Page 174 - DILMUN NO 20

Historical Links between lndia and the Gulf ‫ﻭ‬٧ ٩‫ﻭ‬٩

first directors or organizers of customs, post, and passport departments in
Bahrain were lndians. 75 So were the heads of the first medical clinic in 1925,
and the very first doctors, nurses, midwives, banks' and customs' senior
clerks, and agricultural advisers, 76 Similarly, the lndians were among the
first to organize or run medical, postal, and banking ser‫ق‬ices in Qatar, Kuwait,
Dubai, and Sharjah.

On the other hand, the discovery of oil in the Gulf in the 1930s and lack of
qualified personnel and labourers among the Gulf natives made the British
look again towards lndia for the import of the needed skills. Even in Saudi
Arabia, clerical, technical, and other positions created as a result of the
development of the oil industry and related sectors in the 1940s and 1950s
were partly filled by employees from lndia. The number of these newcomers
increased gradually in accordance with the developments in the industry
itself. For example, statistical records show htat their number in Bahrain
doubled between 1936and I937making them l4percent of the total Bahrainis
employed by the oil company, 77 This percentage jumped in 1938 to about
26.5 although the actual number of the lndian employees slightly decreased.
78 Along with the economic prosperity caused by the production of oil, the
well- established lndian merchant communities in the Gulf expanded taking
the lead in meeting the growing demands by the Gulf inhabitants for modern
consumer merchandise from Europe. This led to the emergence of a number
of wealthy lndian commercial houses. ln a confidential report on the richest
among Bahrain's merchants in the 1930s, si out of thirteen names were
indian. 79

Simultaneously, the Gulf states witnessed the emergence of new lndian
communities consisting of lal those who were attracted by the region's
economic prosperity and who came legally or illegally to work as
shopkeepers, cooks, tailors, barbers, drivers, and domestic ser‫ق‬ants, or to
provide other sevices traditionally avoided by the natives. To sum up, hte
role played by the lndians in the early modernization of the Guif region was
varied. However, it must be remembered that it was this role which caused
much grievance among the Gulf natives and ultimately ied to strikes and
disturbance in Bahrain in the 1930s and 1940s, The Bahrainis were enraged
by the importation of lndians to occupy governmental positions and jobs in