2
Cultural and civilizational associations between India and Arabia
flourished primarily because of geographic proximity. The Deccan
Peninsula of India is separated from Arabia only by the Arabian Sea, thereby
making Arabia India’s maritime neighbourhood. In the pre-partition era,
the north-western part of India had land contacts with Arabia through Iran
and Mesopotamia, what is now known as Iraq. Hence, trade links between
the two flourished centuries before Christ.
These geo-historic interactions were strengthened with the advent of
Islam, and the new faith arrived on the Indian shores shortly after the
death of Prophet Mohammed. Since then the contacts between the two
transformed into cultural, religious and societal linkages, and under the
British they assumed strategic dimensions. Primarily to safeguard its com-
mercial interests in India and through the Suez Canal, Britain formulated
a policy towards the Persian Gulf which was administered and at times
shaped by its interests in India. British India having the largest concentra-
tion of Muslims added a religious dimension vis-à-vis Arabia.
The partition of the subcontinent and India’s independence in 1947
cut off direct land contacts with Arabia, and the formation of new king-
doms and sheikhdoms in the Arabian Peninsula changed the way India
and Arabia engaged. The political distancing between the two accompa-
nied the loss of geographical continuity. Driven by strong anti-imperial
and anti-colonial sentiments of the nationalist phase, independent India
and its leaders were not prepared to build on the British interests and
influence in the Gulf Arab countries. Due to their fragile domestic situa-
tions and regional threats, especially from the more powerful imperial
Iran, some of the Arab countries sought external support and patronage.
These, in turn, contributed to the psychological distance between India
and Arabia. The communal partition of the subcontinent resulted in the
former taking a negative view of religion-centric national identities. The
strong religious and traditional outlooks of the new Arab monarchies
radically differed from the modern, secular and multi-national state that
Jawaharlal Nehru and his colleagues were trying to develop. Indeed, as
will be discussed, during the Cold War the political gulf was significant and
profound than the Arabian Sea that separated India from Arabia.
The Arabian Peninsula, the land mass surrounded by the Persian Gulf,
Arabian Sea and the Red Sea, comprises of Oman, the United Arab
Emirates (UAE) and Yemen in the east and south, Kuwait, Iraq and Jordan
in the northwest, and Bahrain and Qatar in the eastern part protruding in
the Persian Gulf. The largest and thus far the most dominant country in
P. R. KUMARASWAMY AND MD. M. QUAMAR