A Colonial Interpretation Requires A Review

There is a report of May 29, 2003, by PTI and covered by The Hindu and The Tribune.

The title of the report is "U.S. Adopts Catamaran Technology". The other report is titled "USA adapts Tamil technology to build warships."

The report suggests an Indian connection in the making of the warships which were used during the Iraq war.

The technology helped in ferrying ammunition, soldiers and war machinery in large quantity at a higher speed. It is also useful for harbouring at rudimentary ports.

The word catamaran comes from Tamil word kattumaram which means logs bound together. The type of ships were used by Paravas caste of Tamil Nadu. A. X. Alexander the ex-DGP of Tamil Nadu was from this caste. (Reference: www.worldhistory.com)

The issue here is not to highlight the glorious Indian past and show that every best idea has its origin in Indian. (Do the cheap habits, virtues and ethics have Indian origin?)

The issue here is to correct the interpretation of Indian history concerning the seafaring abilities of India. The colonial historians had tried to project that India was not seafaring people thereby suggesting as if it was an inferior characteristic of Indian culture. They had tried to project that Indians remained untouched by navigation activity which on the other hand, was shown as a sign of European superiority and human endeavour and ingenuity. However, it was not so.

Acknowledgement: The lead for this topic was picked from The Tribute to Hinduism.