When the British considered punishing Iran for the harassment of Indian pilgrims

In June 1931, the British Consul in Mashhad, a city in northeastern Iran, received a plaintive letter from a resident of Lucknow. In the letter, Kishwar Jahan Begum complained that when she arrived in Mashhad with nine others, their belongings were confiscated by octroi officials and they were made to pay a hefty fine.

She appealed for the return of the belongings, which included silk cloth and handkerchiefs. She said these things were not for sale, as claimed by the octroi officials, but were gifts for relatives. “Moreover,” she added for good measure, “I wish to point out that I belong to a Royal family of Lucknow who always remained loyal to [the] British Govt.”

To the British consular authorities, Kishwar Jahan Begum’s complaint must not have been unique. Before the Partition of the Indian subcontinent, many Indian pilgrims travelled to Iran either overland from Balochistan or by steamship to Iraq and then overland to Mashhad. A number of them had the same complaint: harassment from Iranian officials.

These were the early days of the Pahlavi Dynasty in Iran (1925-1979). Corruption was rampant and Tehran’s writ did not run all over the country.

Families from as far as Bombay and Bengal would write to British consular authorities, seeking...

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