1.3. Waves of Migrations: The Old and New Diaspora

The history of migration from India dates back at least two thousand years. The first migration from modern-day India took place at around the time of the reign of Emperor Kanishka (around the 1st century AD). This group was the Romani people, now known all around the world as “gypsies”, from what today is the Indian state of Rajasthan. They emigrated from India towards the northwest and eventually settled in Eastern Europe.

Another major migration from the Indian subcontinent started in around 500 AD, when a group emigrated to Southeast Asia. The Cholas, a great naval power, conquered what is today Indonesia and Malaysia as well as the so-called ‘Indianized’ kingdoms of Southeast Asia. The influence of Indian culture is still felt strongly in Southeast Asia. This is particularly evident amongst the royal Brahmins kings of Thailand, the archeological wonders of the Angkor Kingdoms of Cambodia, and in Indonesia, especially in Central Sumatra and Bali.

However, in all these early migrations, the label of “Indian Diaspora” is not applied to the descendants of those emigrants who left India many centuries ago. The intermixing of these groups with the local population over the centuries has been so great that they eliminated all traces of such “Indian” identity. Therefore, these people are no longer considered PIOs (“People of Indian Origin”).

However, over the past two centuries, India has achieved arguably the most diverse and complex migration histories, forming the Modern Indian Diaspora. Spread across all six continents and 125 countries, it is estimated that about 31 million people now comprise the Indian Diaspora.

The characteristics of this diversified group vary to an astonishing degree – yet all are part of the same Indian Diaspora. It varies to such an extent that it is defined in three subsets of our Diaspora:

♤ the Old Diaspora,

♤ the New Diaspora, and The first wave of the Indian Diaspora is what we call the “Old Diaspora.” It began during the early 19th century and continued until the end of the British Raj.1.3.1.3. Labour in South East Asia 1.3.2. The New Diaspora The New Diaspora, consists of migrants who left India in large numbers from the mid-1960s onwards – primarily to developed countries like the UK, US, Canada, Australia, and Western Europe.1.3.2.1. After Independence ♤ terminated the racist 1924 Johnson-Reed Act,Indian citizens are far and away the top recipients of H-1B visas each year. As a result the Indian diaspora in the US is highly-skilled. The US Census Bureau estimates that 75% percent of all ethnic Indians working in the US hold at least a bachelor’s degree, and 69% percent work in management and professional occupations.