Immigrants Wonder What Arab Spring Will Mean for Them
DUBAI — Jaiprakash Vallabhdas, a second-generation Indian businessman, arrived in Dubai in 1959 on a Kalinga Airlines propeller plane that flew weekly from what was then called Bombay to Sharjah. Mr. Vallabhdas, just 15 years old, had undertaken the voyage to join his father, Vallabhdas Keshavdas, who had set up shop in Dubai in 1925, also as a 15-year-old.
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“It was a very different place when I first came,” Mr. Vallabhdas said this month. “The boats would not be able to come into the creek. They would stop in the middle of the sea, and the goods and passengers would arrive on barges. My father and I would work in the bazaar all day and then walk home, climb over a sand dune, where I would just lie for a few minutes and stargaze, before heading to eat and sleep.”
Still, opportunities abounded to carve a better life. “The Arabs welcomed us,” he said. “They wanted us to trade, and so we imported textiles from India, sold them in the bazaars here and prepared them for Iran and the rest of the region.”
More recently, as the Arab Spring uprisings spread through the Middle East and crept into the Gulf, beginning with Bahrain, new questions have surfaced about the volatility of social divisions and the uprising’s impact on economies that largely depend on sizable expatriate populations.
The Gulf countries, particularly Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, have vied for decades to be the region’s leading business destination. During that time, the demographics of foreign workers expanded from a few traders and mostly unskilled laborers from South Asia to skilled workers and professionals from Western countries. With each report of Arab Spring unrest, business analysts became increasingly anxious, fearing an enormous exodus of the workers who form the foundation of the region’s economies.
“There were reports of companies’ considering the relocation of their staff from Bahrain to Dubai, but for us there was no doubt we would remain in Bahrain, come what may,” said Kishore Kewalram, managing director of Kewalram & Sons, an Indian trading company with headquarters in Manama.
Historically, the Indian subcontinent has had strong business ties with the Gulf states, particularly Dubai, Bahrain and Muscat. The ancestors of Mr. Kewalram and other members of his Thattai Bhatia community have had trade links with the Arab world since the 19th century.
The family’s first business activities in the Gulf included trading pearls and textiles. In the 1960s, the family ventured into distributing electronics, forging ties with India and countries in the Far East.
Mr. Kewalram is the fourth generation of his family to call Bahrain home. In 2006, through a special decree, his family was granted Bahraini citizenship — a gesture rarely extended to foreign workers in the Gulf countries.
“As far as the old-timers of the Indian community are concerned, I would say, we’ve been grateful for the opportunity and respect extended to us by our host countries and their rulers,” Mr. Kewalram said. Not only were the Indian traders and merchants encouraged to earn a livelihood, but their cultural identity was preserved, as land grants allowed for the construction of Hindu temples in Manama and Dubai.
Mishaal Al Gergawi, an Emirati current affairs commentator, said, “In recent years, at least in the U.A.E., Emiratis and Indians have less personal interactions.”
“My parents’ generation was influenced by Arab nationalism and were more liberal than my generation,” he added. “So Indians and Emiratis were able to relate to each other through similar cultural values, such as the importance of marriage and education. In the 1980s, there was an Islamic awakening, and you’ll find the average Emirati now is more conservative than 25 years ago.”
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