Indian diaspora

"NRI" redirects here. For other meanings, see NRI (disambiguation)

A non-resident Indian (NRI) is an Indian citizen who has migrated to another country. Other terms with the same meaning are overseas Indian and expatriate Indian. For tax and other official purpose the government of India considers any Indian national away from India for more than 183 days in a year an NRI. In common usage, this often includes Indian born individuals (and also people of other nations with Indian blood) who have taken the citizenship of other countries.

A Person of Indian Origin (PIO) is literally, simply a person of Indian origin who is not a citizen of India. For the purposes of issuing a PIO Card, the Indian government considers anyone of Indian origins up to four generations removed, to be a PIO.[1]

There is a huge NRI and PIO population across the world, estimated at almost 27 million (not including Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan or Roma diaspora). For examples of prominent NRIs, see List of NRIs.

Moving on out

The most significant historical emigration from India was that of the Roma (often known as "Gypsies"). Around the eleventh century, Muslim invaders in the subcontinent took many Indians as captives to Afghanistan. These people then went to Iran and other parts of the Middle East as wandering court musicians. They gradually became a class of their own, wandering to Europe, where they were known as the Gypsies, (based on an account of their origins lying in Egypt). They adopted local religions such as Christianity and Islam, but combined some of their Hindu practices with the new faiths. The cult of Romani Christian saint Kali Sarah may have been a Christianization of the Hindu goddess Kali. They also speak a distinct Indo-Aryan language of their own, Romani. Another major emigration from the subcontinent was to South East Asia. It started as a military expedition by Hindu, and later Buddhist, kings of South India and resulted in the settlers' merging with the local society. The influence of Indian culture is still strongly felt in South East Asia, especially in places like Bali (in Indonesia). However, in such cases, it is not reasonable to apply the label 'PIO' to the descendants of emigrants from several centuries back, especially since intermixture is so great as to negate the value of such nomenclature in this context.

During the nineteenth century and until the end of the Raj, much of the migration that happened was to other colonies under the indenture system. The major destinations, in chronological order, were Mauritius, British Guyana, the West Indies (Trinidad and Jamaica), Fiji and East Africa. There was also a small amount of free emigration of skilled laborers and professionals to some of these countries in the twentieth century. The event that triggered this diaspora was the Slavery Abolition Act passed by the British Parliament on August 1 1834, which freed the slave labour force throughout the British colonies. This left many of the plantations devoid of adequate work force as the newly freed slaves left to take advantage of their newly found freedom. This resulted in an extreme shortage of labour throughout many of the British colonies which was resolved by massive importation of workers engaged under contracts of indentured servitude.

An unrelated system involved recruitment of workers for the tea plantations of the neighboring British colonies of Sri Lanka and Burma and the rubber plantations of British Malaya (now Malaysia and Singapore). like Australia and New Zealand.

After the 1970s oil boom in the Middle East, a large number of Indians emigrated to the Gulf countries. However, this was on a contractual basis rather than permanent as in the other cases. These Gulf countries have a common policy of not naturalizing non-Arabs, no matter if they are born there.

PIOs today

Indians in the U.S.

Main article: Indian American

Further information: South Asian American

Indian emigration to the U.S. is of comparatively recent origin, and has been occurring in waves: the earliest one being in 1940s and 1950s. They were referred to in the U.S. as Hindus (due to a common American misconception that everyone in India was a Hindu and also for want of a term that distinguished these immigrants from Native Americans who were also called Indians). Due to a sparse immigration rate, this set assimilated fairly well into the American population (intermarried, stayed in rural areas instead of in concentrated urban locales, etc.). A fair number of these families settled down in the Central Valley in California as farmers, and continue to this day.

A second wave entered the U.S. in the 1970s and 1980s. A large proportion of them were Sikhs. The Cold War created a need for engineers in the defense and aerospace industries, many of whom came from India (and many of them came from IIT).

The most recent and probably the largest wave of immigration to date occurred in the late 1990s and early 2000 during the Internet boom. As a result, Indians in the U.S. are now one of the largest among the groups of Indian diaspora, numbering about 2.5 million. In contrast to the previous sets of Indians who entered the US workforce as taxi drivers, laborers, farmers or small business owners, the latest set went on to be very successful financially thanks to the hitech industry, and are thus probably one of the most well off community of immigrants. They are well represented in all walks of life, but particularly so in academia, information technology and medicine. There were over 4,000 PIO professors and 33,000 Indian-born students in American universities in 1997-98. The American Association of the Physicians of Indian Origin boasts a membership of 35,000. In 2000, Fortune magazine estimated the wealth generated by Indian Silicon Valley entrepreneurs at around $250 billion.

Though the Indian diaspora in the US is largely concentrated in metropolitan areas such as Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Houston, almost every state in the US has a community of Indians.

Statistics on Indians in the US

In the year 2002, of the entire total 1,063,732 immigrants to USA from all the countries, as many as 66,864 were from India. According to the US census, the overall growth rate for Indians from 1990 to 2000 was 105.87 per cent. The average growth rate for the whole of USA was only 7.6 per cent.

Indians comprise 16.4 per cent of the Asian-American community. They are the second largest in the Asian American population. In 2000, of all the foreign born population in USA, Indians were 1.007 million. Their percentage was 3.5 per cent. From 2000 onwards the growth rate and the per cent rate of Indians amongst all the immigrants has increased by over 100 times.

Between 1990 and 2000, the Indian population in the US grew 113% - 10 times the national average of 13%. Source: US Census Bureau

Today, Indian Americans are the second largest Asian American ethnic group following the Chinese American community.

Indians own 50% of all economy lodges and 35% of all hotels in the US, which have a combined market value of almost $40 billion. Source: Little India Magazine

One in every nine Indians in the US is a millionaire, comprising 10% of US millionaires. Source: 2003 Merrill Lynch SA Market Study

A University of California, Berkeley, study reported that one-third of the engineers in Silicon Valley are of Indian descent, while 7% of valley hi-tech firms are led by Indian CEOs. Source: Silicon India Readership Survey

Indians along with other Asians, have the highest educational qualifications of all ethnic groups in the US. Almost 67% of all Indians have a bachelor’s or high degree (compared to 28% nationally). Almost 40% of all Indians have a master’s, doctorate or other professional degree, which is five times the national average. Source: The Indian American Centre for Political Awareness.

Indians living abroad can still maintain their connection with the motherland. The most common way is by gifting to their loved ones back home by using services like Tajonline [2], India Plaza [3], India gift center [4] and window2india [5]. Gifting usually includes (though not limited to) apparel, electronics, appliances, sweetmeats, flowers and photos.(Rajivness 12:40, 30 January 2007 (UTC))Rajivness

Indians in the UK

Main article: British Asian

File:Bollywoodlondon.JPG

Bollywood movies are released commercially in the United Kingdom

The Indian emigrant community in the United Kingdom is now in its third generation. As an immigrant group, people of Indian origin have been remarkably successful.

A remarkable collection of the oral history of the British NRIs is available on Britain's leading NRI website History Talking.com. It's a web radio where you can listen to some of the leading NRIs living in the UK.

Stereotypes about Indians have now moved from their being bus-conductors, waiters, and small shopkeepers to their being doctors, lawyers, accountants and successful businesspeople. Increasingly, the second and third generation of Indians has started inter-marrying with the rest of the population, to the point where this has in itself become a stereotype.

In a few local areas, ethnic tension has resulted in ill-feeling and racist violence against immigrants, and groups such as the British National Party have exploited this. However, in general, racism towards people of Indian origin has greatly reduced from the early days of mass immigration after Partition and the expulsion of the Ugandan Indians.

Indian culture has been constantly referenced within wider British culture, at first as an "exotic" influence in films like My Beautiful Laundrette, but now increasingly as a familiar feature in films like Bend It Like Beckham. Indian food is now regarded as part of the British cuisine.

According to the April 2001 UK National Census [6] There are 1,051,800 people of Indian origin in the UK.

They are the best educated and most economically successful of the South Asian immigrant communities, also exceeding the indigenous White/English. [7]

Indians in Malaysia

Main articles: Indian Malaysian and Chitty

Most Indians migrated to Malaysia as plantation laborers under British rule. They are a significant minority ethnic group, making up 7% of the Malaysian population. Most of these are Tamil but some Malayalam- and Telugu- speaking people are also present. They have retained their languages and religion -- 80% of ethnic Indians in Malaysia identify as Hindus. Hinduism in Malaysia diverges from mainstream (post-Vedantic) Hinduism: its main feature is Mother-goddess (Amman) worship; caste deities, tantric rituals, folk beliefs, non-Agamic temples, and animal sacrifice are its other characteristics. Deepavali and Thaipusam are the main festivals. However, there is an increase in agamic worship in Malaysia, due to the efforts of the Malaysian Hindu Sangam and several notable Hindu organitations in Malaysia. There is also a small community of Indian origin, the Chitty, who are the descendants of Tamil traders who had emigrated before 1500 AD, and Chinese and Malay women. Considering themselves Tamil, speaking Malay, and practicing Hinduism, they number about 2,000 today.

Indians in Indonesia

Though there are no official figures, it is estimated that there are around 50,000 PIOs/NRIs living in Indonesia of which the Indian expatriate community registered with the Embassy and our Consulate in Medan numbers around 5000.

Indians were first brought to Indonesia by the Dutch in the 19th century as indentured labourers to work on plantations located around Medan in Sumatra. While the majority of these came from South India, a significant number also came from the North. The Medan Indians included Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs. They have now been in Indonesia for over four generations and hold Indonesian passports. While local statistics continue to suggest that there are some 40,000 PIOs in Sumatra, the vast majority are now completely assimilated in Indonesian society, though some elements of the Tamil and Sikh Communities still maintain their cultural traditions.

The Indian Diaspora also includes several thousand Sindhi families who constitute the second wave of Indian immigrants who made Indonesia their home in the first half of the 20th century. The Sindhi community is mainly engaged in trading and commerce.

Among these communities, Tamils and to a lesser extent Sikhs were primarily engaged in agriculture while Sindhis and Punjabis mainly established themselves in textile trade and sports business.

Due to economic factors, most traders and businessmen among PIOs have over past decades moved to Jakarta from outlying areas such as Medan and Surabaya. Almost half the Indian Community in Indonesia is now Jakarta based.

The inflow of major Indian investments in Indonesia starting in the late 1970s drew a fresh wave of Indian investors and managers to this country. This group of entrepreneurs and business professionals has further expanded over the past two decades and now includes engineers, consultants, chartered accountants, bankers and other professionals.

The Indian community is very well regarded in Indonesia, is generally prosperous and includes individuals holding senior positions in local and multinational companies.

There are six main social or professional associations of the Indian PIO/NRI community in Jakarta. Gandhi Seva Loka (formerly known as Bombay Merchants Association) is a charitable institution run by the Sindhi community and is engaged mainly in educational and social activities. The India Club is a social organization of PIO/NRI professionals. An Indian Women’s Association brings together PIO/NRI spouses and undertakes charitable activities. There is a Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee in Jakarta and Sindhis as well as Sikhs are associated with Gurudwara activities The Economic Association of Indonesia and India (ECAII) brings together leading entrepreneurs from the Indian community with the objective of promoting bilateral economic relations, but has been largely inactive. Finally, there is the Indonesian Chapter of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI).

Indians in the Middle East

There is a huge population of Indians in the Middle East, most coming from Kerala and other south Indian states, especially in the oil rich countries neighboring the Persian Gulf. Most moved to the Gulf after the oil boom to work as labourers and for clerical jobs. Indians - all foreigners, in fact - in the Gulf do not normally become citizens however. They retain their Indian passports since most of the countries in the Gulf do not provide citizenship or permanent residency. One of the major reasons why Indians like to work in the Gulf is because it provides incomes many times over for the same type of job back in india and its geographical proximity to India.The Indian Diaspora makes up a good proportion of the working class in the GCC. In 2005, about 50% of the population in the United Arab Emirates were of Indian descent.

Indians in South Africa

Main article: Asians in South Africa

Most Asians in South Africa are descended from indentured Indian labourers who were brought by the British from India in the 19th century, mostly to work in what is now the province of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN). The rest are descended from Indian traders who migrated to South Africa at around the same time, many from the Gujarat area. The city of Durban, has the largest Asian population in sub-Saharan Africa, and the Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi worked as a lawyer in the city in the early 1900s.South Africa in fact has got the largest population of people of Indian descent outside of India in the world ie:born in South Africa and not migrated, compared to the U.S.Most of them are fourth to fifth generation descent.They mainly belong to the Hindu(the largest),Tamil and Muslim religious groupings.Most of them speak English as a first language (due to the British rule of the Natal colony),although some elders do speak Indian languages as a first language.

Indians in Canada

Main article: Indo-Canadian

According to Statistics Canada, in 2001 there were 713,330 people who classified themselves as being of Indian origin. The term “East Indian” or Indo-Canadian is most commonly associated with people of Indian origin, since the term Indian in Canada has commonly been used to refer to the Aboriginal Canadians and still continues to be used to describe them, causing much confusion. In addition, the term Indian is also occasionally applied to people from the Caribbean (West Indians). Out of this population, 42% are Hindu, 39% are Sikh, and the remainder are Muslim, Christian, Jain, Buddhist, or no religious affiliation. The main Indian ethnic communities are Punjabis (which account for more than half of population) as well Gujaratis, Tamils (Indian as opposed to Sri Lankan), Keralites, Bengalis, Sindhis and others.

The first Indians began moving to Canada in small numbers to British Columbia, and were mainly male Sikh Punjabis who were seeking work opportunities abroad. These first immigrants faced widespread racism by the local white Canadians. There were race riots that targeted these immigrants, as well as new Chinese immigrants as well. Most decided to return to India, while a few stayed behind. The Canadian government prevented these men from bringing their wives and children until 1919, which was the main reason why they decided to leave. Quotas were established to prevent many Indians from moving to Canada in the early 20th century. These quotas allowed fewer than 100 people from India a year until 1957, when it was increased to 300 people a year. In 1967, all quotas were scrapped in Canada, and immigration was based on a point system, thus allowing many more Indians to immigrate in large numbers. Since this open door policy was adopted, Indians continue to come in large numbers, and roughly 25,000 - 30,000 arrive each year (which is now the second highest group immigrating to Canada each year, behind Chinese immigrants).

Most Indians choose to immigrate to larger urban centers like Toronto and Vancouver, where more than 70% live. Smaller communities are also growing in Calgary, Montreal, Edmonton and Winnipeg. Indians in Toronto are from diverse locations in India, such as Punjab, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala. Brampton, a suburb of Toronto has many Indian residents, and the town of Springdale in Brampton is commonly referred to as “Singhdale” because of the many Sikhs that live there. Indians in Vancouver mainly live in the suburb of Surrey, but can also be found throughout Vancouver. The vast majority of Vancouver Indians are of Sikh Punjabi origin and have taken leading roles in politics and the professions, with several Supreme Court justices, three Attorneys-General and one provincial premier coming from their community.

Indians in Mauritius

Main article: Indo-Mauritian

Outside of India itself, Mauritius is the only country where people of Indian Origin form the vast majority (not including Trinidad & Tobago where Afro-Trinidadiand and Indo-Trinidadians have equal populations, or Fiji where the Indo-Fijians once formed the majority but not today). The people are known as Indo-Mauritians, and form about 70% of the population. The majority of them are Hindu (77%) and a significant group are Muslims (22%). There are also some Christians, Baha'is and Sikhs, but the Baha'i and Sikh populations do not add up to even 1% of the population. Various Indian languages are still spoken, especially Tamil, Bhojpuri, Hindi and Urdu, but most Indo-Mauritians now speak a French-based Creole language at home, as well as French in general fields. Finding an Indo-Mauritian who exclusively speaks an Indian language is very rare.

Indians in Singapore

Main article: Indian Singaporean

The term Indian Singaporean refers to any Singapore citizen of South Asian ancestry including, most notably, India. Most Indian Singaporeans are second, third or even fourth generation descendants of migrants from the Indian subcontinent to Singapore and Malaysia, which were then known collectively as British Malaya in the pre-World War II colonial era. A small and shrinking number of older Indian Singaporeans are first generation migrants from the subcontinent. The vast majority are Tamil, but there are also some Telugu, Malayalam and Hindi peoples.

Indians in Madagascar

Indians in Madagascar are descended mostly from traders who arrived to the newly-independent nation looking for better opportunities. The majority of them came from the west coast of India known as Karana ( Muslim ) and Banian ( Hindu ) . The majority speak Hindi or Gujarati, and though some other Indian dialects are spoken. Nowadays the younger generations speak at least three languages including ,French or English,Gujarati and Malagasy. A large number of Indians are higly educated in Madagascar ,particularly the younger generation, who try to contribute their knowledge to the development of Madagascar.

Statistics

Region / Country	Articles	Overseas Indian Population
Southern Asia		161,801
Sri Lanka		150,000
Maldives		9,001
Bhutan		1,500
Iran		800
Afghanistan		500
Southeastern Asia		6,332,745
Myanmar	Burmese Indians	2,902,000
Malaysia	Indian Malaysian, Chitty	2,700,000
Singapore	Indian Singaporean	400,000
Thailand		150,000
Philippines	South Asians in the Philippines	125,000
Indonesia		55,000
Brunei		7,600
Vietnam		320
Cambodia		300
Laos		125
Western Asia		2,829,285
Saudi Arabia		1,500,000
United Arab Emirates		1,200,000
Kuwait		500,000
Oman		350,000
Qatar		175,000
Bahrain		140,000
Yemen		100,900
Israel		45,300
Lebanon		11,025
Jordan		4,100
Syria		1,800
Cyprus		300
Turkey		300
Azerbaijan		250
Armenia		200
Iraq		110
Eastern Asia		71,745
Hong Kong	South Asians in Hong Kong	50,500
Japan		16,400
South Korea		2,700
Taiwan		1,800
People's Republic of China		305
Mongolia		35
North Korea		5
Central Asia		2,317
Kazakhstan		1,127
Uzbekistan		690
Tajikistan		400
Kyrgyzstan		100
Europe		6,300,000
United Kingdom	British Asian	2,850,000
Netherlands		300,000
Italy		71,500
Portugal		70,000
France		70,000
Germany		35,000
Spain		29,000
Russia		16,044
Switzerland		13,500
Austria		11,945
Sweden		11,000
Belgium		7,000
Greece		7,000
Norway		5,630
Ukraine		3,400
Denmark		2,152
Republic of Ireland		1,600
Finland		1,170
Poland		825
Romania		491
Czech Republic		420
Andorra		200
Slovakia		100
Belarus		70
Bulgaria		20
Croatia		10
Lithuania		5
North America		3,351,400
United States	Indian American, South Asian American	2,500,000
Canada	Indo-Canadian	851,000
Mexico		400
South America and the Caribbean	Indo-Caribbean	1,974,582
Suriname	Hindoestanen	950,000
Trinidad	Indo-Trinidadian	473,735
Guyana	Indo-Guyanese	395,350
Jamaica		61,500
Guadeloupe		40,000
Tobago		26,265
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines		6,500
St. Lucia		4,700
Puerto Rico		4,500
Barbados		2,200
Panama		2,164
Brazil		1,900
Argentina		1,600
Saint Kitts and Nevis		1,100
Papua New Guinea		1,000
Venezuela		690
Chile		650
Belize		500
Peru		145
Guatemala		22
Colombia		20
Dominica		20
Costa Rica		16
Ecuador		5
Oceania		3,134,252
Fiji	Indo-Fijian	470,000
Australia		190,000
New Zealand		70,000
Vanuatu		50
Solomon Islands		20
East African Community		380,000
Uganda		187,500
Kenya		102,500
Tanzania		90,000
Other Africa		2,404,182
South Africa	Asians in South Africa	1,200,000
Mauritius	Indo-Mauritian	800,000
Reunion		250,000
Madagascar		30,000
Nigeria		25,000
Mozambique		21,000
Zambia		20,000
Zimbabwe		20,000
Libya		12,400
Botswana		9,000
Seychelles		5,000
Ghana		3,800
Eritrea		1,753
Sudan		1,500
Egypt		1,390
Ethiopia		734
Benin		450
Morocco		375
Burundi		300
Cote d'Ivoire		300
Djibouti		280
Cameroon		250
Gambia		135
Chad		125
Namibia		110
Tunisia		70
Comoros		50
Algeria		45
Angola		45
Guinea-Bissau		25
Senegal		21
Mali		20
Cape Verde		4
Total NRI and PIO population		26,942,309

Bollystan

As the Indian government's own Singhvi commission notes, "the sun never sets on the Indian diaspora." Yet the cultural transmission model is rapidly transforming from a one-way street, in which the Motherland gives and the diaspora receives, to a two-way street, in which the diaspora is as confidently Indian, sometimes more so, than India itself. Bollystan ("Bolly-" for Bollywood, and "Sthan", the Sanskrit suffix for "land" comprise this term) is a neologism which recognizes this changing balance of power between the home country and its diaspora. Technology has enabled the diaspora to manufacture "Indian-ness" as competently as their home-bound relatives through film, dance, music and even religious practices. These externally produced symbols of Indian-ness have in many ways become the primary representation of India in the West and around the world. The term was first used by Parag Khanna, when he guest edited the UK's ethnic lifestyle magazine Another Generation in Fall 2004 (www.anothergeneration-mag.com). The entire issue was based on the theme of Bollystan, This was subsequently then used in an article in The Globalist [8]. The London-based Foreign Policy Centre think-tank has also recognized Bollystan as a form of "diasporic diplomacy" [9]. In the January/February 2005 issue of Foreign Policy magazine, Mitra Kalita of the Washington Post writes, "Finally there is a name for where I live: Bollysthan." [10]

See also

• List of NRIs
• Asians in South Africa
• British Asian
• Desi
• Indo-Caribbean
• Indo-Fijian
• Indo-Guyanese
• Indo-Mauritian
• Indo-Canadian
• Indo-Trinidadian
• Indian American
• Indian-Germans
• South Asian American
• Filipino Indian
• Pravasi Bharatiya Samman
• Pravasi Bharatiya Divas
• Elam
• Mitanni
• Roma people
• Sinti
• List of British Asian Owned Businesses

Pravasi Bharatiya Divas

Main article: Pravasi Bharatiya Divas

References

• List of NRI Organizations/ Commmunities in Different Countries

Sources

• Tai Pucam in Malaysia
• Pravasi Bharatiya Divas
• NRI Divorce, relationship and other issues
• Return 2 India: Community for NRIs Planning To Return To India
• R2IClub: A Forum for Returning Indians on MSN Groups

• India2Ireland: Community for Indian Diaspora in Ireland

• NRI News