EMBASSY OF INDIA
SANA'A
India-Yemen : Rich History of intense contacts
India and Yemen have a long history of
people-to-people contacts dating back to
historical times. Yemeni traders were
intermediaries for Indian trade with the
Roman Empire. Subsequently, the
contacts were intensified with the Haj route
from India running through Yemen,
particularly Aden and Mocha.
In
1839, Aden became part of the British Empire and
was administered by the Bombay Presidency. A
garrison of 2000 Indian soldiers was established
in Aden and the Indian Rupee was made the
official currency. In 1855, a fortnightly
steamer service with Bombay was initiated by
Peninsular and Orient Line. Mr
M.Visvesvaraya, one of the greatest engineers of
India, was sent by the British to Aden in 1906
to lay out an effective underground drainage
system and to prepare a scheme for providing
drinking water.
Netaji
Subhash Chandra Bose visited Aden in 1919 and
1935. Mahatma Gandhi, accompanied by Sarojini
Naidu and Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya, visited
Aden on September 3, 1931, on his way to London
to participate in the Second Round Table
Conference, during which he was given a warm
reception by the people of Aden.
The
Aden administration was separated from India in
April 1937 with the appointment of a Governor
directly reporting to London. An Indian
diplomatic mission at the level of Commissioner
was set up in Aden in June 1950. The
Indian Embassy in Sa'naa was established in
1970.
A large number of Indian nationals, including
Hindus, Muslims and Parsis, had lived in Aden
since mid-1880s. One such prominent person
was Cowasjee Shavaksha Dinshaw Adenwalla, who
migrated from Surat to Aden in 1855. He
was the founder of the Fire Temple in Aden.
Many of the Indian traders later embraced the
Yemeni nationality and settled down in Aden,
engaging in trade and commerce. It is
estimated that the Indians in Aden numbered
8,563 in 1856 and gradually increased to 15,817
in 1955. Dhirubhai Ambani, the founder of the
now famous Reliance Group, also started his
career as a trader in Aden. His son Mukesh
Ambani was also born in Aden on April 19, 1957.
At the same time, thousands of people of Yemeni
origin, mainly from Hadramaut, migrated to India
and settled down mainly in the city of
Hyderabad. These age-old ties between India and
Yemen are reflected now by the presence of
around 300,000 strong Yemeni-origin Diaspora in
India and a vibrant Indian-origin Diaspora in
Yemen.
The Bank
of India opened its branch in Aden in 1954 and
remained as the only Indian bank in the country
until its incorporation by the National Bank of
Southern Yemen in 1970, which is now the
National Bank of Yemen.
Today the two countries share close and friendly
ties, with significant economic interest in
various fields and a bilateral trade exceeding
US$ 2.3 billion.
Keynote Address by Foreign Secretary Shri Ranjan
Mathai at the Institute for Defence
Studies and Analyses (IDSA) National Export
Control Seminar
Speech by Foreign Secretary on Building Global
Security at the Institute of Peace and Conflict
Studies (IPCS) – Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS)
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