Article: Overseas Indians Article Summary
Summary ratings: 3 stars
(xx voters)
Visits:
12
words:
600
Published: April 06, 2008
There are over twenty five million overseas Indians, spread all over the world. The major concentration of overseas Indians are in the Gulf (west Asia), south east Asia and the Carribean. Whereas in Europe, overseas Indians are to be found mostly in the United Kingdom and in the Netherlands.
People of Indian origin constitute more than forty percent of the population in Fiji, Mauritius, Guyana and Surinam. Whereas they constitute sizeable minorities in Malayia, Singapore, Burma, Natal (South Africa) and Canada.
This analysis of the Indian diaspora does not include the Tamils living in Ceylon, and the Bengali Hindus living in Bangladesh, as traditionally these two states have formed part of the Indian Subcontinent.
Most of the emigration took place during the nineteenth, and the early twentieth centuries. It took two distinct forms – the emigration of contract labourers under the “indenture” system (to work as plantation labour in British colonies) and the emigration of traders and professionals. Many of the Indians who went to Burma and Malaya returned home, while the migrants who went to colonies situated far from India (such as the West Indes and Fiji) stayed in their host nations.
Even in ancient times, the people of India had numerous contacts with the nations of far east Asia. Several colonies were established (most notably in Vietnam, Cambodia, Java, Sumatra, and Bali) and Indian culture and religion spread abroad. But the colonies founded by India did not form part of the Indian state, nor were they ruled from India. The nature of India’s relations with her colonies were mostly cultural and commercial.
The Angkor Vat temples, built in the twelfth century, are some of the most beautiful temples in the world. Of these former colonies, Hindu culture is still the dominant culture in Bali, whereas Buddhism holds sway in some of the other lands.