Episode 27 India and Indians in the World

A History of India

Michael Fisher (2016)

Film Review

The first out-migration from India occurred around 60,000-70,000 BC when early human traveled from Africa via India to South East Asia and Australia.

Beginning in 3300 BC, members of the Indus Valley civilization used the seasonal monsoon winds to travel west to East Africa, Arabia and Iran and east to China and South East Asia. Many Indian merchants eventually settled along the east African coast, while ancient Africans settled along the east coat of India.

During the first millennium BC, India dispatched Hindu and Buddhist missionaries via Sri Lanka to much of Southeast Asia. Following Alexander the Great’s retreat from the Indus Valley in 325 BC, a number of Indus Valley natives returned to Greece with him.

Centuries later Mughal traders would spread Islam as far east as the Philippines, ultimately making Indonesia the largest Muslim country in the world.

The Roma, aka Gypsies or Travellers, migrated out of northwest India into Central Asia in the 5th century AD. This has been document both by DNA studies and linguistic analysis revealing their language is derived from Punjabi. Initially settling in Iran, Armenia and North Africa, some eventually migrated westward to the Atlantic coast (most likely due to persecution). At present there are 11 million Roman in Europe, mostly in Romania and Bulgaria.

Following colonization by the British East India Company, many emigres hitched a ride with the cotton export vessels to become seamen, dockworkers, street entertainers and merchants. Before the discovery that citrus fruit prevented scurvy, many English sailors died on the India-bound voyage. The Company paid phenomenal wages to native Indians to replace them (as “lascars) on the return voyage. When steam replaced sail power, native Indians signed on as stokers or servants.

There was also a small trade in Indian slaves until the early 19th century, when the British parliament outlawed slavery. Subsequently many planters recruited Indian laborers as indentured servants for sugar plantations in Sri Lanka, south and east Africa, British Guyana, Southeast Asia, Fiji and the Caribbean. Two-thirds of those recruited to the Caribbean remained. In modern day British Guyana and Fiji, the majority of the population is descended from Indian immigrants.

The Indians who immigrated to Britain in the 19th century experienced much less racial discrimination. In fact, several were elected to Parliament.

India’s first prime minister Jawaharial Nehru graduated from Cambridge in 1910.

Film can be viewed free with a library card on Kanopy.

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/366254/366225