Indian New Zealanders

Indian New Zealanders

Indian women in Grey Lynn, Auckland, in 1962
Total population
292,092 142,920 (born in India) 5.8% of the population of New Zealand (2023)[1]
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
New Zealand English • Hindi • Fijian Hindi • Gujarati • Malayalam • Odia • Bengali • Punjabi • Marathi • Tamil • Telugu • Kannada
Religion
Majority: Hinduism Minority: Sikhism • Christianity • Islam • Zoroastrianism • Jainism • Buddhism
Related ethnic groups
Indian Australians • Maori Indians • Indo-Fijians • Fijian New Zealanders • Non-Resident Indians (NRIs)

Indian New Zealanders or informally known as Kiwi Indians are people of Indian origin or descent who live in New Zealand. The term includes Indians born in New Zealand, as well as immigrants from India, Fiji, other regions of Asia, parts of Africa such as South Africa and East 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.

Indian New Zealanders are the largest group of New 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 of Punjabi or Gujarati descent.^[4][5]

Indians had been employed for a long time on the European ships trading in Colonial India and the East 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 the South Pacific.^[6] 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 New Zealand were Muslim lascars who arrived in Dec 1769 on the French East India Company's ship Saint 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 of first European colony in Sydney in Australia in 1788 by the colonial British 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 ship City of Edinburgh who jumped ship in 1809 in the Bay of Islands to live with a Māori wife.^[7] Another took up residence on Stewart Island around the same time.^[10]

Possibly the earliest non-Māori settlers of the Otago region of South Island were three Indian lascars who deserted ship to live among the Māori in 1813.^[11] 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.^[11] They integrated into Māori culture completely, participating in Tā moko and taking on Māori names.

There were a number of Indian soldiers who served New Zealand, 17 are recorded to have served in WWI and WWII.^[12] The most well documented of these soldiers being Jagt 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 from Punjab and Gujarat. They were generally looked after by the Māori community, and tended to have unions with Māori women.^[13]

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.^[14] 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.^[15] 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.^[16]

In 1885, Edward Tregear published the controversial book The 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.^[17]

The Tamil bell may indicate contact between Māori and South India going back to the 14th or 15th century.^[18] A 1954 report by V Lakshmi Pathy, published in the Journal of Polynesian Studies, hinted at similarities between the South Indian Kannada language and various Polynesian languages including Māori.^[19]

According to the 2018 New Zealand census, there were 239,193 ethnic Indians in New Zealand making up 4.7% of New Zealand's population.^[20] This is an increase of 84,015 people (54.1%) since the 2013 census, and an increase of 134,610 people (128.7%) since the 2006 census. Some of the increase between the 2013 and 2018 census was due to Statistics 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.^[21][22]

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.^[23][20]

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. The Ōtara-Papatoetoe local board area of Auckland had the highest concentration of Indian people at 26.2%, with Papatoetoe in Auckland considered to be New Zealand's little India.^[24] The next highest concentrations are in the Puketāpapa local board area (22.9%) and the Whau local board area (18.2%). Hamilton City has the highest concentration of Indian peoples outside of Auckland at 7.3%. The Chatham Islands and Great Barrier Island had the lowest concentrations, recording no Indian people in their respective areas.^[25]

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.^[20]

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).^[26]

According to the 2018 New Zealand census, 46.6% of Indian New Zealanders identified as Hindus, 21.4% as Sikhs, 15.1% as Christians ( where 6.4% as Catholic, 1.3% as Pentecostalism, 0.5% as Anglican and 6.9% as other christian), 8.7% as Muslims, while 8.1% identified themselves as having no religion.^[28]

• Professor Mohan Dutta, academic, media expert and activist, Director of CARE at Massey University

• Sir Owen Glenn, businessman and philanthropist

• Aaradhna Patel, R&B artist
• Shailesh Prajapati, New Zealand actor, best known for his role as Ernie in Power Rangers MegaForce
• Shirley Setia, New Zealand 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

• Rohit Kumar Happy,^[29] editor of Bharat-Darshan, Hindi literary magazine
• Rebecca Singh, news presenter on the New Zealand television station TV3

• Gaurav Sharma, Member of Parliament (2020–2022)
• Priyanca Radhakrishnan, Member of Parliament since 2017 served as the 10th Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector, 15th Minister for Youth and Minister for Diversity, Inclusion and Ethnic Communities in the Sixth Labour Government
• Kanwal Bakshi, Member of Parliament (2008–2020)
• Parmjeet Parmar, Member of Parliament (2014–2020) (2023–Present)
• Mahesh Bindra, Member of Parliament (2014–2017)
• Rajen Prasad, former Race Relations Commissioner and Families Commissioner, and Member of Parliament (2008–2014)
• Anand Satyanand, former Governor-General of New Zealand, appointed on 23 August 2006
• Ajit Swaran Singh, District Judge
• Dame Sukhi Turner, Mayor of Dunedin (1995–2004)

• 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
• Ajaz Patel, current spin bowler for the New Zealand cricket team
• Jakob Bhula, New Zealand domestic cricketer
• Roneel Hira, New Zealand domestic cricketer
• Tarun Nethula, New Zealand domestic cricketer
• Rachin Ravindra, New Zealand cricketer

APNA Television^[30]

• The Indian news^[31]
• Indian Weekender^[32]
• Indianz x-press^[33]
• Indian Newslink^[34]
• Multicultural Times^[35]
• Kuk Hindi samachar^[36]

• Māori Indians
• Punjabi New Zealanders
• Indian diaspora
• Indianisation
• Greater India
• India–New Zealand relations

• Te Ara, the encyclopedia of New Zealand
• Indians in New Zealand
• Indian population growth in New Zealand
• New Zealand Indian Central Association
• Indian Weekender Newspaper for Kiwi Indians
• List of Indian groups, organizations and associations in New Zealand
• The Indian Diaspora in New Zealand, a bibliography of known published Academic sources
• NRI Online, news snippets and articles related to New Zealand NRIs
• Bharat-Darshan (भारत-दर्शन): world's first Hindi publication on the net. Indian philosophy and Hindi literary magazine.