While celebrations are taking place today and tomorrow to mark the independence of both Pakistan and India less than 70 years ago, it is worth marking that the links between the subcontinent and the Arabian Gulf are much older. Culture, food, language, architecture, trade — all have left an indelible mark on the way we live here.
Pearls
Pearling was the main livelihood and export for the Trucial States for centuries with Indian merchants as the gateway to markets more profitable than those of the Ottoman Empire or the Mediterranean.
The most powerful pearl merchants were banyan, Hindu Indian from Bombay who visited Dubai and Bahrain.
As instability grew in Bahrain, Lingah and Banadr Abbas from the 1870s to 1900s, the trade between India and the emirates was further strengthened, a period that corresponded to the height of the pearling boom. Rather than chance unstable ports, Emirati merchants invested time and money to develop direct trade with India.
Bombay and the northern Emirates had particularly close ties. Indian merchants set up schools, households and dispensaries or clinics in Sharjah and Ras Al Khaimah to aid development. In turn, merchants from the emirates who spent long seasons in India set up schools and households in Bombay.
Currency
Even today, the older generation of Emiratis still refer to any form of cash as “rubia”. The word is derived from the Indian Rupee, which arrived here after the First World War with the diminishing Ottoman influence in the area.
As the trade expanded between India and the Emirates, or Trucial States as it was known then, more Rupees circulated and the currency was used instead of gold. Indian traders refused to pay for pearls with gold because the value of the pearls fluctuated.
The “external Rupee,” or Gulf Rupee as it became known, replaced the Indian Rupee in 1959 as the official currency in the Emirates and the Gulf countries. This form of currency was widespread after the trucial agreements with Britain in the early 19th century, and remained in popular use until as recently as 1966.
Food and drink
Given the country’s historic dependence on India for rice, it is no surprise that the Indian dish biryani has become a staple of the Emirati diet. The saffron rice-based meal, scattered with meat and a wide array of herbs and spices, also bears a close resemblance to the Yemeni machboos — another dish beloved by Emiratis.
Traditional Arabian Gulf food was rather plain, before the Indian spice trade. Unseasoned bread and meat dishes have since been literally spiced up, thanks to the addition of dried limes, cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom and saffron. The paratha, an Indian flatbread, has also evolved into a series of colourful no-frills dishes, with perhaps the most ubiquitous being the Chips Oman sandwich — a paratha sandwiched around processed cheese, hot sauce and Chips Oman spicy crisps.
Though Chinese in origin, tea — known almost-universally as chai — also travelled to the UAE from India, where it was introduced by the British. Today, the Indian variant chai karak — which incorporates generous amounts of sugar, cardamom and condensed milk — is hugely popular in the UAE.
Even the UAE’s first soft drink, namlet, was brought to the country in the 1920s through trade with India. The lemon, orange and rose drinks were sold in green Codd-neck bottles made in India.
Language
One of the lasting and transformational ways any culture leaves its imprint on another is through language. With decades of trading and exchange of culture between India, Pakistan and the UAE, remnants of words used to communicate have lasted to this day. Emirati sailors and shopkeepers who worked in souqs and in trade were used to speaking four languages, or what they call, “the trade languages” of Hindi, Urdu, Farsi and Swahili. Some of these words that have made it into everyday Emirati dialect include seeda (to keep going straight), darwaza (door or gate), zanjefra (undershirt), karkhana (sewing machine), maiz (table), banka (fan), aloo (potato), chappal (sandal), noul or bezat (money), samaan (things) and raang (colour).
Emirati dialect highlights the richness of a language shaped by a sea of different cultures that pass and have passed through here. Even English words made their way into the language over the years, with words such as brosh, derived from brush, and driwoul, derived from driver.
Development
Some of the country’s most successful businesses, retail chains and hotel groups were set up by Indians looking to venture further afield when the UAE was a relatively unexplored by foreigners.
The Landmark Group, for example, was founded in 1973 by Micky Jagtiani, a Madras (now Chennai) born entrepreneur. The Group now owns some of the country’s biggest shopping brands including Centrepoint, Babyshop, Splash and Lifestyle. It also operates the Fitness First chain of gyms and Dubai’s Oasis Centre mall.
New Medical Centre Healthcare, set up in Abu Dhabi in 1975 by Indian national BR Shetty, employs more than 4,500 people across the country in hospitals, day surgery clinics, medical centres and pharmacies. It is one of the country’s largest private health care groups.
Other large businesses set up with Indian investment include Jashanmal, LuLu Hypermarket and GEMS Education,
Cinema and television
Dastardly villains, hip shaking tunes, clean comedy and family-orientated storylines have made Bollywood films hit home with Emirati audiences for generations. Bollywood was the first cinema in the country and enjoys a growing Gulf audience today. Its popularity is not just among Hindi and Urdu expatriates but a diehard legion of Emirati fans who identify more with Indian culture than Egyptian or Hollywood cinema.
There are at least 35 television channels that broadcast Indian programming targeting Arab audiences, subtitled or dubbed in Arabic. Where cultures once crossed at sea, language and ideas are exchanged in cinema.
Gold
Many of the 800 shops in Dubai’s old gold souq are owned and managed by Indian families who have been trading the precious metal in the UAE for decades. Some of the brands have been operating here since the late 1950s and to this day, many pieces are crafted by Indian designers.
Some of the Arabic patterns, such as the tear drop, are inspired by Indian patterns and fashions.
Nowadays the trading tables have turned. India is Dubai’s largest buyer of gold, and in 2005 accounted for roughly a quarter of the total amount sold.
Architecture
There is a reason why the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque has an echo of India’s Taj Mahal.
Its large central white marble dome, flanked by multiple smaller but identical domes and its bulbous shape is drawn directly from the Mughal traditions of mosque design seen across northern India and Pakistan.
The Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi is a conscious fusion of architectural themes from across the Islamic world, but it is the Mughal element, which came to prominence between the 16th and 18th Centuries, that is the most immediately obvious.
The presence of a large number of Muslims from India and Pakistan living and working here has inevitably shaped the design of the mosques in which they worship including architectural features such as a large open air courtyard, horseshoe-shaped arches and minarets that feature balconies and onion domes.
Clothing
In a land with limited natural resources, even cloth was imported from the Subcontinent to the emirates. Before the advent of modern shopping malls and ready-made clothing shops, women took their inspiration from the east and looked to Iranian, Pakistan and Indian designs for wedding dresses and everyday wear. Items like the sirwal, loose, ankle-length trousers worn under dresses as an undergarment, were styled on Pakistani. Cosmetics, like henna and oud-based perfume that originated overseas soon became integral to Emirati dress.
Textiles, including silks, cottons and yarn, remain major Indian exports here. The growing South Asian population and rising popularity of Arabic-language Hindi television have revived an interest in Indian fashion among the younger generation of Emiratis. Men’s clothing such as shalwar Kameez, kurta and dhoti all have their place in the UAE wardrobe.
Women’s saris and choori daar, with intricate and colourful embroidery, are also popular. It is common to see Arab women wearing Indo-Pakistani dresses on special occasions, another cross-cultural influence.
