IOR/R/15/1/379

The file covers political, economic and general matters at Gwadar (which is referred to throughout as ‘Gwadur’). The file includes Annual Report of the British Agency, Gwadar for the year 1928, written by the British Agent, M Waris Ali, which includes sections on ancient history; area and population; main villages of the Gwadar territory; languages, religion and instruction; constitution, government and justice; British and state representatives; cases settled during the year under report; defence; passports and certificates of identity; frontier news in brief; shipping, communications and trade; foreign and inland commerce and the way in which both have contributed to bring about a destructive effect on Gwadar trade; fish trade; state customs, finance and baladiah; sanitation and doctor; climate, soil, rainfall and agriculture; production, industries and manufactures; mineralogy; slaves and their manumission; government buildings and their upkeep; government post office and telegraph office; meteorological and aeroplanes; banking and currency; weights and measures; the Anglo-Persian Oil Company; distinguished visitors to Gwadar during the year under report; archaeology; locusts; earthquakes; tides and tempests; and obituary for the late British agent, Raja Lal Khan, who had committed suicide after going insane one night as a result of ‘super abundance [sic] of passport drudgery and other work mixed with anxieties and cares’.

The file also includes papers relating to communal disturbances at Gwadar between Khojas/Aga Khanis (who were British subjects) and Baluchis (subjects of the Sultan of Muscat). The troubles, which followed allegations of the defilement of a mosque with dung by Khojas, resulted in deaths of two members of the Khoja community, 1929-1932