Punjabi’s in Iraq

[xsampa]

After WW1 the India office proposed annexing Iraq to India and using it as a settler colony of Punjabi Indians. Suppose this had happened and Iraq is part of the Raj, with Kuwait effectively dominated by a majority Indian population with a titular Arab monarchy (analogous to how an independent Hawaii would still be Polynesian minority even if it avoided annexation) and maybe even Princely States for the Arabs and Kurds in the hinterlands of Iraq.

 

[Monk78]

Muslims or sikhs ?

 

[ArtosStark]

After WW1 the India office proposed annexing Iraq to India and using it as a settler colony of Punjabi Indians. Suppose this had happened and Iraq is part of the Raj, with Kuwait effectively dominated by a majority Indian population with a titular Arab monarchy (analogous to how an independent Hawaii would still be Polynesian minority even if it avoided annexation) and maybe even Princely States for the Arabs and Kurds in the hinterlands of Iraq.

Fear of that was part of the reason for the Iraqi revolt in 1920. I don’t think the British (or the Indian government) had the capacity to force that kind of thing through in the 20’s.