Calcutta, May 11 (PTI): The maritime part of India's freedom struggle has never been projected properly in the history books, said Indologist Sanjeev Sanyal.

Speaking at a seminar, Sanyal, who has written several books on ancient Indian history, cited the instance of the voyage of Odia-Bengali maritime explorers in ancient India and said this had seldom been referred to in our history textbooks.

"There is a ritual in remembrance of Bali yatra when women in Odisha light lamps in boats made of banana and set them afloat on water in the month of November. This has reference to the expedition to Bali undertaken by our sailors centuries back," he said.

"As the wind starts blowing in southern direction in November (Kartika) the ships would set sail for (Sri) Lanka and then faraway Indonesia and some would ultimately go to Cambodia, Vietnam. This is how Indian civilisation reached Southeast Asian shores. How many of us are aware of it?" he asked.

Sanyal pointed out : "Guns were smuggled along the eastern coast on Christmas Day in 1915 to engineer disturbances in Calcutta. Then there was the Royal Indian Navy revolt in 1946 in which 20,000 sailors mutinied in 75 ships. The latter was a defining moment of the freedom struggle."

The seminar was organised by the IIT-KGP under its SandHI project and the Ramakrishna Mission.