- Dubai and other Gulf areas were once governed as part of British India before 1947
- The British Indian Empire oversaw Arabian protectorates, including Dubai and Kuwait
- Indian passports were issued to residents in places like Aden, part of Bombay Province
It is hard to imagine Dubai as anything other than part of the United Arab Emirates. But history almost took a very different course. Dubai almost became a part of India or Pakistan.
According to historian and author Sam Dalrymple, parts of the Gulf, including present-day Dubai, were once administered as part of British India. Even more surprising is that, in the run-up to Independence, British officials briefly considered whether these territories should remain under India or become part of Pakistan after the Partition.
The little-known chapter has been highlighted by Dalrymple on Instagram while discussing his book Shattered Lands. It sheds light on a period when the political map of the region looked very different from what we know today.
For decades, much of the Gulf was not administered from London. Instead, it was governed from Delhi as part of the British Indian Empire.
In the post, Sam Dalrymple reveals, "From Aden to Kuwait, a crescent of Arabian protectorates was governed from Delhi, overseen by the Indian Political Service, policed by Indian troops, and answerable to the Viceroy of India. Under the Interpretation Act of 1889, these protectorates had all legally been considered part of India."
The ties ran deeper than many realise.
Abu Dhabi featured in official lists of India's princely states, and Viceroy Lord Curzon even proposed treating Oman like a princely state of British India.
Photo Credit: X/Sam Dalrymple
Even Indian passports were issued as far west as Aden in modern Yemen, which functioned as India's westernmost port and was administered as part of Bombay Province.
In one of the X posts, Dalrymple says, "Everyone in British India was also illegible for an 'Indian Empire Passport'. This Yemeni Jewish woman who wanted to migrate to Jerusalem after the Balfour Declaration had to go on an Indian passport, because by virtue of being born in South Yemen, she was legally an Indian."
When Mahatma Gandhi visited the city in 1931, he found many young Arabs identifying as Indian nationalists.
Gandhi in Aden
Photo Credit: X/Sam Dalrymple
As the British prepared to leave the subcontinent in 1947, an important question emerged: who would administer these Gulf protectorates once British rule ended?
"The British actually offered the Gulf to the future Indian government but were turned down."
Dalrymple notes that British officials briefly debated whether independent India or the newly created Pakistan would "be allowed to run the Persian Gulf." However, the proposal found little support. A member of the British legation in Tehran wrote of his surprise at the "apparent unanimity" among "officials in Delhi ... that the Persian Gulf was of little interest to the Government of India."
There were also concerns within the British administration about handing over responsibility for the region. A Gulf resident William Hay remarked, "it would clearly have been inappropriate to hand over responsibility for dealing with the Gulf Arabs to Indians or Pakistanis."
IPS officers of the Persian Gulf Residency
Photo Credit: X/Sam Dalrymple
That decision changed the course of history. On 1 April 1947, months before India and Pakistan gained Independence, the Gulf protectorates, including Dubai, were formally separated from British India. When the two new nations later began integrating hundreds of princely states, the Arab sheikhdoms were no longer part of the equation.
Had events unfolded differently, the political map of West Asia might have looked very different today.
