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The Turn of the Gulf Tide: Empire, Nationalism, and South Asian Labor Migration to Iraq, c. 1900–1935

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 May 2011

Stefan Tetzlaff
Stefan Tetzlaff
Affiliation:
University of Göttingen, Germany
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Abstract

This paper looks at various circumstances of labor migration from South Asia to Iraq between 1900 and 1935. It stresses that inter-regional labor migration existed to varying degrees before, during, and after the First World War. This was predominantly a function of longstanding commercial ties besides the wartime engagement. At another level, the article offers an interpretation of how labor migration intersects with imperial formations as well as nationalisms evolving in both realms. It argues that the issue of migration to Iraq has to be seen in the context of a plethora of interventions and demands in the relationship between India and the Persian Gulf region over a much longer time period.

Type
Migrant Workers in the Middle East
Information
International Labor and Working-Class History , Volume 79 , Special Issue 1: Labor Migration to the Middle East , Spring 2011 , pp. 7 - 27
Copyright
Copyright © International Labor and Working-Class History, Inc. 2011

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References

NOTES

This paper is a revised part of my unpublished M.A. thesis, “Entangled Boundaries: British India and the Persian Gulf region during the transition from empires to nation states, c. 1880–1935.” All primary material is from the National Archives of India, New Delhi, unless otherwise stated. I thank the archival staff for their support and Ravi Ahuja, Prasannan Parthasarathi, and Radhika Singha for comments on earlier drafts of this paper.

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13. These enterprises worked as government contractors in the construction of governmental buildings and barracks or pursued trading and supplying merchandise and other commercial activities in the Gulf. Among them were several European or British enterprises such as the Euphrates and Tigris Steam Navigation Company, the Swiss cotton and coffee traders Volkart Brothers, B. R. Herman and Company, and Devison and Company, but also a number of Indian merchant firms such as Seth Jiwanji Ibrahimji and Company, Seth Sheikh Adamji Jewanji, Jesraj Valiji, Edulji Lodawalla, Mirza Mohamed, and Adamji Lockmanji. Protector of Emigrants, Karachi to Comm., Sind, Jan 25, 1904. Coll., Karachi to Comm., Sind, Feb 8, 1904. Ibid.

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18. Indian Emigration Act, Royal Commission on Labour, 234.

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27. Willcocks to CG, Baghdad, June 9, 1909. Ibid.

28. Deputy (Dy.) Secy, FD to CG, Baghdad, Jul 15, 1909. Note, Jun 18, 1909. Ibid.

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32. Both officers had served several years in the Indian Army and assumed high-ranking positions in the political administration of the Arabian and Persian Gulf before the war. For one autobiographical account, see Wilson, Arnold T., Persia, SW.. A Political Officer's Diary, 1907–1914 (London, 1941)Google Scholar.

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35. Ibid., 81–82, 87–89; Wilson, Loyalties, 66–67, 283–4, 321–2; Ireland, Iraq, 81; Wilson, Loyalties, 66–67.

36. Review of the Civil Administration of Mesopotamia. London, 1920, Cmd. 1061, House of Commons, Parliamentary Papers, 19-20. For corvee labor in Iraq, see Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, “Logistics and Politics of British Campaigns in the Middle East, 1914-1922” (Ph.D. diss., University of Cambridge, 2006), 20

37. Radhika Singha, “Finding Labour from India for the War in Iraq: The Jail Porter and Labour Corps, 1916-1920,” Comparative Studies in Society and History 49:2 (2007), 412, quoted in India's Contribution to the Great War (Calcutta, 1923), 78, 96

38. Railway Board (RB) to Railway Agents (RyA) of Indian railway companies, Dec 4, 1915. RB, Establishment (Est.), Apr 1916, 47/E.1-19 B.

39. RyA to RB, 7, 8 Dec 1916. Ibid.

40. RB to RyA, Oudh & Rohilkhand Railway (O&R Ry.), Dec 22, 1915. RyA, O&R Ry. to RB, Jan 18, 1916. RB to RyA, O&R Ry., Feb 18, 1916. Ibid.

41. Regional Indian Railway companies set free 380 officers and engineers and more than 2,000 subordinates for war theaters. Railways in India: Administration Report, 1915–16. Simla: Government Central Press, 6.

42. High Commissioner(HC), Baghdad to SoS for India, Dec 17, 1920, Foreign & Political Department (FPD), Secret (Sec.) Ext., Aug 1921, 199 B.

43. Secy, Home Department (HD) to Chief Secy, Governments of Madras and United Provinces, Sept 15, 1916. Commerce and Industry, Emi., Oct 1916, 2 B.

44a. These arguments are developed in Singha, “Finding Labour from India for the War in Iraq,” 415–22.

44b. Labeling coolies as “war measure” was just one of many methods. “The Indian jail population offered another resource of labor.” Ibid., 424–37.

45. Commander-in-Chief, Simla to Secy, War Office, Oct 5, 1917. FPD, Sec. Ext., Feb 1921, 56.

46. Report by Major-General H. F. E. Freeland on the Working and Future Development of the Port of Basra and of the River and Railway Communications in Mesopotamia, April 1918, 5. Appendix B. Conclusions and Recommendations from the Report of the Government of India Mesopotamia Transport Commission, 31. The Middle East Online Series 2, Iraq: 1914–1974. Cengage Learning Historical Archives accessed at www.tlemea.com/iraq/index.htm on Sept 14, 2009.

47. Review of the Civil Administration of the Occupied Territories of Al'Iraq, 1914–1918. In Robert L. Jarman, Iraq Administration Reports, 1914–1932. Vol. 1. Archive Editions, 1992, 80. Civil Commissioner (CC), Baghdad to Under SoS for India and Foreign Secy, Nov 23, 1919. FPD, War, Mar 1920, 126-127B.

48. Administration Report of the Irrigation Directorate, 1–3. FPD, Ext., Sept 1920, 511–12.

49. CC, Baghdad to Under SoS for India, Sept 28, 1918, and enclosure, Dy. Adjutant General to CC, Baghdad, Sept 26, 1918. FPD, Ext., Jun 1921, 1–3 B.

50. CC, Baghdad to Foreign Secy, Jan 21, 31, 1919. Notes, Feb 1919. FPD, Sec. Ext., Mar 1921, 46–54.

51. Viceroy private to SoS for India, Feb 19, 1919. SoS for India to Viceroy, July 11, 1919. Note, Jul 22, 1919, Ibid.

52. CC, Baghdad to Foreign Secy, Feb 4, 1919. Note, Feb 7, 1919. FPD, Sec. Ext., Mar 1921, 46–54.

53. Order in Council, Apr 30, 1920. HD, Pol., Jan 1921, 21 B.

54. Director Railways, Baghdad to G. Barnes, Member of Commerce, Sept 9, 1920. FPD to Director Railways, Baghdad, Nov 1, 1920. FPD, Ext., Dec 1921, 242 B.

55. SoS for India to CC, Baghdad and Viceroy, Jul 19, 1920. CC, Baghdad to SoS for India, Jul 24, 1920. FPD, Sec. Ext., Feb 1921, 99, 124.

56. CC, Baghdad to SoS for India, Jul 26, 1920, Ibid. The Times, Jun 24, 1920. Despite claims that Indians and Iraqis did not get on together, there were as many arguments against that view.

57. Haldane, J. A. L., The Insurrection in Mesopotamia, 1920. (London, 1922)Google Scholar.

58. Extract, Bombay Fortnightly Report, Nov 1920. Memo, Col. Nevill, Dec 4, 1920. HD, Pol., Jan 1921, 21 B.

59. Census in Mesopotamia. FPD, Ext., Aug 1920, 382–86 B.

60. Foreign Secy to HC, Baghdad, Oct 21, Dec 11, 1920. Note, FPD, Jul 16, 1921. FPD, Sec. Ext., Dec 1921, 1–179.

61. Wilson, Arnold, “Mesopotamia, 1914–1921,” Journal of the Central Asian Society, VIII, Pt. 2, (1921)Google Scholar: 151.

62. Special Report by His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland of the League of Nations on the Progress of Iraq during the Period 1920-1931. In: Robert L. Jarman (Ed.), Iraq Administration Reports, 1914-1932. Vol. 10: 1931–32. Archive Editions, 1992, 168.

63. Ibid., 292–93.

64. “Indians in Iraq-Discarded Tools of British Imperialism,” Bombay Chronicle, 17, Mar 19, 1926, Apr 9, 1926. Education, Health and Lands, Overseas, Jan 1927, 95–122 B.

65. Constitution of the Indian Association in Iraq. FPD, Near East (N.), 1927, 737.

66. Fifth Annual Report of the Indian Association in Iraq for the year ended March 31, 1927. FPD, N., 1928, 47.

67. Twelfth Annual Report of the Indian Association in Iraq for the year 1935–1936. FPD, N., 1936, 498.

68. Iraq Passport and Residence Laws, 1923. FPD, Ext., 1923, 118.

69. Various lists of British subjects granted Iraq Naturalisation Certificates: FPD, N., 1931, 31. 1932, 150. 1933, 302. 1934, 228. 1935, 124. 1936, 135.

70. Waiz, S. A., Indians Abroad Directory. The Imperial Indian Citizenship Association, Bombay, 1934Google Scholar, 154, 159.

71. Ambassador, Baghdad to Foreign Secy, GoI, Nov 16, 1935. FPD, N., 1935, 592.

72. M. N. Dean, Basra to Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Oct 22, 1935. Ibid.

73. Letters from the Nagpur Nagar Hindu Sabha, Indian Merchant's Chamber, Imperial Indian Citizenship Association, Indian Overseas Association to governmental bodies in FPD, N., 1935, 592.

74. Articles and letters in FPD, N., 1935, nos. 592, 654. 1936, 59.

75. Note, Dec 7, 1935. FPD, N., 1935, 592.

76. Various notices of questions in: FPD, N., 1935, nos. 644, 653, 654, 656, 674, 1936, nos. 59, 97.

77. Notes by M. Mazhar, Oct 8, 1935, Foreign Secy H. A. Metcalfe, Dec 7, 21, 1935, O. K. Caroe, Dec 9, 11, 20, 1935, Jan 10, 1936, HD, Dec 19, 1935. Correspondence: F&P to Governments of Bombay, Bengal, Punjab, and Burma, Jan 13, 1916. Chief Secy, Govt. of Pun to Foreign Secy, GoI, Feb 26, 1936, Chief Secy, Govt of Bengal to Foreign Secy, GoI, Mar 4, 1936. FPD, N., 1935, 592.

78. Correspondence in FPD, N., 1935, 592.

79. The Statesman, Aug 2, 1936. FPD, N., 1936, 474.

80. Note by Political Resident, Bushehr, Jul 16, 1936, cited in A. de L. Rush (Ed.), Records of Kuwait, 1899–1961. Vol. 4: Economic Affairs. Archive Editions, 1989, 710, 716.