Dubai and India have had a very interesting relationship. Given the current popularity of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) capital among Indians, whether for travel or settlement, Dubai has been a topic of constant conversation in this country.
However, recently, some social media posts have raised a historical trivia that Dubai was once ruled by the British from India. Posts suggesting that Gulf cities such as Dubai, Oman, and even Yemen were governed from Delhi have sparked surprise, pride, and confusion online.
So, what is the reality? Was Dubai really ruled by the colonial British Empire from India while the country was still under its rule?
What Is The Claim Being Made?
On January 8, 2026, Nick Booker, the co-founder and CEO of IndoGenius, a company that, according to its LinkedIn profile, “helps universities and government agencies from around the world interact with India,” posted on Instagram about Dubai being once run from India.
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In his caption, he wrote, “Did you know Dubai was once run from India? Long before the skyscrapers, this coast was known to the British as the “Pirate Coast.” The Qawasim maritime power challenged East India Company shipping, prompting the East India Company’s Bombay Government to intervene.
After British military campaigns and a series of maritime truces in the 19th century, the region became known as the Trucial States and was administered through British India for over a century. Only in 1971, when Britain finally withdrew, was the United Arab Emirates born.”
He further added the book “Shattered Lands: Five Partitions That Made Modern Asia” by Sam Dalrymple as a reference for this. This is not the first time that this connection has been brought up.
On August 24, 2025, Zerodha co-founder Nithin Kamath posted about this tidbit on his X/Twitter profile.
He wrote, “I didn’t realise that lands from Muscat and Oman, the UAE, all the way to Burma were once part of the British Indian Empire. I’d always thought of India’s partition as only involving India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.
Shattered Lands by @SamDalrymple123 is a must-read for history buffs. And thanks to good genes, I guess. :)
The Anarchy by @DalrympleWill is still one of my favourites. It tells the story of how the East India Company came to India to trade, became immensely wealthy, and, in their pursuit of more, became ruthless. It makes me wonder: today, as trillion-dollar companies rise, what happens if they turn evil, too?”
Read More: What Would India Look Like Today Had It Not Been Colonised By The British?
Is This True?
In n his book, Sam Dalrymple wrote “As recently as 1928, a vast swathe of Asia–India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Burma, Nepal, Bhutan, Yemen, Oman, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait– were bound together under a single imperial banner, an entity known officially as the Indian empire, or more simply as the Raj.”
It appears that, unlike India and other direct colonies, though, the Gulf region was under indirect control through treaties.
According to an August 2025 report by The Indian Express, though, the Interpretation Act of 1889 still made it legally a part of India.
Dalrymple explains how this works, writing that “they were run by the Indian Political Service, defended by the Indian Army, and subservient to the Viceroy of India.”
This claim has further been confirmed by BBC History, where they claimed that in the early 20th century, nearly a third of the Arabian Peninsula, from Aden to Kuwait, was ruled as part of the British Indian Empire and answerable to the Viceroy of India in Delhi.
People from several of the regions in the Gulf states were given Indian passports, and during Mahatma Gandhi’s visit to the city in 1931, he “found many young Arabs identifying as Indian nationalists,” as per a BBC report.
A Royal Asiatic Society lecturer was also quoted saying, “As a jealous sheikh veils his favourite wife, so the British authorities shroud conditions in the Arab states in such thick mystery that ill-disposed propagandists might almost be excused for thinking that something dreadful is going on there.”
Reports also suggest that the British Empire downplayed the true size of its empire for diplomatic reasons, choosing to leave out many of its protectorate states from official maps.
As per Dalrymple, “the Arab states bordering the Ottoman Empire were usually left off the imperial maps altogether, to avoid aggravating Constantinople.”
A telegram from King George VI reading “Aden has been an integral part of British Indian administration for nearly 100 years. That political association with my Indian Empire will now be broken, and Aden will take its place in my Colonial Empire,” further confirmed it.
The Cambridge University Press also wrote detailed academic reports documenting two phases of administration: first from India (via the East India Company and then the British Raj) until 1947, followed by a transfer to the Foreign Office in London until 1971.
A 2014 report titled ‘British Administration in the Trucial States before 1965’ has confirmed this piece of history as well.
Image Credits: Google Images
Sources: The Indian Express, BBC, The Economic Times
Find the blogger: @chirali_08
This post is tagged under: Dubai, Dubai history, Dubai india, Dubai india connection, Dubai india history, india, british raj, british india, british colonialism, colonial india, history
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