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P. R. Kumaraswamy, Md. M. Quamar, India’s Saudi Policy,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0794-2_9
CHAPTER 9Energy, Economics and Expatriates
Long before the formation of the third Saudi state in 1902, there were
flourishing trade and commercial relations between the Indian subconti-
nent and the Arabian Peninsula. The cultural and civilizational linkages go
back to the third millennium before Christ, and Indian and Arab traders
transited through land and sea and paved the way for a continuous
exchange of goods and ideas (Ahmad 1969 ; Heptullah 1991 , 1–2).
Maritime trade between the two flourished during the medieval times and
the advent of European colonialism in the sixteenth century eclipsed the
leadership position of the Indian and Arab traders (Al-Naqeeb 1990 ;
McKay and Scott 2014 ). At the same time, the presence of Indian mer-
chants now under the British control, patronage and influence continued
in various trading centres in the Arabian Peninsula. Indian merchants—
mainly, the Gujaratis, Parsis, Sindhis and Khojas—played a crucial role in
trade and commerce in Jeddah, Muscat, Kuwait and Dubai. The port cit-
ies along the Persian Gulf—the Trucial States as they called—were admin-
istered by the British from Bombay and the Indian rupee was the legal
tender in some parts of the Gulf until their independence.
As discussed earlier, independent India was not prepared to capitalize
on the colonial contacts, influence and interests in the Gulf Arab coun-
tries. Driven by the prevailing anti-colonial instincts, it abandoned the
political capital in the region and viewed the Arab monarchies merely as a
Western clientele. Jawaharlal Nehru’s anti-colonial and anti-imperial
worldview provided little common ground for a political conversation