Date/Time
Date(s) - July 2, 2021 - September 15, 2021
All Day


Maritime History Society’s

Maritime History Society (MHS) is an over four decade long Academic initiative of the Western Naval Command, founded on 12 May 1978 by India’s great maritime Icon, Late Vice Admiral Manohar Prahlad Awati. It continues a rich journey of promoting Indian Maritime Wisdom through a variety of means and services.

As part of the Monsoon Musings I, MHS had held a webinar on 02 July 2021, commemorating the death anniversary of CNS Late Jayant Ganpat Nadkarni. He was not only the 14th Chief of Naval Staff but also a Chief Patron of MHS. To continue the commemoration, we are glad to announce an essay competition in the memory of Late Adm J G Nadkarni too.

The theme for the essay competition is “Monsoon in the Indian Ocean and Its Uses in Navigation”. The monsoon was the greatest catalyst of ancient seafaring in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR). With the aid of wind and sails sailor crisscross the ocean with ample ease without much human force. These same traditions were further refined in the early medieval era. The mobility facilitated by the Monsoon helped in exchange of ideas, cultures, religions, food, and art among many other things. The trade brought massive revenue, which was employed in the Infrastructure projects and other human goods back in the home turf.

The MHS would like to explore multiple facets of the Monsoon and its impact in the IOR. The theme is chosen to stimulate thoughts and discussions about the role of Monsoon in the navigation practices of the IOR. As an organization steering research on India’s historical role in the maritime domain, we are interested in investigating contribution of Monsoon in various aspects of life in the IOR throughout the history, and the research happening in the said field in contemporary times that can reinvent future at sea.

You may choose to explore broad subfields within the area such as

  1. Monsoon-inspired engineering in ancient to late medieval Indian ship building traditions.
  2. Seafaring communities and their Monsoon related activities.
  3. Monsoons and weather prediction in pre-modern navigation
  4. Socio-economic impact of shift in technology from sail to steam.
  5. New perspectives of Monsoon trade routes.
  6. Socio-economic impact of Monsoon on various coastal communities

Additionally, you can come up with any other Monsoon-related topic not mentioned above.

The submissions would be evaluated from the following perspectives:

  1. Quality of data used
  2. Argument and idea emerging from the data
  3. Flow and style of writing

This competition would be open to:

All Indian citizens below the age of 35 years in the following two categories

  1. Maritime professionals from Navy, Coastguard, shipping or any other maritime industry
  2. Academicians including students and researchers

Guidelines for the Submission:

  1. The essays should be written in English.
  2. The essays should not exceed 3,000 words.
  3. Only one essay per participant shall be entertained.
  4. Only original thought or ideas are welcome (plagiarism strongly disapproved)

Formatting Details:

Send your essays as per the following format:

  1. Soft copy: .doc, .docx, or .odt formats
  2. Font: Lucida Bright
  3. Size: 11
  4. Spacing: 1.5
  5. Provide in-text citations along with footnote/ references at the end of the essay.

Participants must mention the following at the end of the essay.

  1. Full name
  2. Contact number
  3. Unit serving
  4. Name of college/university/academic institution they are studying in

Email your submissions to manthan@mhsindia.org.

All the participants will be given e-certificates after the competition.

We are glad to announce that the winners shall receive prizes of Rs 5,000/-, Rs 2,000/-, and Rs 1,000/- for first, second, and third positions respectively in above-mentioned categories. The top 3 submissions shall also be published in our Quarterly Newsletter Sagardhara. The ones deserving honorable mention shall appear as blogs on our website www.mhsindia.org.

Important Dates

The last date of sending in the Essay would be 15th September 2021.

The results shall be announced at the 43rd National Conclave due to be held in November.

Do get in touch with us at manthan@mhsindia.org if you have any queries. We encourage all readers of this call for submissions to spread the word among their friends and young mariners as well.

 

Register to the event(Closed) 

Please note that only the submissions from the registered participants will be considered for the evaluations. Any Essay submissions sent without registering before 31 Aug 2021 will not be considered.