Dubai, home of iconic Burj Khalifa and other famous landmarks, is one of the most advanced and wealthiest cities in the world. But did you know that major parts of today's Gulf states, including Dubai, Oman and UAE capital Abu Dhabi were once under Indian control?
When Dubai, Oman, Abu Dhabi were under Indian control
A vast portion of modern-day Gulf states, including Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Oman, were once part of the British Empire, and were directly controlled by their colonial masters from India, which essentially served as the empire's headquarters in Asia.
During the British era, the region we know today as the United Arab Emirates (UAE), was administratively and economically linked to India as approximately one-third of the Arabian Peninsula was part of the British Indian Empire at the beginning of the 20th century.
The UAE did not exist as a country and cities like Dubai and Abu Dhabi were known as the Trucial States of British India, which were governed from Delhi, while British administrators from the Bombay Presidency monitored sea trade between Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, and surrounding areas.
A crescent-shaped area of Arab protectorates- which at the time were legally a part of British India under the Interpretation Act of 1889- stretching from Aden to Kuwait, was governed from Delhi and overseen by the Indian Political Service, while Indian troops, answerable to the Viceroy of India, carried out policing duties in Dubai.
Indian passports were issued to Arab protectorate residents
Under the British, people living in the Arab protectorates, up to Aden in modern-day Yemen, which was a part of the Bombay Presidency and served as India's westernmost port, were issued Indian passports.
During his 1931 visit, Mahatma Gandhi found out that many young Arabs considered themselves Indian nationalists, and many experts have often dubbed Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Yemen, and Aden- now Gulf territories- as the bastions of the British Indian Empire, akin to Goa for Portuguese India, or Pondicherry for the French.
Was Indian currency used in Dubai?
The Indian Rupee was the official currency in Dubai and other Arab protectorates, while the British India Line remained the most convenient mode of transport. During that time, as many as 30 Arab states were ruled by British Residents who were career bureaucrats in the Indian Political Service.
However, maps showing the full extent of the Indian Empire were published in strict secrecy, and Arab territories were omitted from public documents to avoid provoking the Ottoman Empire and, later, Saudi Arabia.
How Dubai separated from India?
Aden was the first Arab protectorate to separate from India on April 1, 1937, when a telegram from King George VI integrated it directly with the British crown, but the Gulf region remained under the jurisdiction of the British Indian government till India's independence in 1947.
"For nearly 100 years, Aden has been an integral part of the British Indian administration. That political connection with my Indian Empire will now be severed, and Aden will take its place within my colonial empire," the King's message read.
While discussing the manner in which independence will be granted to India, British officials debated whether India or Pakistan would be allowed to govern the Persian Gulf.
However, a consensus was reached neither country had interest in the Persian Gulf, and thus Gulf states from Dubai to Kuwait finally separated from India on April 1, 1947, months before the British Indian Empire split into India and Pakistan and gained independence.