Gujarati diaspora

Last updated
Gujarati diaspora
Regions with significant populations
Britain [1] , America [1] [2] , Canada [3] , East Africa [1] , Caribbean [1] , Fiji [4]
Languages
Gujarati, English (Indian dialect or Pakistani dialect), Memon
Religion
Majority:
Om.svg Hinduism
Minority:

The Gujarati diaspora refers to the descendants of the Indian ethnolinguistic group known as Gujaratis who emigrated out of Gujarat and adjacent areas in the Indian Subcontinent to the rest of the world.

Contents

Gujaratis have a long tradition of seafaring and a history of overseas migration to foreign lands, to Yemen [5] Oman [6] Bahrain, [7] Kuwait, Zanzibar [8] and other countries in the Persian Gulf [9] since a mercantile culture resulted naturally from the state's proximity to the Arabian Sea. [10] The countries with the largest Gujarati populations are Pakistan, United Kingdom, United States [2] , Canada [3] , the Caribbean, Fiji [4] and many countries in Southern and East Africa. [11] Globally, Gujaratis are estimated to constitute around 33% of the Indian diaspora worldwide and can be found in 129 of 190 countries listed as sovereign nations by the United Nations. [1] Non Resident Gujaratis (NRGs) maintain active links with the homeland in the form of business, remittance, philanthropy, and through their political contribution to state governed domestic affairs. [12] [13] [14]

Gujaratis in the diaspora are prominent entrepreneurs and industrialists and maintain high social capital. [15] Gujarati parents in the diaspora are not comfortable with the possibility of their language not surviving them. [16] In a study, 80% of Malayali parents felt that "children would be better off with English", compared to 36% of Kannada parents and only 19% of Gujarati parents. [16]

Notable people

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gujarat</span> State in western India

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gujarati language</span> Indo-Aryan language

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hinduism in the Middle East</span> Overview of the presence of Hinduism in the Arab world

Hinduism has been found in the Middle East since the early 16th century. Millions of members of the Indian diaspora, of different religions, reside and work in Arab states of the Persian Gulf; many of them are Hindu. Many came due to the migration of Indians and Nepalese expatriates and employees to the area around the Persian Gulf.

Bhatia is a group of people and a caste found in Punjab, Sindh and Gujarat. Traditionally, they have been a trading and merchant community. The Bhatias primarily live in Northwestern India and Pakistan. The Bhatias, Lohanas and Khatris were similar communities and were known to intermarry. The Bhatias recruit Saraswat Brahmins as priests.

Lohana are a trading or mercantile jāti mostly in India and also in Pakistan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Madhapar</span> Village in Gujarat, India

Madhapar is a village located in Kachchh district

Ethnic groups in South Asia are ethnolinguistic groupings within the diverse populations of South Asia, including the countries of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Afghanistan is variously considered to be a part of both Central Asia and South Asia, which means Afghans are not always included among South Asians, but when they are, South Asia has a total population of about 2.04 billion.

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, Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Vallabhbhai Patel.

Sunni Vohras or Sunni Bohras, are a community from the state of Gujarat in India. Sharing the same name as the Dawoodi Bohras, they are often confused with that community. A few families use the slightly different spelling of "Vora" or "Vahora" as their surname. Another common surname is Patel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hinduism in Tanzania</span> Overview of the presence, role and impact of Hinduism in Tanzania

The earliest evidence of Hinduism in Tanzania is from the 1st millennium AD when there was trade between East Africa and Indian subcontinent. Most of these traders came from Gujarat, Deccan and the Chola empire. Archaeological evidence of small Hindu settlements have been found in Zanzibar and parts of Swahili coast, Zimbabwe and Madagascar.

The Indian diaspora in Southeast Africa consists of approximately 3 million people of Indian origin. Some of this diaspora in Southeast Africa arrived in the 19th century from British India as indentured labourers, many of them to work on the Kenya–Uganda railway. Others had arrived earlier by sea as traders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indians in Kenya</span> Diasporic ethnic group

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.

Indian Mozambicans form the sixth-largest Indian diaspora community in Africa, according to the statistics of India's Ministry of External Affairs. Roughly 70,000 people of Indian descent reside in Mozambique, as well as 870 Indian expatriates.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indians in Tanzania</span> Ethnic diaspora

Indian Tanzanians constitute a significant minority within the demographic landscape of Tanzania, with a population exceeding 60,000 individuals of Indian descent residing in the country. Many among them are traders and entrepreneurs, and despite forming only 0.2% of the population. they are considered by the Hindu Council of Tanzania to have disproportionate ownership of Tanzanian companies. Indians also have a long history in Tanzania, starting with the arrival of Gujarati traders, and they gradually came to control the trade in Zanzibar. Several buildings from that period still stand in Stone Town, the primary trading center on the island.

Kharwa, or Kharva, are a Hindu Community from Gujarat, India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indian diaspora</span> Indian citizens and persons of Indian origin living abroad

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 Indian citizen or 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indians in Oman</span> Ethnic group

The community of Indians in Oman includes Indian expatriates in Oman, as well as Omani citizens of Indian origin or descent.

Mistry, or Mistri, is an Indian surname. The name can be found among people from Gujarat, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, and Bangladesh. This surname is used by Vishwakarma communities of India. It is an occupational surname.

Jairam Shivji was an Indian merchant and banker from Kutch, India, who operated from Zanzibar and Muscat. Having almost monopolized the entire Zanzibar market, he was the wealthiest person in East Africa during his career there.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Chidanand Rajghatta. "Global Gujaratis: Now in 129 nations". The economic times. Retrieved 21 October 2015. A lot of the spread worldwide took place after a pit-stop in East Africa, right across the sea from Gujarat. When Idi Amin turfed out some 100,000 Indians (mostly Gujaratis) from Uganda in 1972, most of them descended on Britain before peeling off elsewhere.
  2. 1 2 "US Census Bureau American Community Survey (2009-2013) See Row #62". 2.census.gov.
  3. 1 2 Government of Canada, Statistics Canada (2022-08-17). "Census Profile, 2021 Census of Population Profile table Canada [Country]". www12.statcan.gc.ca. Retrieved 2022-08-18.
  4. 1 2 Prasad, Kamal Kant (1978). "The Gujaratis of Fiji, 1900-1945 : a study of an indian immigrant trader community". The University of British Columbia. Retrieved 30 May 2024.
  5. ↑ Pedro Machado (2014). Ocean of Trade: South Asian merchants, Africa and the Indian Ocean, c. 1750 - 1850. Cambridge University Press. p. 20. ISBN   978-1-107-07026-4 . Retrieved 4 February 2015. Hindu Vaniya networks from Kathiawar, in particular, operated prominently in the region, and directed their trade primarily to Yemen, and Hadramawt. They were also active in the early eighteenth century in the southern Red Sea, where Mocha and other ports such as Aden provided them with their principal markets
  6. ↑ Cordell Crownover (2014-10-05). Ultimate Handbook Guide to Muscat : (Oman) Travel Guide . Retrieved 4 February 2015. As an important port-town in the Gulf of Oman, Muscat attracted foreign tradesman and settlers, such as the Persians, the Balochs and Gujaratis.
  7. ↑ Andrew Gardner (1969). City of Strangers: Gulf Migration and the Indian Community in Bahrain. Cornell University Press. p. 77. ISBN   978-0-8014-7602-0 . Retrieved 4 February 2015. Other Indian groups with a long-standing presence in Bahrain include the Gujarati businessmen whose enterprises historically centered on the trade of gold; the Bohra community, an Indian Muslim sect with a belief system particularly configured around business...
  8. ↑ Ababu Minda Yimene (2004). An African Indian Community in Hyderabad: Siddi Identity, Its Maintenance and Change. Cuvillier Verlag. pp. 66, 67. ISBN   978-3-86537-206-2 . Retrieved 4 February 2015. Some centuries later, the Gujarati merchants established permanent trading posts in Zanzibar, consolidating their influence in the Indian Ocean... Gujarati Muslims, and their Omani partners, engaged in a network of mercantile activities among Oman, Zanzibar and Bombay. Thanks to those mercantile Gujarati, India remained by far the principal trading partner of Zanzibar.
  9. ↑ Irfan Habib (2011). Economic History of Medieval India, 1200-1500. Pearson Education India. p. 166. ISBN   978-81-317-2791-1 . Retrieved 4 February 2015. In the Persian Gulf, Hurmuz (Hormuz), was the most important entrepot for the international exchange for goods which were either bartered or purchased with money. The rise of Hurmuz in the thirteenth century followed the decline of the neighbouring entrepot of Qays, where there was a community of Gujarati Bohra merchants
  10. ↑ Paul R. Magocsi (1999). Encyclopedia of Canada's Peoples. University of Toronto Press. p. 631. ISBN   978-0-8020-2938-6 . Retrieved 4 February 2015. Gujarat's proximity to the Arabian Sea has been responsible for the ceaseless mercantile and maritime activities of its people. Through the ports of Gujarat, some of which date back to the dawn of history, trade and commerce flourished, and colonizers left for distant lands.
  11. ↑ Gujaratis in the West : evolving identities in contemporary society. Mukadam, Anjoom A., Mawani, Sharmina. Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars Pub. 2007. ISBN   9781847183682. OCLC   233491089.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  12. ↑ Premal Balan & Kalpesh Damor (17 June 2015). "Thanks to NRIs, 3 small Gujarat villages each have Rs 2,000cr bank deposits". the times of india. Retrieved 26 October 2015. No wonder bank hoardings flashing interest rates for NRI deposits (up to 10%) is a common sight in these villages. "Some villages in Kutch like Madhapar and Baladia have very high NRI deposits. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest in the country," said K C Chippa, former convener of the State Level Banker's Committee (SLBC) Gujarat. Between them, Madhapar, Baladia and Kera have 30 bank branches and 24 ATMs.
  13. ↑ Piyush Mishra (July 2015). "NRI deposits in Gujarat cross Rs 50K crore mark". the times of India. Retrieved 26 October 2015. Gujaratis form 33% of the Indian diaspora and Gujarat is among the top five states in the country in terms of NRI deposits. RBI data shows there was a little over $115 billion (about Rs 7 lakh crore) in NRI accounts in India in 2014-15, with Gujarat accounting for 7.78% of the kitty.
  14. ↑ Fernandez-Kelly, Patricia; Portes, Alejandro, eds. (2015-07-01). The State and the Grassroots: Immigrant Transnational Organizations in Four Continents. Berghahn Books. p. 99. ISBN   9781782387350 . Retrieved 26 October 2015.
  15. ↑ Malik, Ashish; Pereira, Vijay (2016-04-20). Indian Culture and Work Organisations in Transition. Routledge. ISBN   9781317232025.
  16. 1 2 Kachru, Braj B.; Kachru, Yamuna; Sridhar, S. N. (2008). Language in South Asia. Cambridge University Press. p. 531. ISBN   9781139465502.
      This page is based on this Wikipedia article
      Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
      Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.