185Indians have been living in the Hejaz region even during the British Raj
and were primarily engaged in trade, education or religious activities.
Some were also employed in the oil industry then maintained by the newly
christened Aramco (1944) that was earlier known as California-Arabian
Standard Oil Company (CASOC) and was a wholly owned subsidiary of
Standard Oil of California (SoCal). Though actual numbers are not avail-
able, at the time of India’s independence a larger number were present in
the Eastern and Western coast of the Kingdom and other parts of the
Persian Gulf region. As one of the earliest Annual Report of the MEA
noted “Indian’s residents there, for the most part for purposes of trade or
in the Persian Gulf, as workers, are the object of special solicitude of our
representatives” (India, MEA 1949 ).
The Indian engagements with the economic and social life of Saudi
Arabia, especially in the Hejaz region, were considerable even before the
oil boom. While haj vessels also brought food and other consumables,
affluent Indian pilgrims were sought after by the Saudis and many Indian
spice and cereal merchants had established a flourishing business in the
Kingdom (Sayeed 2007 ).
In the wake of the oil and construction boom, the Indian migration to
Saudi Arabia started to increase. In 2000 the government appointed a
High-Level Committee on Indian Diaspora to assess the impact of the
Indian migrants upon the country’s economic development. It concluded
that the flow has seen steady increase since 1975. In the case of Saudi
Arabia it rose from 34,500 in 1975 to 100,000 in 1979; to 270,000 in
1983, to 380,000 in 1987; to 600,000 in 1991 and to 1.2 million in
1999.^2 In the words of one Indian diplomat,
1988 was the first year when I went to Saudi Arabia. The total number of
Indians then in Saudi Arabia was 400,000. I left Saudi Arabia after four years
in 1992. The total number of Indians then was 700,000. I went back to
Saudi Arabia in 2000. The number of Indians then was 1.2 million. I left
Saudi Arabia sometime in 2004 and the number of Indians then was 1.5
million. Today (that is April 2013) ... it is 2.45 million. So, as you can see,
consistently over the last two decades the number of Indians who have
found work in Saudi Arabia has only increased. (India, MEA 2013b)(^2) Figures taken from various annual reports published by the Ministry of External Affairs,
Government of India.
ENERGY, ECONOMICS AND EXPATRIATES