Saquib Salim

“Indian Moslems generally have already contributed a sum of 5,00,000 Rupees towards the Hejaz (Saudi Arabia) Railway fund, while the Moslem inhabitants of the state of Hyderabad alone are said to have offered to tax themselves at 6.5% of their total wealth.” This was an official report to the British Ambassador in Turkey on 15 December 1903. 

Saudi Arabia is one of the richest nations in Asia with quite an advanced infrastructure. The country’s economy grew exponentially after breaking from Turkish Ottoman rule after the First World War. At the outset of the 20th century, it had a subsistence economy with premodern transport, communication, and industrial infrastructures. Do you know that Indian people played an important role in the development of Saudi Arabia? Their role was not in the form of human resources alone but the Indians provided capital and technology to the country.

In 1910, when Saudi Arabia was ruled by Turkey, a British intelligence report noted, “Moulvi Inshi-Ullah, editor of the Watan, Lahore, has remitted to the Hedjaz Railway Fund at Constantinople the thirty-fourth installment, amounting to 1,120 Rs., collected from his readers during the past two and a half months. The chief contributor of the present installment is a Moslem lady from the Bulandshahr district. Including this remittance, the editor of the Watan has altogether remitted about 98,000 Rs.” 

The report further informed that Indians were angry at the mishandling of funds by the Turkish authorities. They had threatened to stop sending funds if work on railways was not done properly. 

In 1906, a Hedjaz Railway Fund Committee was formed in Hyderabad by Maulvi Abdul Kayyum that raised large sums of money for the railways in Saudi Arabia. The state of Hyderabad started raising funds for the railways in 1901. 

Apart from money, Indian rulers sent their army battalions, engineers, and technology to lay down the railway tracks in Saudi Arabia. More than 5,000 armymen from Hyderabad including engineers provided their duties to the railway development. 

The railways started carrying passengers between Jeddah and Medina in 1910 but couldn’t extend operations due to the War. After the new Saudi government took over the rule it planned to advance its railway system in the 1930s. Once again Indians came forward. S.A.K Jeelani of Chennai proposed a plan to develop Jeddah-Mecca Railways. King Ibn Saud was more than happy for this collaboration but political opponents of the Saudi regime and the British government ensured that Jeelani couldn’t complete the project.

King Ibn Saud took over a country marred by armed conflicts. The economy was in shambles. He urged Muslims across the world to help the country where two holy mosques stand. 

Within a few months after the establishment of Saudi Arabia, in December 1932 a few notables of Hyderabad led by Dr. Moin Ud Din responded to the call of Ibn Saud. They proposed setting up a cloth mill at Medina where Indian weavers would teach Arabs the skill to weave cloth. The capital and machinery had to be provided by the Indians. The idea was to develop the cloth-making industry in Saudi Arabia. All the profits would go to the kingdom. 

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The king agreed upon the idea and in July 1933, machinery and weavers reached Jeddah port. Dr. Moin headed the project at Medina where initially 20 people were employed. The cloth was marketed as a product from the holy and which Muslims could take as a gift for their relatives and friends after performing Haj. A shop was also opened at Al Fakhriyah School in Medina.

The bilateral ties between India and Saudi Arabia are based on this cooperation.