South Asia and West Asia from the Delhi Sultanate to the Present: Security, Resources and Influence

This paper examines the relations between South Asia and West Asia over eight centuries. In the first six centuries from c. 1200 it demonstrates how Persian and Turkish invaders brought a host of skills in learning, the arts, statesmanship and military matters into South Asia. It was in this period that India began to develop a substantial Muslim presence, preparing the way for South Asia to become today host to one-third of the world's Muslims. From the eighteenth century in as process that was assisted by the presence of British power in South Asia,influences began to move in the opposite direction towards West Asia. For the past two hundred years West Asia has increasingly been subject to religious ideas, trade and and power stemming from South Asia. Today India has a particular concern with the Persian Gulf and its surrounding territories.