The Indian Diaspora in East Asia and Southeast Asia

 

Associate Professor Kalyani K. Mehta
Department of Social Work
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
National University of Singapore

 

The subject of the Indian Diaspora has become a popular focus for many research studies and publications. A quick visit to a library’s catalogue or internet search reveals the variety of complexities that characterise communities in the Indian diaspora. According to some literature, the Indian diaspora may be traced to India, Pakistan, Bangladesh or even Sri Lanka as these countries are often classified as the “South Asian” nations.

 

The countries that will be included in this brief sketch are Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan. These are referred to as the East Asian and Southeast Asian nations. Some of them have been British colonies in the past such as Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong. Hence, the route by which migration from the Indian continent occurred was a function of their status as being part of the British colonial empire.

 

There are some variations in the Indian diasporic communities in East Asia and Southeast Asia, and these will be addressed first. The size of the Indian diaspora varies from a few thousand Indians (who may have retained their cultural identity but changed their citizenship) to as much as a few million such as in Malaysia. Therefore, the impact on the nation in which they live is influenced by the size. The heterogeneity within the diasporic communities is also not similar in many cases. In Indochina (Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia), until recent decades, the Indians consisted mainly of Sindhi and Gujarati merchants. Since the 1990s, there has been a small stream of professional Indians from different parts of India, who are referred to as ‘expatriates’ and they are concentrated in the urban areas. In Singapore and Malaysia, the heterogeneity is one of the distinguishing features of the Indian community.

 

The exercise of tracing the waves of migration leads one to reflect on the process for example, was it mainly voluntary or involuntary? When one traces the inflow of Indians in Indonesia and Thailand, it is clear that the process was propelled by religious devotees known in Thailand as “Brahmanas” spreading Hinduism and later Buddhist monks who were missionaries of the faith. In Indonesia, the Muslim Gujarati merchants brought Islam to the people. Indonesia has had very interesting of waves of religious influence from Hinduism to Buddhism and then Islam from India.

 

Contrasted to the religious streams of migration, under the British rule, indentured labour or convicts from South India were brought to then-Malaya and Singapore by the British administrators to serve their term. This explains the large numbers of South Indians in Malaysia and Singapore. Other waves of immigrants from the coastlands of India were the traders, Gujarati traders in particular, who sailed out to sea in search of better economic opportunities. The ‘push’ factors were natural calamities in their homeland, for example, plague, and exploitation by landlords. These traders have made major economic contributions to the many countries they settled in, and those who joined the government, have risen to very high political posts for example, Singapore’s Mr S. Rajaratnam who was Second Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore and later a Senior Minister.

Initially, the Indian diaspora consisted of mostly males, but as the communities settled, females in the forms of mothers, wives and daughter-in-laws joined them. However, many Indian families returned to India during the Second World War and the Japanese occupation. Some of them returned post-war and rebuilt their lives. From the 1950s, many of these Indian communities began to establish organisations to provide social networks or to sustain the cultural heritage. As the second generation grew up, most gained higher levels of education, became professionals and/or joined politics. Some became businessmen and contributed significantly in the private sector.

 

What are the key issues faced by the Indian diaspora in this part of the world?

In countries such as Hong Kong, China, Taiwan and Japan, where there is an overwhelming Chinese majority and the numbers of Indians are small, assimilation is not taking place. The way the overseas Indians manage their identity is to practice their Indian way of life in the private sphere of their homes, and in the public sphere, they mingle with the majority and aim for economic gain.

 

There are issues related to continuing their cultural heritage and mother tongue. Senior members of the diaspora are concerned about the dilution of their cultural traditions over time, with successive generations distancing themselves from the ethnic norms. Language maintenance is a challenge especially when the youth are surrounded by other languages being spoken, for example, Bahasa Indonesia in Indonesia.

 

According to some scholars, racial discrimination is a barrier to the progress of the Indian diaspora, for example, in Malaysia. Developments in 2008 have revealed the economic and political discontentment experienced by some sectors of the Indian community in Western Malaysia.

 

In conclusion, the Indian diaspora has in general made significant contributions to the economic and spiritual aspects of countries in the region. Intermarriages are likely to increase in future and concerns about identity and cultural heritage will persist.