Indian Communities in the Persian Gulf, c. 1500–1947

Bibliographic Data

ID20052967
AuthorsJames Onley (0000-0003-1831-406X, corresponding author)
Year2014
Pages231-266
Publication date2014-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeCHAPTER
VenuePersian Gulf in Modern Times (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherPalgrave Macmillan US (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1057/9781137485779_10
OpenAlexW2238245460
ISBN9781137485779
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited21

We know very little about Indian communities in the pre-oil Persian Gulf, such as the one described above. Their makeup was very different from the Gulf's South Asian communities today. Before the dawn of the oil era and the partition of India after World War II, only a few thousand Indians resided there—the majority of them merchants and their families, such as those William Palgrave saw in Manama in 1862. Many were wealthy and influential, elite members of society. The region's economic dependence on India and India's profound cultural and political influence on the region up to 1947 was such that locals regarded India and Indians as highly as they now regard the West and Westerners. For generations leading up to Britain's withdrawal from India, the shaikhdoms of Eastern Arabia formed part of Britain's Indian Empire. India and Indians represented power and prestige.KeywordsSixteenth CenturyGulf Cooperation CouncilIndian CommunityPort CityGulf RegionThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves

Ancient history · Development economics · Economic history · Economy · Elite · Empire · Geography · Partition (number theory) · Persian · Political science · Politics · Power (physics) · Prestige · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · History · Islamic Studies and History · Law · Philippine History and Culture

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