navy goodwill cruises to the Western Indian Ocean in the early post-independence decades as vehicles of archipelagic connections that extend the limits of South Asia beyond the continental landmass, along earlier vectors of trade and labour migration. Focusing on the journey of the light cruiser INS Delhi to Port Louis in May 1949 as reported by Mauritian papers, and on the autobiography of the ship’s Commander and later Captain, Admiral RD Katari, I will interrogate the practice and meanings of the Indian Navy goodwill visits to foreign Indian Ocean ports as both a government-led strategic move to maintain a visible presence at a time of foreign policy-building, and the opportunity for communities of Indians abroad to tighten their links to the country of their ancestors and ‘enjoy a little bit of India.’ Marking the first time that an Indian ship visited Mauritius since India became independent in 1947, the arrival of INS Delhi on its way back from Seychelles and East Africa was celebrated as a momentous occasion for the Indian community but caused disquiet among other sections of the Mauritian society, preoccupied about the influence that India could exert on the political developments of the island and on its path towards independence. The archipelagic potential of the navy ship will be revealed as prismatic through a study of the attachments and tensions activated by its journeys and moorings, at once agents of connection across seas and oceans and spectres of extraterritoriality.