When Dubai Nearly Became Part of India: A Forgotten Chapter of Empire
Imagine this—Dubai, the glittering skyscraper-studded marvel of the Middle East, once existing as a remote outpost governed from British India, not Whitehall. Sounds unbelievable? But history tells us that this could have very nearly happened.
In the early 20th century, a vast crescent of the Arabian Peninsula—stretching from Aden in Yemen to Kuwait—was under the administration of British India. That included Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Oman, and other states in the Gulf. These weren't just vague connections; they were legally recognized as parts of India under the Interpretation Act of 1889. The administration, the postal systems, the armies, and even the customs followed Indian models. Indian Political Service officers governed the region, Indian troops policed it, and Indian passports were issued all the way to modern-day Yemen.
The Raj’s presence was deeply entrenched in everyday life. Urdu was more common than Arabic among elites. Military uniforms mirrored those of Hyderabad's now-vanished princely army. Indian servants, dhobis, and chowkidars were part of the Gulf's social fabric. You could walk into a colonial bungalow on a Sunday and be greeted with a traditional Anglo-Indian curry lunch. These echoes of Delhi and Bombay resonated throughout the Gulf, reinforcing how tightly the region was once bound to the Indian subcontinent.
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But very few knew about this curious fact. Maps showing the full extent of India’s reach were kept secret to avoid provoking the Ottoman Empire or later, the Saudis. Most Indians—and Britons—never knew the Gulf was administered from Delhi. Then, with India’s independence looming, the ties were abruptly cut. On April 1st, 1937, Aden was separated from India. Ten years later, in 1947, as the British prepared to hand India and Pakistan their independence, they deliberately chose to keep the Gulf under British control.
And that decision changed everything.
Had that not occurred, it’s very plausible that Dubai and its neighboring emirates might have become part of either India or Pakistan—just like Hyderabad or Bahawalpur. But instead, Britain chose to cling on for another 24 years, effectively running what scholars now call the “Arabian Raj,” a vestigial colony administered by British officials who had once worked under the Viceroy of India.
Still, memory lingers. A Qatari elder once recalled being beaten for stealing an orange from an Indian merchant—an act of poverty and privilege turned upside down by time. Now, Indians and Pakistanis return to these Gulf states as laborers and expats, unaware that once upon a time, their ancestors ruled here.
History, it seems, is often quieter than memory. And in Dubai’s case, it nearly belonged to a different kind of empire entirely.
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