.jpg) Indian women inGrey Lynn, Auckland, in 1962 | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 292,092 142,920 (born in India) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Auckland | 154,824 |
| Wellington | 22,227 |
| Waikato | 17,295 |
| Canterbury | 14,763 |
| Bay of Plenty | 10,335 |
| Manawatū-Whanganui region | 4,374 |
| Languages | |
| English (Indian English •New Zealand English) •Hindi (Fijian Hindi) •Gujarati •Malayalam •Odia •Bengali •Punjabi •Marathi •Tamil •Telugu •Kannada | |
| Religion | |
| Majority:Hinduism (Hinduism in New Zealand) •Sikhism •Jainism •Buddhism Minority:Christianity •Islam •Zoroastrianism | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
Indian New Zealanders, informally known as Kiwi Indians, are people ofIndian origin or descent who live inNew Zealand. The term includes Indians born in New Zealand, as well as immigrants fromIndia,Fiji, other regions of Asia, parts of Africa such asSouth Africa andEast Africa, and from other parts of the world. The term Indian New Zealander applies to any New Zealander 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 seen as insensitive to those with mixed parentage, who tend to value both their Indian and non-Indian parents and grandparents.[citation needed]
Indian New Zealanders are the largest group ofNew Zealand Asians.[2] The largest number of Indians living in New Zealand are from Fiji. The fifth largest language in New Zealand is Hindi, shown in the 2018 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 ofPunjabi orGujarati descent.[4][5]
Indians had been employed for a long time on the European ships trading inColonial India and theEast Indies. Many of the early voyages to the Pacific either started or terminated in India and many of these ships were wrecked in the uncharted waters of theSouth Pacific.[6] Indians began to arrive in New Zealand in the late eighteenth century, mostly as crews onBritish ships. The earliest known Indians to set foot in New Zealand were Muslim lascars who arrived in Dec 1769 on theFrench East India Company's shipSaint Jean Baptiste captained by Frenchman Jean François Marie de Surville sailing from Pondicherry a union territory town bounded by the southeastern Tamil Nadu state, India.[7] Their arrival marks the beginning of Indian presence in New Zealand, in which hundreds of unnamed Indian lascars visited New Zealand on European ships in order to procure timber and seal skins.
After establishment offirst European colony in Sydney in Australia in 1788 by the colonialBritish Indian Empire under the British East India Company, the company had exclusive right on control of all trade to and from the penal colony.[8][9] These colonies multiplied and expanded to include whole Australia, various Islands in Oceania, initially colonies were established under the British Indian Empire including New Zealand which was administered as part of New South Wales until 1841.
The period of Indian settlement begins with the earliest known Indian resident of New Zealand, a lascar of Bengali descent from the visiting shipCity of Edinburgh who jumped ship in 1809 in theBay of Islands to live with aMāori wife.[7] Another took up residence onStewart Island around the same time.[10]
Possibly the earliest non-Māori settlers of theOtago region ofSouth Island were three Indianlascars who deserted ship to live among the Māori in 1813.[11] There, they assisted theNgāi 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.[11] They integrated into Māori culture completely, receivingtā moko and taking on Māori names. An Indian whaler, Edward (Black) Peter, has foundgold in the Otago region in 1858, but was not credited or rewarded for it until 1885.[12]
There were a number of Indian soldiers who served New Zealand, 17 are recorded to have served in WWI and WWII.[13] The most well documented of these soldiers beingJagt Singh who served in Gallipoli during WWI.
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 fromPunjab andGujarat. They were generally looked after by the Māori community, and tended to have unions with Māori women.[14]
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.[15] In the beginning of the 20the century, Indians were classified as "race aliens", which legally barred from any public service occupation such as police or the army, and also were not receiving anypensions.[16] Early Indian migrants consciously chose jobs in remote areas that did not interestPākehā: cutting grass, processing flax and digging drains.[17] The shared experience of discrimination facilitated solidarity between members of differentcastes.[18] On the other hand, The Shop and Office Act of 1921 allowed all British subjects to own shops and businesses, so many Indians struggling to find other employment became business owners, especially indairies.[19]
Racial tensions between local Indians and Pākehā lasted for decades inPukekohe. 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.[20] At this time, a large number of Punjabi Sikhs, who often had farming experience, settled in theWaikato 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 ofFijian Indians andIndian-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.[21]
In 1885,Edward Tregear published the controversial bookThe Aryan Maori (1885), in which he placed the Māori language in the ranks of the Indo-European language family. He further claimed, that Māori were descended from Hindu Brahmins who spread south from India.[22]
TheTamil bell may indicate contact between Māori and South India going back to the 14th or 15th century.[23] A 1954 report by V Lakshmi Pathy, published in the Journal of Polynesian Studies, hinted at similarities between the South IndianKannada language and various Polynesian languages including Māori.[24]
According to the2018 New Zealand census, there were 239,193 ethnic Indians in New Zealand making up 4.7% of New Zealand's population.[25] This is an increase of 84,015 people (54.1%) since the2013 census, and an increase of 134,610 people (128.7%) since the2006 census. Some of the increase between the 2013 and 2018 census was due toStatistics New Zealand adding ethnicity data from other sources (previous censuses, administrative data, and imputation) to the 2018 census data to reduce the number of non-responses.[26][27]
There were 129,123 males and 110,070 females, giving a sex ratio of 1.173 males per female. The median age was 30.0 years, compared with 37.4 years for all New Zealanders; 47,505 people (19.8%) were aged under 15 years, 71,796 (30.0%) were 15 to 29, 106,665 (44.6%) were 30 to 64, and 13,230 (5.5%) were 65 or older.[28][25]
In terms of population distribution, 64.7% of Indian New Zealanders lived in the Auckland region, 26.3% lived in the North Island outside the Auckland region, and 9.0% lived in the South Island. TheŌtara-Papatoetoe local board area of Auckland had the highest concentration of Indian people at 26.2%, withPapatoetoe in Auckland considered to be New Zealand's little India.[29] The next highest concentrations are in thePuketāpapa local board area (22.9%) and theWhau local board area (18.2%).Hamilton City has the highest concentration of Indian peoples outside of Auckland at 7.3%. TheChatham Islands andGreat Barrier Island had the lowest concentrations, recording no Indian people in their respective areas.[30]
The proportion of Indian New Zealanders born overseas was 76.2%, compared with 27.1% for all ethnicities. Nearly two-thirds (65.7%) of those born in New Zealand were aged under 15.[25]
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).[31]
According to the2018 New Zealand census, 46.6% of Indian New Zealanders identified asHindus, 21.4% asSikhs, 15.1% asChristians (where 6.4% asCatholic, 1.3% as Pentecostalism, 0.5% as Anglican and 6.9% as other Christian), 8.7% asMuslims, while 8.1% identified themselves as having no religion.[33]
Te Papa's third community exhibition to be held in the Community Gallery was about the Indian communities in New Zealand, called AAINAA - Reflections through Indian Weddings. It ran 21 Sep 2002 – 26 Sep 2004.[42]
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