Page 177 - DILMUN NO 20

Historical Links between lndia and the Gu‫ﺇ‬f

٦٨٠٣"‫ﻡ‬٠٩

They also generously assisted and looked after the Arab intellectuals and
reformers who happened to be passing through Bombay or those who were
deported to lndia for their anti-British activ‫ا‬ty.

ln brief, their multi-faced activ‫ا‬ties brought them into contact with British
officials and Indian elite and traders, taught them Eng0ishand Hindi, and
introduced htem to new ways of business and life, all which had a significant
impact on the socio-cultural developments in the Gulf and constituted the
nucleus of a consciousness movement in Bahrain, Kuwait, and the Trucial
Emirates as shown below.

india's lmpact on the Gulf Reform Movements

Demands for administrative and legal reform and the improvement of some
of the traditions and law's related to the pearling industry and labour
conditions began in Bahrain as early as q920s. These demands continued
throughout the 1930s and 1940s and expanded to include the call for a
greater role in the running of domestic issues and for the reduction of the
British Poliitcal Agent's responsibilities, gaining much of their momentum
from political developments in lndia.

Major Dickson, the British Political Agent in Bahrain in the 1920s, stated in a
report that one of the sources of instability in the lsland was the effect of effort
by the Muslim lndians to revive the notion of lslamic Caliphate. 67 ١n letters
exchanged between the British Agent in Bahrain, Major Clive Daly, and his
masters in the Gulf and in Bombay, lndia's struggle for democracy was
mentioned as one of the influencing factors responsible for the anti-British
movement in Bahrain. 68
When the British struck against Bahrain's reform movement in 1923, wto of
its prominent leaders, Abdulwahab Alzayani and Ahmed Bin Lahi‫ﺯ‬, were
arrested and sent into exile to Bombay. ١n lndia, they received the support
and sympathy of many lndians including the lndian National Congress's
leaders. And when Alzayani took his case to judicial authorities of British
lndia, his lawyer and defender was the man who later became the founder of
Pakistan, Mohammed Ali Jinnah.