'India's ancient trade route more important than Silk Road ever was': William Dalrymple hails India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor

The launch of the new India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEEC) connecting India with the Gulf and Europe has sparked a debate about whether it could counter the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) - a highly ambitious infrastructure project launched by Chinese President Xi Jinping to connect China with major Eurasian economies through infra, trade, and investment. The new corridor is billed as an alternative to BRI, which Xi projects as Beijing's move to revive China's ancient trade route network referred to as the Silk Road.

The IMEEC, ever since its launch on the sidelines of the G20 Summit, has been seen as a new route but William Dalrymple, the eminent historian and author, is of the view that this, in fact, was the major route used for East and West trade through the Red Sea for thousands of years. The historian also says that the Silk Road is a very modern idea that was coined in the 1930s.

AlsoRead: G20 Summit: PM Modi announces India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor to counter Beijing’s OBOR

"When people think of trade between Europe and Asia, the first thing that comes to mind is - Silk Road. That (Silk Road) is a concept of a novel route - a very romantic idea of a camel caravan laden with silk and spices crossing the Pamirs, and the traditional conception of this is something that links China with the Roman world in the Mediterranean. But Silk Road is a very modern idea," said Dalrymple while speaking to India Today's News Director Rahul Kanwal.

Dalrymple, whose new book 'The Golden Road' will be released in 2024, said the Silk Road was coined in the 19th century by German geographer Ferdinand von Richthofen and it only came into the English language in the 1930s and really became popular in the last 20-25 years.

The historian said that the Silk Road has been 'militarised' by Xi Jinping. "But if you look at the classical period in the time of the Romans, the big East-West trade had nothing to do with China at all, it was with India. It happened not over the land, but over the Red Sea. This was a major world economic route," he said, adding that there are records to back this up.

Dalrymple said that records were available of Roman geographer and economist Pliny complaining that all the gold in the Roman world was bucketing out towards India as Indians were exporting a lot. According to the historian, Pliny once said that Roman women wanted to wear silk from India, gems to cover their breasts, and other exotic goods - "Why can't they be just happy with Roman wool?"

Pliny also stated that 250 Roman cargo vessels alone were leaving from just one port in a year and sailing to India, the historian said while referring to the magnitude of the trade. Ships were operating to Bharuch in Gujarat and Muziris near Cochin in Kerala.

Balance of trade in ancient times favoured India  

Dalrymple said that what is clear is that the Indians were making money through trade with Europe. He said Indians did not want to buy much from Rome - they were interested in Roman wine, they liked Roman olive oil, and they also liked a sauce called Garum, which was a very popular fish sauce. In return, Romans wanted very expensive things like ivory, spices, and gemstones. "So the balance of trade overwhelmingly was in favour of India and that is why you find tens of thousands of Roman coins. In fact, more Roman coins have been found in India than in any other country except Italy."  

Why was this ancient route not known?  

When asked why this major route was not as popular as the Silk Road, Dalrymple listed three major reasons - not much work on hard data, no popularisation of Indian scholarly writings, and the emergence of new evidence from Egypt. He said this idea of the Silk Road was such romantic and exciting that it had taken over everyone's consciousness in the last 20 years. "We have forgotten to look at hard data which is there very clearly in the Roman documents and archeology which is dug up."

New evidence of ancient trade found in Egypt   

Dalrymple said that new evidence has emerged after excavations in the last 10 years at Muziris in Kerala, at the old site Arikamedu outside Pondicherry. He said there was a major excavation at Berenike, a major ancient seaport of Egypt. During the excavation, the historian said, the archeologist found not only a wonderful Buddha head - the first ever found in Egypt and made locally in Alexandria - but also a very early triad of Hindu gods of the early forms of Krishna and Balaram.

Muziris Papyrus: The ancient trade invoice 

"The most exciting simple piece of evidence is Muziris Papyrus. It's a piece of historical document. Papyrus was dug up in Egypt. It is now kept in a museum in Vienna. And when they studied it, it was a shipping invoice," the author said, adding that this was a contract made by a ship owner in Alexandria for a supplier in Kerala. He said this is a very modern document as it has the contents of containers, the details about insurance, and legal things like what happens if the ship sinks. "And this document involves vast sums of money."

Dalrymple said that the Egyptians had done some revenue calculations based on details on Muziris Papyrus. The Roman customs used to take one-third of the import value of goods coming from India. The trade volume was so huge that the customs revenue would have alone paid for one-third of the Roman Imperial Budget, he said.

"India whether knowingly or unknowingly has landed on a very ancient trade route that in fact probably was more important during the classical period than the Silk Road ever was," Dalrymple said. "This is solid historical stuff, this is happening particularly between the first and second century BCE to about 11th-12th century CE. So about a thousand years, India has been exporting its ideas and its science in a very real and tangible way."

India-Middle East Economic Corridor

The IMEC comprises two separate corridors, the east corridor will connect India to the Gulf and the northern corridor will connect the Gulf to Europe. It will include a railway that will provide a cross-border ship-to-rail transit network to supplement existing maritime and road transport routes. The corridor, whose estimated cost is $20 billion, will enable India, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel, and Europe to trade with each other and with other partner countries.