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Hajj — An Indian Experience in History
The earliest visit by Indians to Makkah for the Hajj pilgrimage is a matter of conjecture, but such visits likely predate the Muslim conquests of Sindh (664-712 A.D.).
During Mughal times and until the eighteenth century, pilgrims from India had the option of travelling to Makkah either by overland caravans or by sailing ships. The Indian pilgrims travelling by land route via the northwest of India had to pass through long, difficult and hazardous terrains, which also involved crossing the hostile Shia territories controlled by the Safavids.
The Story of the Parsis in Aden
After the British conquest of Aden in 1839 A.D., and its declaration as a free port, several Indian traders, including Hindus, Muslims and Parsis, started settling down in this thriving city. According to the 1872 census, there were only 121 Parsis out of the total population of 19,289 in Aden, but by the 1911 census, the number of Parsis living in Aden had increased to 384, of whom 268 were men and 116 were women.
India’s Hadhrami Links
Hadhramaut has a long history as an important centre of Islamic learning. There was a steady interaction between Hadhramaut and western and southern India, particularly in Gujarat, the Konkan Coast, the Malabar Coast, and the Deccan, which is well-documented in history. Important Hadhrami settlements are found in Kutch, Ahmedabad, Baroda, Bharuch, Surat in Gujarat, Calicut and the Malabar Coast in Kerala, Bijapur and Belgaum in Karnataka, Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh, and Ahmadnagar and Janjira in Maharashtra, as well as a minor settlement in Delhi.
The Nizam of Hyderabad’s Munificence
The Seventh Nizam of Hyderabad, Mir Osman Ali Khan, was acknowledged as the world’s richest man, whose estimated fortune was more than US$2 billion. In addition, he was said to have US$5 billion worth of gold in bricks and coins in his Treasury and an unspecified number of gems. The Wall Street Journal had reported in March 1931 that two Englishmen spent more than two years just to classify his family jewellery . The Nizam was one of the five rulers among the 565 Princely States in British India who was given the rank of 21-gun salute, along with the Maharajas of Gwalior, Kashmir, and Mysore and the Gaekwad of Baroda.
Mahatma Gandhi’s Historic Sojourn in Aden
India has a long association with Aden going back to the historic times. Aden was a flourishing port, trading centre and an important gateway for India at that time. It attracted a large number of Indians, mainly from Gujarat and Maharashtra, who were engaged in...
Towards a more inclusive and age-friendly world
According to the ‘India Ageing Report 2023’, brought out by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in collaboration with the International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), there were 149 million persons aged 60 years and above in mid-2022, constituting around 10.5% of the country’s population.