Indian Ocean as a Cultural Highway: Trade, Language, and Identity (16th-19th Century)

The Indian Ocean, often portrayed merely as a commercial route, functioned as a vibrant cultural andintellectual highway between the 16th and 19th centuries. This maritime world connected East Africa,Arabia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia through intricate networks of trade, migration, and spiritualexchange. Beyond the exchange of commodities such as spices, textiles, and ivory, the Indian Oceanfostered the movement of ideas, languages, and beliefs that reshaped coastal societies. This exploreshow maritime interactions produced hybrid identities and cosmopolitan cultures in port cities like Calicut,Zanzibar, and Malacca. Merchants, sailors, and pilgrims became agents of cultural transmission, spreadingIslam, architectural styles, and linguistic influences across vast waters. The emergence of contactlanguages such as Swahili, Malay, and Arabic-based vernaculars exemplified this fusion of cultures.Drawing on travel narratives, colonial records, and linguistic studies, the article reinterprets the IndianOcean as a dynamic zone of human connectivity rather than a passive geographical expanse. It highlights how cross-cultural encounters across its shores prefigured modern globalization and challengedEurocentric views of maritime history. Ultimately, the study situates the Indian Ocean as a shared spaceof interaction that shaped the social, religious, and intellectual landscapes of multiple regions, emphasizing its role as a crucial arena of early modern world history.