the concept of mandala Tamil inscriptions can be traced and describe the settlement and commercial system of South Indian public complexes before the Chola raids in 1025 AD. Records indicate that the commercial system at Lobu Tua in southern Aceh dates back to 1088 AD (McKinnon 1994). Business exchanges between the two regions continue despite political turmoil caused by domestic or international affairs. Many scholars believe that the Indian Ocean Mandala is the most important factor in promoting this international relationship. According to Bose (2006), mandala is a Sanskrit word meaning a circle of space and time connected through a cycle of existence. Through the shared Muslim culture of the Indian Ocean (Pradines and Topan, 2023), Mandala’s international norms govern not only the entanglements of networks, ports, commodities, and institutions that serve as systemic orders of sovereignty, competition, and alliances with great nations Characteristics. It guides mobility, interaction and belonging among South Indians, Arabs, Chinese, Jews and Europeans.
Fernand Braudel emphasized a similar concept mandala As revealed in his book French, The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Era of Philip II (1972). He coined the concept of “long term” to explain the temporal and spatial connections in economic and political cycles that shape diversity and inclusiveness among civilizations. Complementing Braudel, Acharya’s Reflections on the Origins of the Global Economy and International Politics (2019) demonstrates cyclical patterns of circulation among empires. It fostered a “civilized state” in which “embedded norms and cultures enabled pluralism and unipolarity”, thereby shaping the global order in the Indian Ocean. As Manjeed S Pardesi (2022) concludes, this pluralism must be attributed to the “open” character of surrounding sovereign states. He took the international politics of Malacca and global powers in the 15th century as an example to prove that the “open” feature helped shape the “decentralized hegemony” of the central world order system.
South Indian merchants emerged in circular commercial networks from the Coromandel ports of Porto Novo, Nagare, Kayapatinam, Nagapattinam, Kairakala, Chennai and Pulicat to Aceh and Malacca , Kedah, Perak, Penang, Singapore, Thailand, Myanmar and Sri Lanka were diverted from the Coromandel Port back to the former Lanka (Nordin, 2005). These merchants were important actors who understood the economic and political oceanic flows between ports and networks. Not only were they known to be able to manage institutions and maintain goods through long voyages, they were also polyglot, erudite and wealthy merchants who allowed themselves to participate in non-hierarchical governmental political structures and control India’s ports and networks. It is autonomous leadership, which is revealed through the interactions of South Indians such as Nainar, Chuliah, Lappai, Marikan, Kelings and others. Occupied many positions, ranging from chief port minister (shahbandar), captain (team leader), the local raja, the Sudanese economic and political advisor (Nordin, 2005).
In addition to increasing appointments ShahbandarSouth Indian merchants advised sultans and local princes and handled their trade affairs. They were also considered lobbyists, and their tasks extended to that of diplomats, interpreters, letter drafters, and bearers of letters. They can act in this capacity, at least from the perspective of polycentric sovereignty, in which case autonomous rulers shape the alliance.
The incident occurred c. 1767-8 involved ships believed to have carried a large cargo of the British mercantile companies Gowan Harrop and Baillie, in addition to the commercial cargo of the Sultan of Aceh. Conflict arose with the owners of Supercargo and the case was submitted to arbitration in the French colonial court of Pondicherry, India. To resolve the dispute, the Sultan commissioned Abu Bakar Lebby (Bailey, 1989) to submit a request to Nawab Wolan Jir or Nawab Muhammad of the Carnatic ·Sought counsel from Nawab Muhammad Ali Khan Wallajah (1717-1795), whose influence was enough to “calm down the situation”.
Abu Bakar Lebby was selected for his language skills and knowledge of politics in the Aceh-Carnatic and Coromandel-French areas. In the geopolitical understanding of Sudan and Lebi, the Nawab was the patron of the wealthiest Marikan business network, with long-standing commercial relations with Aceh, Malaysia, and the Straits Settlements. The Nawab employed Malakayans to supply and man his ships in Porto Novo, which he used to carry charity items and pilgrims to Mecca and Medina. Others worth mentioning include Shahbandar and the Sultan’s advisors Muhammad Qasim and Bo Salle, who were recorded in Thomas Forrest’s 1772 account. ·Nadar Alam and Panton Abdullah were entrusted by Sultan Djohar to manage two villages in northern Sumatra. The Nakoda families of the Sudan were Mira Rabai, Mohammad Musa, Mohammad Sultan and Qasim. Lubbai Muhammad and Gullah Meidin are the names of the scribes and drafters of treaties between Aceh and major powers such as France and the United States (Reid, 2008).
Obert Voll (1994) believes that historically, Islam is a world system that can construct order within complex social and political hierarchies. It stipulates the open power behavior that includes its “inter-civilizational political entity” and guides its sovereignty to establish “imperial unity”. This is because he found that “no single cultural, economic, or imperial system was hegemonic,” which provided a hypothesis about the universal value of peace and maritime interactions between Indonesia and South Indians. Mabar and Coromandel Harbor.
This argument supports the view that Islamic culture was the norm that helped establish order in the maritime world. These norms bear witness to the disadvantages of a hierarchical international system based on the supremacy of skin color and religious exclusivity, as the international affairs between South Indians and Acehnese-Indonesians in the 18th century reveal, especially the evidence and differences in non-Muslim enclaves political occupiers. For example, Purwan, a Hindu, traded with Aceh by working with British merchants; Nathaniel Sabat, an Orthodox Catholic from Syria, served as the Sultan’s translator and advisor. It was also not uncommon for non-Muslim British and French businessmen to serve as advisors (Lee, 2006). All these Europeans came to the Indonesian archipelago by escaping Indian colonial rule. Many periods reveal the existence of non-Muslim enclaves, such as Chinese, Indian and European in Aceh and Java, which were given the legitimacy of an order of self-determination. In the case of South Indian Hindus, there are Chedi enclaves in Malacca, Pasai and Sulawesi (Subrahmanian, 1995).
The Indian Ocean Mandala, multi-skilled institutions and norms are key factors in long-term international interactions between Indonesia and South Indians. The Indian Ocean connects maritime sovereignty and institutions primarily affiliated with Islamic entities. Shared culture and identity shape international norms, and there is no ethno-religious oriented international system.
refer to
Acharya, A. (2019). The Making of Global International Relations: The Origins and Evolution of International Relations CentenaryUK: Cambridge University Press.
Bose, S. (2006), One Hundred Horizons: The Indian Ocean in the Age of Global EmpireLondon: Harvard University Press.
Bailey, S. (2003). Saints, Goddesses and Kings: Muslims and Christians in South Indian Society, 1700-1900. Cambridge University Press.
Xing, L. K. (2006). Aceh at the time of the Treaty of 1824. In Reed Anthony (ed.), Corridors of Violence: The Context of Aceh’s Troubles (pp. 72-95). Singapore: University of Singapore Press.
Pudsey. MS (2022), Decentralized Hegemony and Open Order: The Ordered World of Fifteenth-Century Malacca, global studies quarterlyVolume 2, Issue 4.
H. Nordin. (December 2005). Malay merchant networks and the emergence of Penang as a regional trading center. Southeast Asian Studies43(3), 216-237.
Obert, V. (1994). Islam as a special world system, world history magazineVolume 5, Issue 2.
Pradinis. S, typhoon. F (2023)Muslim Cultures in the Indian Ocean: Diversity and Pluralism Past and Presentt, UK: Edinburgh University Press.
Reed, A. (2008). Merchant Prince and Magical Mediator. Indonesia and the Malay World, 36(105), 253-267.
Further reading on electronic international relations
