British India, despite its name, also consisted of territories that historically had little or no political connections with pre-colonial India. The port of Aden in southwest Arabia (modern Yemen) was a province of British India from 1932 to 1937, until it became an independent crown colony. British Somaliland in East Africa was governed by the Indian Political Service (IPS) between 1884 and 1898.

Gandhi did not consider Burma as part of a united India for the same reason that Yemen and Somalia were never considered a part of post-independence India. Like Aden and Somaliland, Burma was eventually separated from British India in 1935 with the Government of Burma Act, which also established the constitution of Burma. The Act came into effect in April 1937.

Onley, James. The Arabian Frontier of the British Raj: Merchants, Rulers, and the British in the Nineteenth-century Gulf. Oxford University Press, 2007.