The Hindu Diaspora
How Hinduism spread around the world: indentured labourers in the Caribbean, Fiji, Mauritius and South Africa, traders in East Africa, and modern migration to Britain, North America and the Gulf.
Millions of Hindus live outside South Asia, in communities spread across every continent. This global diaspora was created by several waves of migration over the past two centuries, from indentured labourers on colonial plantations to traders, students and professionals. Diaspora Hindus have built temples, kept festivals and languages alive, and adapted their traditions to new homes.
Indentured labour, 1834–1917
After slavery was abolished in the British Empire in 1834, plantation owners looked for new sources of labour. Over the following eight decades, more than a million Indians, most of them Hindus from what are now Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Tamil Nadu, signed contracts of indenture to work on sugar and other plantations in distant colonies. They were known as girmitiyas, from the English word “agreement”.
| Destination | Indenture began |
|---|---|
| Mauritius | 1834 |
| British Guiana (Guyana) | 1838 |
| Trinidad | 1845 |
| Natal (South Africa) | 1860 |
| Suriname (Dutch colony) | 1873 |
| Fiji | 1879 |
Conditions were harsh, and the system was ended in 1917 after campaigns in India. Most labourers stayed in their new countries. Cut off from India, they rebuilt Hindu life from memory, and the Ramcharitmanas of Tulsidas, the story of Rama's exile and return, became especially beloved among them. Today Hindus form a large part of the population of Mauritius, Fiji, Guyana, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago, where Holi is known as Phagwah and Diwali is a national holiday.
Traders and East Africa
Gujarati and Punjabi traders, craftsmen and clerks settled in East Africa, especially Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, during the colonial era. Many later moved to Britain, particularly after the expulsion of Asians from Uganda in 1972. See Hinduism in the United Kingdom.
Southeast Asia
Tamil Hindus settled in Malaya, Singapore and Myanmar under British rule, many as plantation workers. Hindus make up around 6% of the population of Malaysia and around 5% of Singapore, where festivals such as Thaipusam, in honour of Murugan, are major public events. In Indonesia, Bali preserves a distinctive Hindu tradition dating back over a thousand years.
Post-war migration
- Britain: large-scale migration from India and East Africa from the 1950s to the 1970s created a community of over a million Hindus.
- North America: the US Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 opened the way for Indian professionals, doctors, engineers and students. Today there are around 2–3 million Hindus in the United States and over 800,000 in Canada. Early traditional temples include the Hindu Temple Society of North America's Ganesha temple in Flushing, New York, and the Sri Venkateswara temple in Pittsburgh, both consecrated in the 1970s. In 2023 BAPS opened a vast Akshardham temple in Robbinsville, New Jersey.
- The Gulf: millions of Indian Hindus work in the Gulf states. In 2024 a large BAPS temple opened in Abu Dhabi.
- Australia and New Zealand have growing Hindu communities from India, Fiji and Sri Lanka.
Hindu life in the diaspora
Diaspora communities have adapted their religion in many ways. Temples often serve as community centres, hosting language classes, weddings and cultural events. Shrines to many deities may stand side by side under one roof, serving Hindus from different regions and traditions. Festivals are often moved to weekends. Young people raised abroad may learn about their religion through books, camps, the internet and organisations such as ISKCON and the Swaminarayan movement, and often reflect on what it means to be Hindu in a multi-faith society.
Sources and further reading
- Steven Vertovec, The Hindu Diaspora: Comparative Patterns (Routledge, 2000).
- Hugh Tinker, A New System of Slavery: The Export of Indian Labour Overseas, 1830–1920 (Oxford University Press, 1974).
- Prema Kurien, A Place at the Multicultural Table: The Development of an American Hinduism (Rutgers University Press, 2007).