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The Forgotten History of the Arabian Peninsula Under the British Raj
In the annals of history, the British Raj in the Arabian Peninsula remains a largely unexplored chapter. While the world remembers British India, few recall that nearly a third of the Arabian Peninsula, from Aden to Kuwait, operated as part of the British Indian Empire in the early 20th century. Governed from Delhi and policed by Indian troops, these Arabian protectorates adhered to Indian laws and customs.
Echoes of British India in the Gulf
David Holden, a correspondent for The Times, observed the lingering vestiges of British India during his 1956 visit to Bahrain, then a British protectorate. He noted with surprise the garden durbar held in honor of Queen Victoria’s appointment as Empress of India.
Holden found similar traces of British India throughout the Gulf region, including Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Oman. He wrote:
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- “The Raj maintains here a slightly phantasmal sway.”
- “The servants are all bearers, the laundryman a dhobi, and the watchman a chowkidar.”
- “On Sundays the guests are confronted with the ancient, and agreeable, Anglo-Indian ritual of a mountainous curry lunch.”
The Sultan of Oman, educated in Rajasthan, demonstrated greater fluency in Urdu than Arabic, while soldiers in Qu’aiti (eastern Yemen) paraded in obsolete Hyderabadi army uniforms. According to the Governor of Aden, it felt as though “all the clocks here had stopped seventy years ago,” with the Raj at its zenith.
A Secret Empire
Despite its significant presence, the Arabian extension of the British Raj remained largely unknown to the British and Indian public. Maps detailing the full extent of the Indian Empire were classified, and Arabian territories were intentionally omitted from public documents to avoid antagonizing the Ottomans and later the Saudis.
As one Royal Asiatic Society lecturer remarked, the British authorities shrouded the conditions in the Arab states in such “thick mystery” that it aroused suspicion.
The Dissolution of the Arabian Raj
By the 1920s, shifting political dynamics prompted London to reconsider its imperial boundaries. Indian nationalists began to envision India as a cultural entity rooted in the Mahabharata’s geography rather than as an imperial creation. On April 1, 1937, Aden was separated from India, marking the first of several imperial partitions.
King George VI declared:
“Aden has been an integral part of British Indian administration for nearly 100 years… Aden will take its place in my Colonial Empire.”
The Aftermath of Indian Independence
The Gulf states remained under the jurisdiction of the Government of India for another decade. British officials debated whether India or Pakistan would oversee the Persian Gulf following independence.
Ultimately, on April 1, 1947, the Gulf states, from Dubai to Kuwait, were separated from India, preceding the partition of the Raj into India and Pakistan. The transfer occurred quietly, with minimal attention, yet its implications were profound.
Legacy and Remembrance
The administrative transfer ensured that the states of the Persian Gulf Residency would not become part of either India or Pakistan, unlike other princely states in the subcontinent.
British Prime Minister Clement Attlee’s proposal for a British withdrawal from the Arabian territories, coinciding with the withdrawal from India, was rejected. Consequently, Britain maintained its role in the Gulf for another 24 years, with an ‘Arabian Raj’ now reporting to Whitehall.
As Gulf scholar Paul Rich noted, this was “the Indian Empire’s last redoubt.” The Indian rupee remained the official currency, the ‘British India Line’ remained the primary mode of transport, and the 30 Arabian princely states were governed by ‘British residents’ from the Indian Political Service.
The British withdrawal from the Gulf finally occurred in 1971 as part of a broader decision to abandon colonial commitments east of Suez.
Erasing the Past
Of all the national narratives that emerged, the Gulf states have been notably effective at erasing their links to British India. While a past relationship with Britain is often acknowledged, the period of governance from Delhi is rarely remembered.
However, private memories persist, particularly of the significant class reversal that occurred in the Gulf. Today, Dubai, once a minor outpost of the Indian Empire, stands as a prominent center in the Middle East. The quiet bureaucratic decision that severed its link to India remains a largely unremembered turning point.