Total population | |
---|---|
600,000-800,000 [1] | |
Regions with significant populations | |
London(Wembley · Harrow · Queensbury) · Leicester · North West · Kirklees | |
Languages | |
Gujarati · English · Hindi · Urdu | |
Religion | |
Hinduism · Islam · Jainism · Christianity · Zoroastrianism | |
Related ethnic groups | |
Gujaratis · British Indians · East African Indians |
British Gujaratis are residents of the United Kingdom who trace their ancestry to the region of Gujarat. They form the largest ethno-linguistic subgroup of British Indians, numbering 800,000. [1] This includes a diverse population consisting of British-born Gujaratis, [2] migrants directly from the region of Gujarat, and East African Gujaratis who migrated to the United Kingdom fleeing discrimination. [3] Around half of the United Kingdom's 1.3 million Indians have roots in Gujarat. Gujaratis have contributed significantly to British Indian and broader British culture. Gujaratis are known for having revitalized corner shops and being relatively prosperous among immigrant groups in the United Kingdom. [4] [3]
Gujarati connections with the United Kingdom date back to the British Raj, when the East India Company founded a trading post in Surat. During British colonization, the Gujaratis and British participated in a significant exchange of information, including that of one another's histories. [5] Today, many British Gujaratis are either themselves, or descended from, first generation immigrants from India. Alternatively, a notable amount are also descended from the Gujarati community of East Africa, who are themselves forcible migrants to the area. Despite being British Subjects, Gujaratis had restricted access to Britain after successive Immigration acts of 1962, 1968 and 1971. However, many were accepted into the country following dictator Idi Amin's expulsion of Uganda's 80,000 strong Indian community in 1972.
Today, nearly half of England's[ clarification needed ] Gujarati speakers reside in Greater London, where they are predominantly found in the boroughs of Harrow, Brent, Barnet, and Newham.[ citation needed ] Specifically, the community of Wembley and Harrow has been considered a center for Gujarati culture and cuisine throughout London and the United Kingdom. [6] [7] Additionally, the city of Leicester in the East Midlands has a very large Gujarati community, with those speaking Gujarati accounting for about 12% of the city's population. [8] The city's large Gujarati population has led to many calling it a "Gujarati city". [9] [10] However, several communities in Northern England also have large Gujarati populations including the primarily working-class towns of Bolton, Preston, and Blackburn with Darwen.
The majority of Gujaratis throughout the United Kingdom practice Hinduism, with significant minorities practicing Jainism and Islam. London's Gujarati community is overwhelmingly Hindu, though Jain minorities exist in Harrow. [11] Leicester's Gujarati community is largely Hindu, though parts of the city have large and influential Gujarati Muslim communities, which form the bulk of the city's Islamic population. However, Northern England's Gujarati enclaves are largely Muslim, though with Hindu minorities. [12] [13]
Many people in the United Kingdom classified as "Gujarati" may be part of the Kutchi ethnic group, whose homeland is northernmost parts of Gujarat. [14] Additionally, the Memons, who hail from the Kathiawar Peninsula may be considered Gujarati despite their language being considered a dialect of Sindhi. The United Kingdom also has a large and influential community of Parsis, who speak the Gujarati language despite practicing Zoroastrianism.
Gujarat is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about 1,600 km (990 mi) is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some 196,024 km2 (75,685 sq mi); and the ninth-most populous state, with a population of 60.4 million in 2011. It is bordered by Rajasthan to the northeast, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu to the south, Maharashtra to the southeast, Madhya Pradesh to the east, and the Arabian Sea and the Pakistani province of Sindh to the west. Gujarat's capital city is Gandhinagar, while its largest city is Ahmedabad. The Gujaratis are indigenous to the state and their language, Gujarati, is the state's official language.
The London Borough of Harrow is a London borough in northwest London, England; it forms part of Outer London. It borders four other London boroughs – Barnet to the east of ancient Watling Street, Brent to the southeast, Ealing to the south and Hillingdon to the west – plus the Hertfordshire districts of Three Rivers and Hertsmere to the north. The local authority is Harrow London Borough Council. The London borough was formed in 1965, based on boundaries that had been established in 1934. The borough is made up of three towns: Harrow, Pinner and Stanmore, but also includes western parts of Edgware.
Gujarati is an Indo-Aryan language native to the Indian state of Gujarat and spoken predominantly by the Gujarati people. Gujarati is descended from Old Gujarati. In India, it is one of the 22 scheduled languages of the Union. It is also the official language in the state of Gujarat, as well as an official language in the union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. As of 2011, Gujarati is the 6th most widely spoken language in India by number of native speakers, spoken by 55.5 million speakers which amounts to about 4.5% of the total Indian population. It is the 26th most widely spoken language in the world by number of native speakers as of 2007.
Kutch district, officially spelled Kachchh, is a district of Gujarat state in western India, with its headquarters (capital) at Bhuj. Covering an area of 45,674 km2, it is the largest district of India. The area of Kutch is larger than the entire area of other Indian states like Haryana (44,212 km2) and Kerala (38,863 km2). The population of Kutch is about 2,092,371. It has 10 talukas, 939 villages and 6 municipalities. The Kutch district is home to the Kutchi people who speak the Kutchi language.
Islam is the second-largest religion in the United Kingdom, with results from the 2011 Census giving the population as 4.4% of the total UK population, while results from the 2021 Census recorded a population of 6.5% in England and Wales. London has the greatest population of Muslims in the country. The vast majority of Muslims in the United Kingdom adhere to Sunni Islam, while smaller numbers are associated with Shia Islam.
British Asians are British citizens of Asian descent. They constitute a significant and growing minority of the people living in the United Kingdom, with 6.9% of the population identifying as Asian/Asian British in the 2011 United Kingdom census. This represented a national demographic increase from a 4.4% share of UK population in 2001.
Lohana are a trading or mercantile jāti mostly in India and also in Pakistan.
Hinduism is the third largest religious group in the United Kingdom, after Christianity and Islam; the religion is followed by around 1.7% of the total population of the nation. Hindus had a presence in the United Kingdom since the early 19th century, as at the time India was part of the British Empire. Many Indians in the British Indian Army settled in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. According to 2021 United Kingdom census, 1,032,775 residents (1.7%) identified themselves as Hindus.
Jainism is India's sixth-largest religion and is practiced throughout India. Per the 2011 census, there are 4,451,753 Jains in the 1.35 billion population of India, the majority living in Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka. However, the influence of Jainism has been far greater on the Indian population than these numbers suggest. Jains can be found in every state and union territories, varying from large societies to smaller. The state of Jharkhand, with a population of 16,301 Jains also contains the holy pilgrimage centre of Sammed Shikharji. Jains can be found throughout India and in many other countries throughout the world.
Since its independence in 1947, India has accepted various groups of refugees from neighbouring countries, including partition refugees from former British Indian territories that now constitute Pakistan and Bangladesh, Tibetan refugees that arrived in 1959, Chakma refugees from present day Bangladesh in early 1960s, other Bangladeshi refugees in 1965 and 1971, Sri Lankan Tamil refugees from the 1980s and most recently Rohingya refugees from Myanmar. In 1992, India was seen to be hosting 400,000 refugees from eight countries. According to records with the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, as on January 1,2021, there were 58,843 Sri Lankan refugees staying in 108 refugee camps in Tamil Nadu and 54 in Odisha and 72,312 Tibetan refugees have been living in India.
The Gujarati people, or Gujaratis, are an Indian ethnolinguistic group who reside in or can trace their ancestry or heritage to a region of the Indian subcontinent primarily centered in the present-day western Indian state of Gujarat. They primarily speak Gujarati, an Indian language. While Gujaratis mainly inhabit Gujarat, they have a diaspora worldwide. Gujaratis in India and the diaspora are prominent entrepreneurs and industrialists and maintain high social capital. Many notable independence activists were Gujarati, including Mahatma Gandhi and Vallabhbhai Patel.
British Indians are citizens of the United Kingdom (UK) whose ancestral roots are from India. Currently, the British Indian population exceeds 1.8 million people in the UK, making them the single largest visible ethnic minority population in the country. They make up the largest subgroup of British Asians and are one of the largest Indian communities in the Indian diaspora, mainly due to the Indian–British relations. The British Indian community is the sixth largest in the Indian diaspora, behind the Indian communities in the United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia and Nepal. The majority of British Indians are of Punjabi and Gujarati origin with various other smaller communities from different parts of India including Kerala, West Bengal, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
There were 1,318,755 Muslims reported in the 2021 census in the Greater London area. In the 2021 census Office for National Statistics, the proportion of Muslims in London had risen to 15% of the population, making Islam the second largest religion in the city after Christianity.
The credit for introducing Jainism to the West goes to a German scholar, Hermann Jacobi, who translated some Jain literature and published it in the series 'Sacred Books of East' in 1884. In Europe, the largest Jain populations are in Britain, with a population of about 25,000.
Indians in Kenya, often known as Kenyan Asians, are citizens and residents of Kenya with ancestral roots in the Indian subcontinent. Significant Indian migration to modern-day Kenya began following the creation of the British East Africa Protectorate in 1895, which had strong infrastructure links with Bombay in British India. Indians in Kenya predominantly live in the major urban areas of Nairobi and Mombasa, with a minority living in rural areas.
The term Gujarati Muslim is usually used to signify an Indian Muslim from the state of Gujarat in western coast of India. Most Gujarati Muslims have the Gujarati language as their mother tongue, but some communities have Urdu as their mother tongue. The majority of Gujarati Muslims are Sunni, with a minority of Shi'ite groups.
Hinduism in England is the third largest religion in the country, with over 1,020,533 followers as of the 2021 Census. This represents over 1.5% of the English population, up from 1.1% the previous decade. Hindus are predominantly in the cities of London and Leicester, where they make up greater proportions of the population. England has a number of Hindu temples, including the Hindu temple at Neasden which is the largest Hindu temple in Europe. In 2007, the largest Hindu Mandir in the North of England, the Bradford Lakshmi Narayan Hindu Temple opened in Bradford, West Yorkshire.
British Indians form the largest ethno-national group in London with a population of around 656,272 or 7.5% of the population. The majority are concentrated in West London, though populations can be found throughout London.
Overseas Indians, officially Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) and People of Indian Origin (PIOs) are Indians who reside or originate outside of India. According to the Government of India, Non-Resident Indians are citizens of India who currently are not living in India, while the term People of Indian Origin refers to people of Indian birth or ancestry who are citizens of countries other than India. Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) is given to People of Indian Origin and to persons who are not People of Indian Origin but married to People of Indian Origin. Persons with OCI status are known as Overseas Citizens of India (OCIs). The OCI status is a permanent visa for visiting India with a foreign passport.
In August and September 2022, Leicester, England, saw a period of religious and ethnic tension between predominately British Hindus and British Muslims of South Asian origin. The unrest saw rioting, protest marches, sloganeering and ethnic violence between the two populations. It was also preceded by social media campaigning, misinformation and hate propaganda. Muslim apprehensions of what they alleged as "Hindutva fascism" entering their neighbourhoods was evidently the main driver behind the unrest, Subsequent independent investigations found Hindu places of worship were desecerated, and Hindu men specifically targeted by mobs. Muslim community leaders and analysts point to the Indian celebrations following the India–Pakistan 2022 Asia Cup match on 28 August as a catalyst, which saw a reaction from Pakistani fans.
Fifty per cent of [British Gujaratis] are born in U.K.