India’s Maritime Diplomacy Matures: A Decade from SAGAR to MAHASAGAR

A decade after SAGAR was announced in Mauritius, India’s maritime vision has evolved from regional responsibility to global leadership — guided by the idea that the oceans connect, not divide.When Prime

Minister Narendra Modi stood in Port Louis in 2015 to hand over Barracuda — a newly built Indian offshore patrol vessel — to the Mauritius Coast Guard, he described India’s aspiration in one line, “We will work to ensure a safe, secure and stable Indian Ocean Region that delivers us all to the shores of prosperity.”That phrase became the foundation of SAGAR — Security and Growth for All in the Region — and marked a turning point in India’s maritime imagination. It was not just about defending sea lanes or projecting naval power, it was about recognising that India’s growth was inseparable from that of its maritime neighbours.Now, ten years later, the same Prime Minister returned to Mauritius with a broader promise — MAHASAGAR — Mutual and Holistic Advancement for Security and Growth Across Regions. If SAGAR was India’s pledge to its immediate neighbours, MAHASAGAR is its message to the world.

A Continuum of Vision

According to Vice Admiral Pradeep Chauhan (Retd), Director-General of the National Maritime Foundation (NMF), “From SAGAR to MAHASAGAR, the guiding principle has essentially been the same, although the minor change in the geographical context is readily apparent.”He explains that the replacement of the singular “region” with the plural “regions” in MAHASAGAR reflects India’s readiness to play a constructive maritime role beyond the Indian Ocean, embracing what he calls “a single world ocean that has four recognised ocean basins.”This, he says, signals an evolution in India’s maritime worldview — a recognition that the seas are one continuous strategic system where prosperity and security are intertwined. “The SAGAR–IPOI–MAHASAGAR continuum mirrors India’s own evolving concept of security and growth,” he adds.

IPOI: The Bridge Between Vision and Action

Between these two milestones lies the Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative (IPOI), launched by Prime Minister Modi in 2019. If SAGAR laid the foundation, IPOI gave it structure — through seven “pillars” that guide cooperation in areas such as maritime ecology, connectivity, resource sharing, and capacity building.Vice Admiral Chauhan likens IPOI to a “deeply interconnected web of seven spokes.” Each annual edition of the Indo-Pacific Regional Dialogue (IPRD), he notes, focuses on one or more of these pillars to generate “second-order and third-order specificity” — turning abstract ideas into actionable regional frameworks.It is through such mechanisms that India’s maritime diplomacy has acquired continuity, where every new concept builds upon the last rather than replacing it. In other words, SAGAR was the philosophy, IPOI the framework, and MAHASAGAR the global expression of both.

From Region to Regions

The geographical broadening from region to regionmay appear semantic, but it carries deep strategic meaning. Vice Admiral Chauhan points out that India’s maritime understanding now transcends the physical limits of the Indian Ocean.He recalls Prime Minister Modi’s Shangri-La Dialogue speech in 2018, where the Prime Minister “categorically rejected a purely geographical definition of the Indo-Pacific.” Instead, the Indo-Pacific, he said, included all nations within its geography and beyond who had a stake in it.This inclusive definition — now reflected in MAHASAGAR — underscores India’s belief that cooperation, not competition, should define maritime engagement. It also echoes India’s traditional self-image as a connector between oceans, not a claimant within them.

A Global South Perspective

While MAHASAGAR has often been described as a vision for the Global South, Vice Admiral Chauhan believes it has a “much larger context — both geographically and conceptually.” It acknowledges that oceanic challenges such as piracy, illegal fishing, and climate change are not regional problems but global ones.By framing maritime engagement as mutual advancement, India is positioning itself as an advocate of shared prosperity. This is also an implicit response to the world’s shifting balance — offering an alternative to bloc-based security models and closed strategic arrangements.

India’s Maritime Ethos: Mutual and Holistic

The two adjectives in MAHASAGAR — Mutual and Holistic — are not rhetorical flourishes. They define the kind of leadership India seeks to exercise at sea.Mutual stress reciprocity: Partnerships based on trust and equality rather than hierarchy.Holistic emphasises inclusion: recognising that maritime security also includes environmental, economic, human and digital dimensions.These words encapsulate India’s belief that ocean governance cannot be reduced to defence or deterrence; it must include sustainability, technology and community welfare.

A Decade of Maritime Maturity

In just ten years, India’s maritime posture has transformed from a regional presence to a global voice. SAGAR introduced India as a responsible power in the Indian Ocean. IPOI institutionalised that responsibility. MAHASAGAR globalises it — inviting participation across multiple ocean basins.Together, they express India’s growing confidence as a maritime democracy: strong, inclusive, and ready to lead by example.As Vice Admiral Chauhan summarises, India’s maritime journey from SAGAR to MAHASAGAR “underscores our nuanced understanding of the maritime domain — that the continents of the globe are, indeed, enveloped by a single world ocean.”That understanding — that the ocean connects humanity — may be India’s most enduring contribution to the Indo-Pacific century.