 | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 54,947 (Arabic speaking)[1] large number of Indians with partial or full Arab ancestry[2][3][4][5] | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Kerala,Andhra Pradesh,West Bengal,Bihar,Telangana,Punjab,Gujarat,Madhya Pradesh,Sindh,Haryana,Maharashtra,Karnataka,Delhi,Rajasthan,Tamil Nadu | |
| Languages | |
| Currently spoken: Various Indian languages andEnglish Traditional: Arabic | |
| Religion | |
| Islam,Christianity |
Arabs in India are people withArab origins who have over a long period of time, settled in theIndian subcontinent. There have been extensive trade and cultural links between India and the Arab world spanning several millennia.[6][7] The west coast region of India, especiallyMalabar, Gujarat and Konkan coasts were active trading hubs, where Arab merchants frequently used to visit on their way to Sri Lanka andSoutheast Asia.[8] Over a span of several centuries, migrants from different Arabian nations immigrated to various regions and kingdoms of the Indian subcontinent as merchants, missionaries and through intermarriages.
The earliest immigrants from the Arab world arrived as merchants to theMalabar coastal region of South West India, today consisting of the state of Kerala.[9] Many of these Arab merchants married local women. Concentrations of these mixed-race descendants of Arab merchants can be found especially in theKozhikode andMalappuram districts ofKerala. There also have been historic and close links between the Orthodox churches of South-West India and the Christian Arab orthodox churches in the middle east for several centuries, especially among the Orthodox Christians in India and Syria, which they maintain until this day and many of the Christians from these communities have claimed their ancestors are Arabs and the DNA results support this claim withHaplogroup G-M201 andHaplogroup J-M304 being prominent.[10]
Descendants of Arabs also live in the villages ofVariav andRander inGujarat. InHyderabad,Chaush are an Arab community ofHadhrami descent whose ancestors were recruited as soldiers byNizam of Hyderabad.[11] SomeKonkani Muslims trace their ancestry to traders fromHadhramaut (inYemen orSouth Arabia).[12] In coastalKarnataka, a group ofPersian speaking Sunni Muslims fromIraq havingAssadi surname arrived inMangalore during the reign ofTipu Sultan. They claim their ancestry fromBanu Assad. These population migrations may have been favoured by both theNizam of Hyderabad andTipu Sultan ofMysore because both had their ancestral linkages to these populations. InKerala,Syed Thangals of Hadhrami descent settled around the 17th century as missionaries to propagateIslam.
There are alsoShia Sayyids in the Northern region of the country who claim descent fromWasit,Iraq likeZaidis.
It is estimated that several groups in India haveMiddle Eastern ancestry, including arab ancestry. Certain Muslim groups, like the Dawood Bohra, and various populations in western India have at least some Middle Eastern ancestry. Genetic analyses show that West Asian lineages could be detected at varying degrees among Indians.[13][14] Although West Asian gene flow into the Subcontinent was not recent, as it occurred primarily during the Mesolithic period(Iranian hunter gatherer migration into the Indus Valley).
| Year | Pop. | ±% |
|---|---|---|
| 1971 | 23,318 | — |
| 1981 | 28,116 | +20.6% |
| 1991 | 21,975 | −21.8% |
| 2001 | 51,728 | +135.4% |
| 2011 | 54,947 | +6.2% |
| Source: Language Census of India (2011) | ||
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