Alles Zusammen
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin Philosophische Fakultät III – Institut für Asien- und Afrikawissenschaften Seminar für Geschichte und Gesellschaft Südasiens M.A. Thesis – Magisterarbeit Entangled Boundaries: British India and the Persian Gulf Region During the Transition from Empires to Nation States, c. 1880-1935 Submitted by Stefan Tetzlaff Geschichte und Gesellschaft Südasiens (HU Berlin) Politikwissenschaft (FU Berlin) Allgemeine und Vergleichende Literaturwissenschaft (FU Berlin) Reviewers 1. Dr. habil. Georg Berkemer 2. Dr. Melitta Waligora Berlin, 25 September 2009 Preface The present work itself has a history, of which certain elements shall be recorded. It was initially and primarily conceived of in the course of a research seminar under the supervision of Dr. Radhika Singha at the Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi in the winter semester 2008. I was very fortunate to audit this course as part of my university exchange year and I remain most grateful to Dr. Singha for her constant support and for showing me what rigorous archival research is. I completed a further 6 months of research work in the National Archives of India, New Delhi before returning to Berlin in October 2008. I especially thank the archival staff for their support and for enduring naiveté and stubbornness of a newcomer to historical research. Drs. Georg Berkemer and Melitta Waligora supported me a lot in overcoming various bureaucratic hurdles during my final year of studies at Humboldt University and under the precarious circumstances of a minimally functioning department without appointed chair. I thank them both for their help and for supervising and reviewing this thesis. Re-conceptualized and rewritten parts of this work have been published in my article “The Turn of the Gulf Tide: Empire, Nationalism and South Asian Labor Migration to Iraq, c. 1900-1935”, International Labor and Working Class History, 79, 2011, 7-27. Stefan Tetzlaff Meerut, April 2014 Content Page Page Abbreviations i Lists of Maps, Tables and Pictures ii Introduction 1 1. Focus and Research Questions 2 2. Concretisation 4-5 3. Sources 5 4. Historiography 6-11 I. Empires of Trade and Religion, Questions of Nationality and Jurisdiction 12-13 1. Multiple Imperialisms and Subjects of Empires 13-16 2. Legal Implications of British Imperialism in the Gulf 16-22 3. Claims to British Nationality: Empire’s Subjects and Protected Persons 22-27 4. Socio-Economic Aspects of Nationality and Jurisdiction 27-29 5. Early Labour Migration and Legal Implications 29-36 II. Mobilising Resources, Securing Empire’s Commodity: Oil and War Economy 37 1. Oil Operations and their Imperial Link 37-42 2. Indian Expeditionary Force ‘D’ and a War Theatre Managed on Indian Lines 42-45 3. Indian Labour during the Mesopotamian Campaign 45-57 4. Undoing Indian Immigration into Iraq 58-64 5. Employment of Indian Labour by APOC 65-73 III. British India and Post-War Gulf Developments 74-75 1. ‘Persianization’ of Anglo-Persian’s Labour Force? 75-87 2. Reminiscences of Indian Staff and Labour in Iraq 87-93 3. Nationality and other legislations in Iran and Iraq 93-101 4. New Prospects for British Indian Engagement in Smaller Gulf States 101-104 IV. Conclusion 105-106 Bibliography 107-113 Declaration 114 Abbreviations APOC Anglo-Persian Oil Company AD Army Department BOC Burmah Oil Company BRR Baghdad Residency Records CC Civil Commissioner CD Department of Commerce CI Department of Commerce and Industry CO Colonial Office Dy. Deputy EHL Department of Education, Health and Lands Emi. Emigration Branch FO Foreign Office FD Foreign Department, GoI FPD Foreign and Political Department, GoI GoI Government of India G.O.C. General Officer Commanding HD Home Department, GoI HC High Commissioner IO India Office IOR India Office Records OiC Order in Council OOiC Ottoman Order in Council Ov. Overseas Branch PCIOiC Persian Coast and Islands Order in Council RA Department of Revenue and Agriculture RB Railway Board Secy Secretary SoS Secretary of State i List of Maps Page Map 1. British India and the Wider Persian Gulf Region. 3 Map 2. Map of the Persian Gulf Region. 3 Map 3. Major Iranian Oilfields. 81 List of Tables Table 1. Number of registered British and British Indian subjects, court cases and deaths in the area of the Persian coast and islands in various years, 1901-1913. 25 Table 2. Labour returns of Indigenous and Indian Labour, Mesopotamia, September 1917 to January 1918. 57 Table 3. Numbers recruited for Labour Corps in Mesopotamia during 1920, per month. 63 Table 4. Anglo-Persian Oil Company staff and labour in Persia, 1910-1921, in absolute numbers, and share of Indian employees. 67 Table 5. Anglo-Persian Oil Company staff and labour in Persia, 1922-1938, in absolute numbers, and share of Indian employees. 77 Table 6: Total number of British and Indian officials in the employ of the ‘Iraqi Government, 1920-1931 87 List of Pictures Picture 1. Early geological survey party in Persia, 1910. 38 Picture 2. Oil-pumping station at Tembi. Tents of Indian soldiers in foreground, about 1916. 41 Picture 3. Indian military engineers in Mesopotamia, no date. 47 Picture 4. Indian sappers with diving equipment recovering Turkish war materiel which had been dumped in the Tigris River, Mesopotamia. 47 Picture 5. Giving out winter clothing to Indian followers, between 1917-1919. 47 Picture 6. An Indian Army sentry stands guard at one of the gateways to Baghdad, c. 1917. 55 Picture 7. Electrical Squad with Indian Foreman Hana, 1926. 85 Picture 8. Knocking-off time at Abadan Refinery, c. 1926. 86 Picture 9. Cover of the constitution of the Indian Association in Iraq. 91 Picture 10. Cover of the 1927 report of the Indian Association in Iraq. 92 ii ‘Entangled Boundaries’: British India and the Persian Gulf Region Introduction The extension of the Empire in what may be called middle-Asia, whether under the Indian administration or the Colonial, must of necessity extend the use of Hindustani, India’s lingua franca. […] [It] has already to a small extent found its way in the bazaars on the Gulf shores, where many petty Indian traders have gone and settled. If trade follows the flag, language follows trade and this fact will now be largely developed by the immense influx into middle- Asia of Indians whether as soldiers, civilians, camp followers and office-dependents, almost all of whom more or less speak Urdu, making it the necessary means of their communications and intercourse with their new fellow-subjects. […] At the same time one may well look to some sort of bilingual mélange or mésalliance resulting from the extensive intercommunion of the Indian and Arab population in ‘Mesopot’ and round about that way.1 Amidst the ongoing Mesopotamian campaign of World War One, the retired judge of the Bombay High Court, Cursetjee Manockjee Cursetjee, set out in early December 1916 for a month-long sea voyage onboard the freighter S.S. Zayanni from Bombay to the head of the Persian Gulf and back. Calling at numerous Persian and Arab Gulf ports upstream, the Oxford-educated Parsee experienced at first hand the gradual proliferation of the British Empire, also evoking speculations about future prospects and implications of close relations between British India and the Gulf shores. While acquainting himself with considerable India- trade and dealings of Indian merchants in ports of Bahrain and southern Persia, the arrival in war-transformed Basra and encounters with Indian shopkeepers and craftsmen in the city’s port Ashaar left the greatest mark. Despite British and Indian forces experiencing a severe defeat at Kut-al-Amara only months earlier, the partly occupied territory of Ottoman Iraq, or Mesopotamia as some called it, arguably offered the greatest prospects for future Indian expansion. Cursetjee observed that Hindustani would extend into this area following the immigration of diverse groups, hence serving as communicative interface between Indians and Arabs to keep the acquired lands within easy reach of British India and its subject population “out of compliment […] for her sacrifices and services opening out these ancient derelict lands to a new life of happy betterment, progress and prosperity.”2 For Cursetjee, a future prominent British Indian role in Iraq seemed justified given its services to Empire and its prime concern with regard to the country’s commercial and political considerations. Whilst fully supporting its annexation to Empire, he was tellingly critical of British attitude in the occupied areas. A recent cartoon in the Basra Times of a British officer manhandling his Hindu attendant enticed him into warning that “the Arab is not likely to be so long-suffering as the Indian has so far been.”3 1 Cursetjee, C.M. (1996), The Land of the Date. A recent Voyage from Bombay to Basra and back, fully descriptive of the ports and peoples of the Persian Gulf and the Shat’-el-Arab, their conditions, history and customs, 1916-1917. Introduction by Robin Bidwell. Reading: Garnet Publishing, 189-190. 2 Ibid., 190. 3 Ibid., 172. 1 ‘Entangled Boundaries’: British India and the Persian Gulf Region 1. Focus and Research Questions Such an acquaintance with occupied territories of Mesopotamia and ideas were part of a larger story of interregional exchange between the Indian subcontinent and the Persian Gulf region for a long time pre-dating and succeeding the period of the First World War. Nevertheless, this juncture ushered important changes in the respective regions themselves and in the modes of exchange between them by introducing certain actors and aims, which had not existed likewise before. We might not be able to fully interpret in retrospect whether Cursetjee then overemphasized the future use of Hindustani and in general of cultural and commercial contact between the two regions.