Hindi or Rafiq

For more than two decades of experience living in the city state of Kuwait, I came across Bedouins, the nomadic natives of the state, who called us Hindi in Arabic, meaning Indians. This term Hindi was not used exclusively for the citizens of India, but the inhabitants of all the citizens of the subcontinent of India of brown colour irrespective of religion. Even Goans or “Goanese” as they were referred to in Kuwait before liberation were also called Hindi, though we travelled on Portuguese passport at that time. The reason is simple; no one bothers to know the nationality or which passport is used for travelling. One American of Indian origin went to “Souk”or market in Kuwait and he was complaining they called him “rafiq”, he was wondering why they said “rafiq” when he is an American. Well, his skin colour says so.

The Arabs are a seafaring people as they leave bordering the Arabian Gulf, formerly known as Persian Gulf. The Arabs did not like the word Persian Gulf. I remember a time when I mailed the letters to my father who was working in Kuwait; we had to be careful in writing the address. Letters would not reach him if the address was written as Kuwait, Persian Gulf. The Gulf countries bordering the Gulf claimed the Gulf belongs to them, Arabs and not the Persians or Iranians. Some words used in English, for example Admiral is derived from Arabic “Amir al Bahar”, literally translated meaning “King of the Sea” and the word “monsoon” too has its origin in Arabic “Mausam”, our rainy season. Kuwait got its independence in 1961; much like our Goa was liberated the same year. Prior to that Kuwait was a British Protectorate. They are proud of their culture as a seafaring nation, so much so, that on each and every Independence Day they were screening the Kuwaiti film “Bas ya Bahar”. 

Indigenously built Kuwaiti dhows sailed to India as far as Hyderabad, perhaps long before Vasco da Gama discovered its sea route to India. As a result of these contacts they married many Muslim girls from Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh. These friendly ties with the people of India developed over time and we called treated each other friends or “rafiq”. All inhabitants of the Indian subcontinent are rafiq for the Kuwaitis and vice versa. I cannot say this is true with the other Arab Gulf countries such as Iraq. Iranians or Persians too have very close ties with the Indians or the inhabitants of the subcontinent and they are treated as brothers, not only friends. Hence we address the Iranians as “brothers” and vice versa. I am not a historian and not very much sure who were the first to come to India, the Arabs or Persians. I will leave it to the readers to throw more light on this interesting subject.