INDIAN DIASPORA IN OMAN

Abstract

The continued strength of India-Oman cultural and trade interaction marks India’s enduring maritime relationship with West Asia and beyond. The antiquity of this relationship suggests the depth of interaction. With Portuguese dominance over the Arabian Sea trade in the aftermath of Vasco da Gama’s discovery of the sea route to India in 1498 and subsequently the French and the British, the Indian merchants suddenly acquired greater importance and received special prominence in the maritime trade calculus of the colonizers for their exceptional deft in conducting trade in the region. As a result, the Indian trade footprint and diasporic density in West Asia, primarily from Kutch, Sindh, Gujarat etc., began to gain larger visibility. Indian traders in Oman could not only demonstrate their remarkable convincing capacity in doing trade overseas but also established their cultural centres. The remains of the Hindu temple found at Kalhat, a 15th century Omani port, indicate the depth of Indian trade penetration in Oman. The culturally-rooted Indian merchant community could never forgo the Indianness overseas. The oil boom in 1973 intensified migration from India and significantly increased the Indian presence in Oman. This has led to the inflow of remittances to India which contributes to the well-being of the Indian economy. To add to this, the Indian diaspora in Oman and West Asia has significantly raised India’s soft power potential in the region which helps India to conduct successful bilateral and multilateral trade and diplomacy. Therefore, this paper discusses the Indian diaspora in Oman and their story of success and their contribution to India, the homeland, in empowering its soft power competence and diplomatic finesse in the geopolitically and geo-strategically vital region.