Indian New Zealanders

Indian New Zealanders are persons of Indian origin or descent, living in New Zealand. The term includes Indians born in New Zealand, as well as immigrants from India, Fiji, as well as other regions of Asia, parts of Africa such as South Africa as well as East Africa, and furthermore, from other parts of the world. The term Indian New Zealander applies to any New Zealanders with one or both parents of Indian heritage. Although sometimes the Indo-Kiwi definition has been expanded to people with mixed racial parentage with one Indian parent or grandparent, this can be controversial as it generally tends to remove the ethnic heritage or identity of the foreign parent or grandparent which may be termed as insensitive to those with mixed parentage, who tend to value both their Indian and non-Indian parents and grandparents.

Indian New Zealanders
Total population
221,916
4.7% of the population of New Zealand (2018)[1]
Regions with significant populations
Indian people by region
Auckland105,900
Wellington15,000
Waikato9,900
Bay of Plenty6,200
Canterbury6,100
Manawatū-Whanganui region2,900
Hawke's Bay2,100
Languages
New Zealand English • Hindi • Fijian Hindi • Gujarati • Odia • Punjabi • Marathi • Tamil • Telugu • Kannada • Malayalam
Religion
Majority: Hinduism • Sikhism
Minority: Christianity • islam • Zoroastrianism • Jainism • Buddhism
Related ethnic groups

Indian New Zealanders are the fastest growing Kiwi ethnic group, and the second largest group of New Zealand Asians.[2] The largest number of Indians living in New Zealand are from Fiji. The fourth largest language in New Zealand is Fiji Hindi, shown in the 2013 census. According to ENZ.org (a New Zealand Government affiliate), since 2011 18,000 Indians have migrated to New Zealand.[3] In 2011, the Indian population in New Zealand was 155,000, so there are 174,000 Indians in New Zealand (2014) due to the additional immigration of 18,000.[3] Most early New Zealand Indians were of Punjabi or Gujarati descent.[4][5]

History

Indians began to arrive in New Zealand in the late eighteenth century, mostly as crews on British ships. The earliest known Indians to set foot in Aotearoa New Zealand were Muslim lascars who arrived in Dec 1769 on the ship Saint Jean Baptiste captained by Frenchman Jean François Marie de Surville sailing from Pondicherry, India.[6] Their arrival marks the beginning of Indian presence in Aotearoa, in which hundreds of unnamed South Asian lascars visited Aotearoa on European ships in order to procure timber and seal skins.

The period of Indian settlement begins with the earliest known Indian resident of New Zealand, a lascar of Bengali descent from the visiting ship City of Edinburgh who jumped ship in 1809 in the Bay of Islands to live with a Māori wife.[6] Another took up residence on Stewart Island around the same time.[7]

Possibly the earliest non-Māori settlers of the Otago region of South Island were three Indian lascars who deserted ship to live among the Maori in 1813.[8] There, they assisted the Ngāi Tahu by passing on new skills and technologies, including how to attack colonial European vessels in the rain when their guns could not be fired.[8] They integrated into Māori culture completely, participating in Tā moko and taking on Māori names.

The late 1800s and early 1900s saw the first wave of migration of Indians arriving in the country. A number of them came directly to New Zealand but some came via Fiji and others via other British colonies such as Burma. A large number of these early migrants were Indian teenagers, mainly from Punjab and Gujarat. They were generally looked after by the Māori community, and tended to have unions with Māori women.[9]

Official policy in New Zealand to restrict non-European immigration resulted in difficulties for Indians to enter the country in the 1920s. Groups like The White New Zealand League, established in 1926, was opposed to both Chinese and Indian immigration because it was seen as a threat to the economic prosperity of European New Zealanders.[10] Racial tensions between local Indians and Pākehā/Europeans lasted for decades in Pukekohe. Until the late 1950s, Indians there were excluded from barbershops, hair salons, bars, and balcony seats in cinemas, and could not join the local growers' association.[11] At this time, a large number of Punjabi Sikhs, who often had farming experience, settled in the Waikato district and took up dairy farming.

Before the 1970s it remained difficult for Indians not related to the earlier immigrants to enter New Zealand. However, a small number of Fijian Indians and Indian-descent refugees from Uganda arrived in the country. By the 1980s, the official attitude towards Asian immigration relaxed and an increased number of Indians arrived in New Zealand.[12]

Demographics

Over two-thirds (68.5 percent) of Indian New Zealanders live in the Auckland Region, with 25.2 percent living elsewhere in the North Island and 6.3 percent in the South Island. 93.3 percent live in a main urban area (i.e. population 30,000 or more).[13]

According to the 2013 census, 26.6 percent of Indian New Zealanders were born in New Zealand, the majority of whom were aged under 15. Of those born overseas, 55.6 percent were born in India, 67.6 percent had been living in New Zealand for at least five years, and 12.9 percent had been living in New Zealand for at least 20 years.[13]

At the 2013 census, 72.0 percent of Indian New Zealanders aged 15 and over were in the labour force, of which 8.3 percent were unemployed. The large employment industries of Indians were retail trade (16.3 percent), health care and social assistance (11.7 percent), and accommodation and food services (9.7 percent).[13]

Notable individuals

Business

Entertainment
  • Aaradhna Patel, R&B artist
  • Shailesh Prajapati, New Zealand actor, best known for his role as Ernie in Power Rangers MegaForce
  • Shirley Setia, Indo-Kiwi singer and actress
  • Jacob Rajan, playwright and actor, whose most notable work is Krishnan's Dairy
  • Madeleine Sami, New Zealand actor of Irish and Fiji Indian heritage, best known for her role as Tania in Sione's Wedding

Media
  • Rohit Kumar Happy,[14] editor of Bharat-Darshan, Hindi literary magazine
  • Rebecca Singh, news presenter on the New Zealand television station TV3

Politics

Sport
  • Sarpreet Singh, football player currently playing as a midfielder for Bayern Munich II in Germany.
  • Rocky Khan, rugby union player
  • Dipak Narshibhai Patel, cricket player who has played 37 Tests and 75 one-day internationals for the New Zealand cricket team
  • Jeetan Patel, former spin bowler for the New Zealand cricket team
  • Ish Sodhi, current spin bowler for the New Zealand cricket team
  • Jeet Raval, current test batsman for the New Zealand cricket team
  • Jakob Bhula, New Zealand domestic cricketer
  • Roneel Hira, New Zealand domestic cricketer
  • Tarun Nethula, New Zealand domestic cricketer
  • Ajaz Patel, New Zealand domestic cricketer

See also

References
  1. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 23 September 2019. Retrieved 24 September 2019.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  2. "Indians in New Zealand form fastest growing ethnic group".
  3. "New Zealand Migrants – How Many and From Where?". www.enz.org.
  4. "Indians in New Zealand - Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa". Archived from the original on 10 April 2008.
  5. Nachowitz, Todd (2015). Towards a framework of deep diversity: Identity and invisibility in the Indian diaspora in New Zealand. Hamilton, New Zealand: University of Waikato.
  6. Nachowitz, Todd (2018). Bandyopadhyay, Sekhar; Buckingham, Jane (eds.). Identity and Invisibility: Early Indian Presence in Aotearoa New Zealand, 1769-1850. Indians and the Antipodes: Networks, Boundaries, and Circulation. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. pp. 34–40. ISBN 978-0-19-948362-4.
  7. Taonga, New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage Te Manatu. "2. – Indians – Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand". teara.govt.nz.
  8. Bandyopadhyay, Sekhar; Buckingham, Jane (2018). Indians and the Antipodes: Networks, Boundaries and Circulation. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199483624.
  9. Mayhew, W. R. (1977). Tuapeka: The Land and Its People. Clutha District, New Zealand: Capper Press.
  10. Jamnadas, Bharat. "Our Pioneers Did Not Have It So Easy". Retrieved 25 January 2020.
  11. Swarbrick, Nancy. "Indians - 1920s–1930s', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand". Te Ara. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
  12. Taonga, New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage Te Manatu. "4. – Indians – Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand". teara.govt.nz.
  13. "2013 Census ethnic group profiles: Indian". Statistics New Zealand. Retrieved 21 June 2016.
  14. Rohit Kumar Happy
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