Dubai: In the winter of 1956, The Times correspondent David Holden arrived on the island of Bahrain, which was then a British protectorate. Holden, who had previously taught geography, was looking forward to his new assignment in the Arabian region. However, he was surprised to find himself attending a garden durbar in honor of Queen Victoria's appointment as Empress of India. Throughout his travels in the Gulf, including stops in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Oman, he encountered traces of British India.
According to BBC, in the early 20th century, nearly a third of the Arabian Peninsula was governed as part of the British Indian Empire. This governance extended from Aden to Kuwait, with a crescent of Arabian protectorates managed from Delhi. The Indian Political Service oversaw these regions, which were policed by Indian troops and reported to the Viceroy of India. Legally, under the Interpretation Act of 1889, these protectorates were considered part of India.
The significance of this association was not widely known at the time. Maps depicting the full extent of the Indian Empire's reach were kept secret, and the Arabian territories were often omitted from public documents. This was partly to avoid causing tensions with the Ottomans or the Saudis. A Royal Asiatic Society lecturer once remarked on the secrecy, likening it to a sheikh hiding his favorite wife from view.
By the 1920s, political shifts were underway. Indian nationalists began envisioning India as a cultural space rather than an imperial construct. This transition offered London an opportunity to redraw borders, leading to the separation of Aden from India on April 1, 1937. King George VI announced the change, marking Aden's integration into the Colonial Empire instead of the Indian Empire.
The Gulf remained under the administration of the Government of India for another decade. There were brief discussions among British officials about whether India or Pakistan would oversee the Persian Gulf post-independence. However, it was deemed inappropriate for Indians or Pakistanis to manage Gulf affairs. Consequently, the Gulf states were separated from India on April 1, 1947, months before the partition of the Indian subcontinent and the independence of India and Pakistan.
This administrative decision had lasting implications. If the states of the Persian Gulf Residency had not been separated from India, they might have become part of either India or Pakistan after independence, similar to the princely states in the subcontinent. British Prime Minister Clement Attlee's proposal for a simultaneous withdrawal from Arabian territories and India was rejected, allowing Britain to maintain its influence in the Gulf until 1971.
Today, the Gulf states have largely erased their historical ties to British India. While they acknowledge their past relationship with Britain, governance from Delhi is not part of their national narratives. This omission is crucial for maintaining the appearance of ancient sovereignty. Nevertheless, private memories of the region's colonial past persist, especially regarding the social and class changes that have occurred since then.
Dubai, once a minor outpost of the Indian Empire, is now a major hub in the Middle East. Few of the Indians and Pakistanis living there today are aware of the historical possibility that their home countries might have inherited the Gulf's oil-rich territories. A bureaucratic decision made during the twilight of the British Empire severed that potential link, leaving only echoes of what might have been.