A Cautionary Note on India Dispatching Warships to Counter Houthi Attacks

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The fabled peninsular land of King Solomon and Queen Sheeba or the modern-day Yemen at the mouth of the choppy Red Sea has had a vivid history of engagement with India. Greek and Latin writers even wrongly addressed this region as ‘India’.

Geography afforded it an invaluable site for the trade of spices, textiles, and aromatics (e.g., frankincense, myrrh, etc.) and even rare cultivation (at one time, the only place in the world growing coffee) to ship goods between the proverbial ‘West’ and the ‘East’. Antiquity of the land ensured that it saw interchanging rule and dominance of Paganistic beliefs, Judaism, Christianity to Islam with uniquely tribal, sectarian, and ethnic sub-strains to survive and thrive, cheek-by-jowl with each other, but always uneasily.  

Irreconcilable lawlessness amongst its constantly fighting tribes has been the norm for eons and the Ottoman Statesman and Military Commander, Hadim (eunuch) Suleiman Pasha, had lamented, “Yemen is a land with no lord, an empty province. It would be not only possible but easy to capture, and should it be captured, it would be master of the lands of India and send every year a great amount of gold and jewels to Constantinople.”

But even the Ottomans had to accede to the native and puritanical Wahabi movements and then to the British, who were keen to establish a coal depot in the region to service the busy sea lanes of steamers ferrying up and down to India. Again, Yemen’s location on the busiest sea lanes (accentuated further with the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869) made it even more prized and sensitive.

Yemen and India: A Civilisational Connect of Harmony and Commerce

The transshipment traffic brought engagement and among the notable Islamic saints who came from Yemen to India were perhaps the spiritual leaders of the Dawoodi Bohra community in the 16th Century.

Yemen was also a catchment area for mercenaries who served as prized fighters in Nana Phadnavis’s Maratha empire (5000 fighters), with Bahadur Shah the Sultan of Gujarat, and in later years with the armies of the Nizam of Hyderabad. The famous gastronomical delight of the Hyderabadi Haleem owes its roots to Yemeni Hareesah.

Many enterprising Indians made their fortunes with commerce in Yemen e.g., Cowasji Dinshaw (‘Adenwala’) who was so successful that he was often called the ‘uncrowned king of Aden’. Years later, a precocious 16-year-old clerk for Besse & Co (distributors for Shell company) dreamt of building an oil refinery in India whilst in Yemen, his name was Dhirubhai Ambani!

A Fractured and Weaponised Society That is the Playing Ground of Foreign Powers

For a turbulent land with perennial wars and intrigues with its immediate Arabian and African neighbourhood and with foreign colonisers – the consistent engagement with India and Indians was always based on trade and commerce, with no animosity or fear of the other, besetting the two distant lands. However counterintuitively, co-religionist sovereigns like Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iran, or the United Arab Emirates, evoke a sharper reaction as they are invariably associated with (or support) sections of the myriad tribes that are based on sectarianism (Shia-Sunni divide) or even intra-sect one-upmanship to perpetuate their own national/regime interests.

With conflicting sovereign interests playing out, violent assertions of local tribal/sectarian sentiments, and the sheer desperation of socio-economic deprivations – Yemen today is in the crying throes of an unprecedented humanitarian genocide and bloodlust. While localised in despair (ranked highest on the Fragile State Index and second worst on Global Hunger Index, globally) and accompanying violence, the bloody Yemeni violence has escalated to hitting targets in Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates (whom the essentially Shiite Houthi rebels blame to be supporting its rivals in the Sunni dominated, Presidential Leadership Council). Yemen is in flames and embers are reaching out, beyond borders.  

The ensuing Israel-Hamas war has given a topical opportunity to the local Houthis to cock-a-snook at the inefficacy and capitulations of Sunni Sheikhdoms and posture its own brazen muscularity and commitment by firing its missiles at Israeli cities. Along with the co-sectarian Hezbollah in Lebanon and the principal supporter, Iran, Houthis have taken their presence to a Pan-Islamic agenda, though still only targeting Israel, the US and Arab Sheikhdoms. The slogan of the Houthis is also internationalist i.e., “God Is Great, Death to America, Death to Israel, Curse on the Jews, Victory to Islam”.  

Yemen Conflict Spills Over Into the Busy Lanes of the Red Sea

The American warships and interests within their extended ‘range’ are now susceptible to Houthi attacks. Amidst the mayhem of the civil war, perhaps Indian expatriates in the form of doctors and nurses are the only foreigners allowed to stay back, given their perceptions of neutrality in the ongoing crisis. The recent case of Keralite nurse, Nimisha Priya, facing capital punishment owing to charges of murdering her Yemeni employer, is symptomatic of the presence of Indian expats, despite the war and closure of the Indian Embassy. So, despite the fractious divide within Yemen, Indians (not even Pakistanis) are the rare oddities with no known biases towards any of the warring sides.

Now, the sanctioning, isolation, and territorial wars have taken a toll on the belligerent Houthi militia (whereas, the Presidential Leadership Council has the backing of Saudi-UAE military and financials, besides the indirect support of the West/US). Like the neighbouring profession of lucrative piracy, though fraught with severe risks, by equally deprived Somali militias on the African coast, the Houthis have started targeting international liners on the busy Red Sea sealines, which serve as entry points for ships using the Suez Canal. That is about 12% of global trade.

From seized patrol boats, Water-Borne Improvised Explosive Devices (WBIEDs), Anti-Ship Missiles (AShMs), mines and even, drones and helicopters are wreaking havoc on the busy shipping lines. The United States has launched Operation Prosperity Guardian (along with 20 countries, not including India) to safeguard ships in the dangerous Red Sea waters.   

Recently, the US is believed to have sunk 3 Houthi ships and killed 10 rebels, after they had attacked a Singapore-flagged Maersk container vessel. Earlier Gabon-flagged commercial tanker Sai Baba (with 25 Indian crew members) was drone-attacked and yet another merchant vessel MV Chem Pluto under Liberian flag (with 21 Indian crew) was hit by Drone.

Given the presence of Indians on board and ensuring the safety of sea lanes to and fro India’s busy ports on the Western side, Delhi too had to act, albeit purely defensive/military and not politically. It rightfully avoided the US grouping of Operation Prosperity Guardian and still dispatched three formidable, guided missile destroyers in ‘various areas of the sea’ to ‘maintain a deterrent presence’ to counter the ‘recent spate of attacks in the Arabian Sea’ – the balance and avoidance of any specificities in wordsmithing was key and telling.  

Delhi Needs to Nuance and Balance Its Reaction, Beyond US/Israeli Grouping

India has its own robust relations with all sides in the Middle Eastern theatre and it cannot be drawn into a war that is simply not its own doing, or on behalf of others. Indeed, the safety of sea lanes and Indian interests in the region are paramount and the same must be actioned without insinuating any political preferences or aspersions.

Iran is a priceless strategic partner (with the rare honour of having defied OIC resolutions against India on Kashmir, in the past), as are the economic giants in the form of UAE-Saudi Arabia combine, and India cannot jeopardize its own interests on either by taking a side, openly. It must do whatever is required militarily or even diplomatically, but siding openly with the US or Israeli sides in the Middle Eastern conundrum is to forsake its well-earned ‘strategic ambiguity’ and ‘distance’.

The Houthis have not expressed any India-specific agenda or threats, as they are firmly under the control of Iran and Delhi can ill-afford to upset the applecart, unnecessarily. India’s vast Muslim population also has sectarian undercurrents and concerns, though well under control.     

India’s interests and future are dependent on healthy relations and positive perceptions as a noble and moral land. Capitals like Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, Tel Aviv/Jerusalem, Tehran to even Sa’naa or Aden are all equally important, not less or more than the other – history is suggestive of India’s consistent moral stand (e.g., on Palestine, Israel, and Iran) that is not dependent on anyone’s religion, race or in the case of a internecine battleground like Yemen, even on preferences amongst various sects, tribes and ethnicities. 

(The author is a Former Lt Governor of Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Puducherry. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)