Page 184 - DILMUN NO 20

Historical Links between india and the Gulf

time of foundation and during the next century and half was economic,
confining itself to gaining as much as possible of the Eastern riches. However
with the disintegration of the indian Mughal Empire in 1707, it could expand
its activity and establish itself politically as the most influenital power in the
indian Sub-continent. As a result, trade exchanges between Britain and lndia,
the Gulf, and iraq became dominated by the Company, allowing it vast profit
and consequently more power.

Towards "the close of the eighteen centuyr England's attention was directed
primarily towards the tasks of territorial acquisition and political consolidation
in hndia'. 39 After this goal had been successfully achieved by the East lndia
Company, the lndia Office in London allowed the Company to play a poliitcal
role beyond the lndian Sub- continent as the premises of British rule in lndia
and the control over the lines of communication between the colony and the
colonial country required some forms of political predominance over the Gulf
region. Accordingly, the Company started to establish a chain of agencies
and residencies in Bushire, Muscat, Bahrain, Sharjah, and Kuwait and staff
them by officials selected from the lndian Civil Ser‫ق‬ice. 40 This adequately
seved the "policy of subordinate alliances to states contiguous to lndia on
the west' which was engineered by Lord Wellesley, the Governor-General of
lndia at the time, to meet e potential threat to British interests caused by
Napoleonic activities in the Middle East. 41

What then led to a wider interference in Gulf affairs by the British lndian
Authorities was the occurrence in the 18th centuyr of two major events. The
first of these was the resistance against British influence in Gulf waters led
by the aawasim of the southern Gulf, (presently the UAE) who owned a large
and well-equipped fleet of ships by which they had expanded their power to
both Persian and Arab coasts of the Gulf. 42 The Qawasim, in their struggle
against the British ١ndian Authorities, depended largely on preying upon
commercial vessels flying the British flag, and on obtaining tribute for the safe
passage of ships. The second event was the rise and expansion in the
Central and Eastern Arabia of the Wahhabism, a politico-religious movement
led by the House of Alsaud of Najd with whom the Qawasim formed an
alliance.