Non-resident Indians, People of Indian Origin and Overseas Citizens of India

Pravaasi Bharatiya
Flag of India Emblem of India
Total population
c. 32 million[1]
United States	4,506,308[2]
Saudi Arabia	4,100,000[3][4]
United Arab Emirates	3,425,145[1]
Malaysia	2,987,950[1]
Myanmar	2,009,207[1]
United Kingdom	1,892,000[1]
Canada	1,858,755[5][a]
Sri Lanka	1,504,000[1]
South Africa	1,490,000[1]
Kuwait	1,029,861[1]
Mauritius	894,500[1]
Nigeria	800,000+[6]
Oman	781,141[1]
Qatar	746,550[1]
Australia	660,350[7]
Singapore	650,000[1]
Nepal	600,000[1]
Trinidad and Tobago	468,524[1]
Thailand	465,000[8]
Overseas France	364,520[1]
Bahrain	326,658[1]
Fiji	315,198[1]
Guyana	299,382[1]
Netherlands	240,000[1]
New Zealand	240,000[1]
Suriname	237,205[1]
Italy	203,052[1]
Germany	185,085[1]
Philippines	120,000[1]
Indonesia	120,000[1]
France	109,000[1]
Kenya	100,000[9]
Israel	97,467[10]
China	50,000[11]
Sweden	47,369[12]
Japan	40,752[13][14]
Ireland	40,000
Brazil	23,254[15]
Languages
Languages of India
Religion
Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism, Jainism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, Baháʼí, Judaism

Overseas Indians (IAST: Pravāsī Bhāratīya), officially Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) and People of Indian Origin (PIOs) are Indians who reside or originate outside of India.^[16][17] According to the Government of India, Non-Resident Indians are citizens of India who are not living in the country, while the term People of Indian Origin refers to people of Indian birth or ancestry who are not citizens of India, but are citizens of other nations and may additionally have Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI), with those having the OCI status known as Overseas Citizens of India (OCIs).^[18]

According to a Ministry of External Affairs report, there are 32 million NRIs and PIOs (inc. OCIs) residing outside India and overseas Indians comprise the world's largest overseas diaspora.^[1] Every year 2.5 million (25 lakhs) Indians migrate overseas, which is the highest annual number of migrants in the world.^[19]

Legal framework

Non-resident Indian (NRI)

Strictly asserting, the term says non-resident refers only to the tax status of a citizen who, as per section 6 of The Income-tax Act, 1961, has not resided in India for a specified period for the purposes of the Income Tax Act.^[20] The rates of income tax are different for persons who are "resident in India" and for NRIs. For the purposes of the Income Tax Act, "residence in India" requires stay in India of at least 182 days in a financial year or 365 days spread out over four consecutive years and at least 60 days in that year. According to the act, any Indian citizen who does not meet the criteria as a "resident of India" is a non-resident of India and is treated as NRI for paying income tax.

Person of Indian origin (PIO)

A person of Indian origin (PIO)^[21] was a form of identification means a foreign citizen (except a national of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, China, Iran, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and/or Nepal), who:

• at any time held an Indian passport (but not currently) or
• either of their parents/grandparents/great-grandparents were born and permanently resident in India as defined in Government of India Act, 1935 and other territories that became part of India thereafter provided neither was at any time a citizen of any of the aforesaid countries (as referred above) or
• is a spouse of a citizen of India or a PIO.

Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI)

After multiple efforts by leaders across the Indian political spectrum, a long term visa scheme was established, the "Overseas Citizenship of India", commonly referred to as the OCI card. The name is itself misleading, as it doesn't offer Indian citizenship. The Constitution of India does not permit full dual citizenship. The OCI card is effectively a long-term visa, with restrictions on voting rights and government jobs. The card is available to certain Overseas ex-Indians, and while it affords holders residency and other rights, it does have restrictions, and is not considered to be any type of Indian citizenship from a constitutional perspective.

Prime minister Narendra Modi announced on 28 September 2014 that PIO and OCI cards would be merged.^[22] On 9 January 2015, the Person of Indian Origin Card scheme was withdrawn by the Government of India and was merged with the Overseas Citizen of India card scheme. PIO cardholders must apply to convert their existing cards into OCI cards. The Bureau of Immigration stated that it would continue to accept the old PIO cards as valid travel documents until 31 December 2023.^{[citation needed]}

Comparison

Notes:

1. ^ People of Indian Origin (PIO) refers to people of Indian birth or ancestry who are not citizens of India, but are citizens of other nations. Those PIOs who have availed of the Overseas Citizenship of India status through OCI card are known as Overseas Citizen of India (OCI). The card issued to PIOs earlier known as PIO card has been merged into OCI card since 2014.

2. ^ Overseas Citizens of India can include both PIO OCIs and non-PIO OCIs. As additionally foreign nationals who marry Indian citizens can also avail of the OCI card and become OCI, thus Non-PIO OCIs are excluded here since they are not part of the Indian diaspora.

History of emigration from India

Spread of Indic religions

Arabian peninsula

Central Asia

Narimsimhan et al. (2018)^[24] have found that there was an "Indus periphery" population living in Central Asia during the Bronze Age. They had migrated from the Indus Valley Civilisation and had settled down in BMAC settlements to trade, this is corroborated by the discovery of Indus Valley seals in Central Asia.^[25]

The modern Indian merchant diaspora in Central Asia and Arabia emerged in the mid-16th century and remained active for over four centuries. Astrakhan at the mouth of the Volga was the first place in the Tsardom of Russia where an Indian merchant colony was established as early as the 1610s. Russian chroniclers reported the presence of Hindu traders in Moscow and St Petersburg in the 18th century.^[26]

Individuals of Indian origin have achieved a high demographic profile in metropolitan areas worldwide, including India Square (Little Bombay^[27]) in Jersey City, New Jersey, United States, home to the highest concentration of Asian Indians in the Western Hemisphere^[28] and one of at least 24 enclaves characterised as a Little India that have emerged within the New York City Metropolitan Area, with the largest metropolitan Indian population outside Asia, as large-scale immigration from India continues into New York.^{[29][30][31][32]}

Multani people from Multan, Shikarpur and Mawar of both Hindu and Muslim background acted as bankers and merchants in Safavid Persia. Hindu merchants in Hamadan were massacred by Ottomans as stated by an Armenian, with the Indian merchant community plummeting due to the Ottoman and Afghan wars in Iran (1722–27).^[33] In Kerman, traders of Hindu background had a caravanserai.^[34] Traders of Indian background were mentioned by Jean Chardin, Jean de Thévenot, Adam Olearius and F. A. Kotov in the Safavid dynasty in Persia where they lived along with Jews and Armenians. Traders from India of Sikh and Hindu background lived in the Qajar and Zand dynasties in Persia after a clampdown by Nader Shah and the Afghan Ghilzar wars in Iran.^[35]

Sarmarqandi and Bukharan traders bought Indian indigo from merchants of Hindu origin in Kandahar in 1783 according to George Forester. The tallest houses were owned by Hindus according to Elphinstone in 1815. Lumsden recorded 350 stores owned by Hindus in Kandahar. Finance, precious metals, and textiles were all dealt with by Sikhs and Hindus in Kandahar.^[36]

A Hindu worked for Timur Shah Durrani in Afghanistan. Peshawar Hindus were in Kabul by 1783. Money lending was the main occupation of Hindus in Kabul. Armenians and Hindus lived in Kabul according to an 1876 survey.^[37] Jews and Hindus lived in Herat in the 1800s.^[38] Sindhi Shikarpur Hindus, Jews, and Arabs lived in Balkh in 1886.^[39] Sindhi and Punjabi were the languages used by Indians in Afghanistan. Some Afghan cities including Kabul have places of worship for Hindus and Sikhs.^[40] Local citizenship has been obtained in Afghanistan by Hindu and Sikh traders.^[41]

Peshawari and Shikarpuri Indian traders were involved in Central Asia. The Shikarpuri invested in grain in the Bukharan Emirate as well as Ferghana cotton. They also engaged in legal money lending in Bukhara, which they could not legally do in Russian Turkestan.^[42] Jews, Hindus, Baluch, Persians, and Arabs lived in Samarkand, and Hindus and Baháʼís live in Baluchistan and Khorasan in Iran.^[43]

Han Chinese men, Hindu men, Armenian men, Jewish men and Russian men were married by Uyghur Muslim women who could not find husbands.^[44] Uyghur merchants would harass Hindu usurers by screaming at them asking them if they ate beef or hanging cow skins on their quarters. Uyghur men also rioted and attacked Hindus for marrying Uyghur women in 1907 in Poskam and Yarkand like Ditta Ram calling for their beheading and stoning Indians to death as they engaged in anti-Hindu violence.^[45] Hindu Indian usurers engaging in a religious procession led to violence against them by Muslim Uyghurs.^[46] In 1896 two Uyghur Turkis attacked a Hindu merchant and the British consul Macartney demanded the Uyghurs be punished by flogging.^[47]

The money lenders and merchants of Hindu background from British India in Xinjiang were guaranteed by the British Consul-General.^[48][49] Russian refugees, missionaries, and British-Indian merchants and money lenders of Hindu background were potential targets of gangs of Kashgaris so the Consulate-General of Britain was a potential shelter.^[50][51] The killings of two Hindus at the hands of Uighurs took place in the Shamba Bazaar^[52] in a most brutal fashion.^[53][54][55] The plundering of the valuables of slaughtered British Indian Hindus happened in Posgam on 25 March 1933, and on the previous day in Karghalik at the hands of Uighurs.^[56] Killings of Hindus took place in Khotan at the hands of the Bughra Amirs.^[57] Antagonism against both the British and Hindus ran high among the Muslim Turki Uyghur rebels in Xinjiang's southern area. Muslims plundered the possessions in Karghalik of Rai Sahib Dip Chand, who was the aksakal of Britain, and his fellow Hindus on 24 March 1933, and in Keryia they slaughtered British Indian Hindus.^[58] Sind's Shikarpur district was the origin of the Hindu diaspora there. The slaughter of the Hindus from British India was called the "Karghalik Outrage". The Muslims had killed nine of them.^[59] The forced removal of the Swedes was accompanied by the slaughter of the Hindus in Khotan by the Islamic Turkic rebels.^[60] The Emirs of Khotan slaughtered the Hindus as they forced the Swedes out and declared sharia in Khotan on 16 March 1933.^[61]

Southeast Asia

A major emigration from the Indian subcontinent was to Southeast Asia. There is a possibility that the first wave of Indian migration towards Southeast Asia occurred when Emperor Ashoka invaded Kalinga and following Samudragupta's expedition towards the South.^[62] This was followed by early interaction of Indian traders with South Asians and, after the mid-first millennium CE, by the emigration of members of the Brahmin social caste. This resulted in the establishment of the Indianised kingdoms in Southeast Asia. The Chola rulers, who were known for their naval power, conquered Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula.^{[citation needed]}

Another early diaspora, of which little is known was a reported Indian "Shendu" community that was recorded when Yunnan was annexed by the Han dynasty in the 1st century by the Chinese authorities.^[63]

Indian trader's family in Bagamoyo, German East Africa, around 1906/18

European Colonial rule (to 1947)