Indian Ocean in the Globalizing World

Being enclosed in the west, north and east by Eurasian, Indian and Australasian land mass and having been spread over tropics, warm waters of the Indian Ocean have given rise to uniform wind and precipitation patterns and navigable currents, influencing agriculture, trade and human habitat. Movement of trade and population have combined with geoclimatic and geoeconomics to create an idea of common geographical space encompassing enormous social, cultural, linguistic, religious and political diversity. Although smaller than pacific and Atlantic, Indian Ocean has been traversed since times immemorial. People living on Asian-African littoral states traded with each other and also with the Romans and Greeks through the medium of Indian Ocean waters before and after the beginning of the Christian era. Given the technological capabilities of the communities living on the littorals then, Indian Ocean was a complete Universe for the people of the region.