| ID | 168365 |
| Title Proper | British Empire in India, the Gulf pearl and the making of the Middle East |
| Language | ENG |
| Author | Crouzet, Guillemette |
| Summary / Abstract (Note) | Genealogies of the term ‘Middle East’ conventionally focus on a juncture around the 1890s, when it gained new geopolitical currency, promoted by various European and American officials with reference to a space centred around the Arabo-Persian Gulf. This article argues instead that the ‘Middle East’ label should be seen as the culmination of a longer process, led less from London than from India. Over the previous century, this consolidation of ‘British’ India as a distinct regional actor was accompanied by the conceptualisation of its borderlands, including that Gulf-centred space. This space become a theatre for economic and political monitoring strategised from India, seeking to transform what was represented as a pirate-infested margin into a pacified buffer zone. Control and exploitation of pearl fisheries, the main economic activity for Gulf populations, was central to these efforts. Imperial strategy around the Gulf pearl was a key tool in founding an informal Indian empire in the Gulf and its hinterlands, in that very space to which the name ‘Middle East’ would subsequently be given. |
| `In' analytical Note | Middle Eastern Studies Vol. 55, No.6; Nov 2019: p.864-878 |
| Journal Source | Middle Eastern Studies Vol: 55 No 6 |
| Key Words | Middle East ; Indian Empire ; Persian Gul ; Pearls ; Global Commodity |