India on the High Seas: Hormuz and the Future of Maritime Security

In this episode of Beyond the Indus, host Tushar Shetty sits down with Vice Admiral R.B. Pandit, former Commander-in-Chief of India's Strategic Forces Command and a veteran flag officer of the Indian Navy, to assess the maritime consequences of the Iran conflict and the long-term shifts reshaping the Indian Ocean's strategic order. Drawing on four decades of operational and strategic experience, Vice Admiral Pandit examines why the Hormuz crisis represents a watershed moment for global naval doctrine. They discuss the legal and strategic implications of the sinking of IRIS Dena and why the horizontal escalation of the conflict into the Indian Ocean sets a dangerous precedent for the rules-based maritime order. Pandit also examines India's evolution as a resident security guarantor of the Indian Ocean, the challenge of underwater domain awareness in an era of covert infrastructure attacks, and how India's MAHASAGAR initiative positions itself as a cooperative alternative to China's Belt and Road strategy across the Indian Ocean littoral.