"We Would Gather These Grieved": Recentring South Asian Migrants and Their Political Mobilisation in the Arabian Peninsula

The mobilization of South Asian migrants in the 20th century Gulf was politically significant to the history of the region. This lecture challenges Gulf historiography and academic literature on the Gulf, arguing that South Asian migrants mobilized against wider structures of colonialism and capitalism in the Gulf, they perceived their struggle as connected to the Gulf Arabs. The lecture also highlights the anti-colonial subjectivity gained by the struggle for Indian Independence which informed South Asian mobilization and how South Asians perceived imperialism in the Gulf. Dr. Hessa utilizes a decolonial approach which prioritizes a ‘history from below’ approach to studying the Gulf. The lecture draws on original archival research to recenter South Asian mobilization as well as to demonstrate how the British reactions to South Asian mobilization degraded their political agency. A representation which has been subsequently inherited by the academic literate. Ultimately, the lecture embeds the Gulf within wider political history of the Global South.