On a warm morning in August 1949, a car with the Indian Tricolour mounted on its front fender entered the tightly-guarded Sahib Qarania Palace in Tehran. Built in the mid-19th century, the palace was playing host to a valued guest: Abdullah I bin Al-Hussein, the ruler of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Waiting in the car to meet him was Syed Ali Zaheer, the Indian ambassador to Iran who had served as the law minister in the provisional government of India in 1946.
Their meeting would be the highest level of contact between newly-independent India and Jordan since a brief interaction between the king and the Indian envoy to Egypt in 1948. No formal diplomatic relations existed between the nations at the time, nor did India have a mission in Amman. Abdullah was therefore keen to meet the Indian ambassador in Tehran.
Within two years of gaining independence, India had managed to generate great goodwill in West Asia. One key reason for this was New Delhi’s decision in 1947 to oppose the UN Resolution that partitioned Palestine into Jewish and Arab states. Jordan, a participant in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, was among the countries that highly appreciated India’s stance on Israel.
At the meeting in Tehran, the king – who “spoke only Arabic and Turkish” – was accompanied by “his Foreign Minister Mr. Ruhi Abdul Hadi Pasha, and ex-Prime Minister [Samir] Al-Rafai”, who acted as interpreters, Zaheer wrote in a letter to the Indian Ministry of External Affairs.
Zaheer’s long discussion with Abdullah helped the king understand India’s foreign policy goals and made him realise how they roughly aligned with Jordan’s geopolitical objectives.
Indonesian independence
Pointing out that India had attained freedom only two years earlier, Zaheer told the king, “Ever since, it has been doing its best to bring about cooperation among all countries of Asia, irrespective of religion and nationality... The main plank of the policy of the Indian Government was to stop Colonialism and the exploitation of the Asiatic countries by western powers.”
India’s special cooperation with Arab and Muslim countries was a key point raised by Zaheer. “I cited to him as an example the attitude adopted by India over the Palestine question, the question of Italian colonies and Indonesia,” he wrote in his letter to the foreign ministry.
The Indonesian War of Independence against the Dutch began in August 1945 and lasted until the end of 1949. During this struggle, India staunchly supported the Indonesians, raising their cause at international fora. To help them further, India placed restrictions on Dutch shipping and airlines, affecting the movement of military supplies from the Netherlands.
“I stressed particularly the Indonesian question, and said that although Indonesia was a predominantly Muslim country, still we were doing our best to help it attain its freedom and that I was glad to say that we appeared to have very largely succeeded in our efforts,” Zaheer wrote in the letter. What he said impressed the Jordanian foreign minister.
Foreign policy
After listening patiently to Zaheer, Abdullah narrated his country’s vision in an increasingly decolonised world. “He said that his idea was to have an Arab League of all the Arab countries, to begin with; then to have an Islamic League, including all the Islamic countries, and, ultimately, to work for an Asiatic League,” Zaheer wrote.
The Jordanian ruler’s biggest concern was the growing popularity of communism around the world and the Soviet Union’s quest to spread it to West Asia. In his eyes, the Soviet Union was a “menace”, said Zaheer: “He went on to state that at the present moment, religion was extremely essential for mankind, otherwise, they will all become victims of communism.”
The Indian ambassador made it clear that his country was committed to the path of non-alignment: “The Indian foreign policy was not to join any of the power blocs into which the world was divided today, but to bring about a peaceful settlement of the outstanding questions.”
Abdullah asked what efforts India had made to bring Asian countries together, to which the ambassador responded by mentioning the two conferences held in India. “He had evidently not heard of them, but his Foreign Minister, who appeared to be a very intelligent and well-informed person, knew about it and explained to the King what India had done, in this connection,” Zaheer wrote.
Regional conflict
Although unaware of the Asia Relations Conference, the king was aware of the horrific communal violence that accompanied the Partition of India and the cold relations between the two newly-independent nations in South Asia. Abdullah suggested to the Indian envoy that India should bring peace within its boundaries and with Pakistan.
“I explained that India has adopted the principle of being a ‘secular’ state in which people of all religions will have complete freedom and equal right to observe their religious faith,” Zaheer recounted in the letter. “The King mentioned that if India adheres to these ideals, she is bound to succeed in the long run, but one thing which was essential for India was to avoid conflict with its neighbours.”
Zaheer responded that no one was more conscious of this than the Indian government. India, he said, had “very big schemes of technical and economic development” and, to achieve these, it was essential for India to avoid conflicts and have “a long spell of peace and tranquility”. “I informed him that our disagreement with Pakistan was not of our seeking. He appeared to appreciate this, and changed the topic.”
Abdullah called on India to send an ambassador to Amman, preferably an Indian of “high position” whose views could be accepted in New Delhi. The king was displeased that, during the absence of formal diplomatic relations between New Delhi and Amman, India’s embassy in Cairo was accredited to Jordan. Zaheer said Abdullah “vented” about this and added that India should not assume that Egypt was the leader of Arab nations.
After his meeting with the king, Zaheer held talks with former prime minister Al-Rafai, in which they discussed “the creation of the Jewish State, the insincere policy of the Britishers towards the Arabs and several other similar matters,” the Indian ambassador said.
Zaheer met the Jordanians again the next day at a reception hosted by Abdullah, where the Shah of Iran was also present. He wrote, “I was talking to his ex-Prime Minister Al-Rafai when the King walked up to me and mentioned that we should do our best to solve our internal problems and then work for the union of Asiatic countries.”
Abdullah likened his idea to throwing a stone in the water, forming a small circle that keeps getting bigger. “He said the bigger circle will be of all Asiatic people,” Zaheer wrote. “He expressed great friendliness towards India and hoped that India will be able to grow bigger and bigger in the future.”
The Indian ambassador seemed to have great respect for the former prime minister of Jordan, but he was not impressed by the king. “Al-Rafai appeared an extremely intelligent and well-informed person,” he wrote, “while the King seemed more like an uncouth Arab chieftain on whom greatness has been thrust.”
Abdullah remained the king of Jordan until his assassination by a Palestinian at the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem in 1951. At the time, Jordan occupied the West Bank.
The 1949 meeting between Abdullah and Zaheer in Tehran set the tone for warm ties between India and Jordan. Diplomatic relations were officially established in 1950 after India became a republic, and can be counted among the most trouble-free of New Delhi’s friendships in volatile West Asia.
Ajay Kamalakaran is a writer, primarily based in Mumbai. His Twitter handle is @ajaykamalakaran.
