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What if Iraq Was Merged With India?
The British Indian Office during and in the immediate aftermath of WWI attempted to incorporate Iraq into India. In Basra for a time the Indian Rupee became the currency and Indian stamps were used. So say at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 Iraq is officially merged with India and Indians are then invited to populate Iraq. What is the result?
Arnold Wilson: " I should like to see it announced that Mesopotamia was to be annexed to India as a colony for India and Indians, that the government of India would administer it, and gradually bring under cultivation its vast unpopulated desert plains, populate them with martial races from the Punjab."
Clayton's preference for locating the Arab Bureau in Cairo met with resistance from the Indian Government (Charles Hardinge) and the India Office (Austen Chamberlain), who did not want interference in their control of territories around the Persian Gulf and particularly the Iraq provinces that they planned to occupy and cultivate for grain production for India. Newly discovered oil deposits located around the North Gulf brought further attention to the region. But the director of Naval Intelligence in Britain, Captain Reginald 'Blinker' Hall, supported Clayton's concept and urged government approval. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Bureau