South Indian diaspora


The South Indian diaspora comprises people who have emigrated from South Indian states to other Indian states and other countries, and people of South Indian descent born or residing in other Indian states and other countries.

Tamil emigration

Early migrations (before 1800s)

Many Tamil emigrants who left the shores of Tamil Nadu before the 18th Century mixed with countless other ethnicities. In the medieval period, Tamilians emigrated as soldiers, traders and labourers settled in Malaysia, Singapore, Réunion, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Myanmar and intermixed well with local population, while few communities still maintain their language and culture. Many groups still claim descent from medieval-era Tamil emigrants such as the Kaikadis of Maharashtra, Chittys of Malaysia, and the Sri Lankan Chetties, Bharatha people.

European Colonial period (1684–1947)

During this period British, Dutch, French, Portuguese and Danish colony administrators recruited a lot of local Tamilians and took them to their overseas colonies to work as laborers, petty administration officers, clerical and military duties.
In the 19th century, Madras Presidency faced brutal famines. Great Famine of 1876–78. Tamil Nadu was both politically and economically weak. Britishers thus made use of hungry Tamil workers for their plantations all over the world – Malaysia, Singapore, Myanmar, Mauritius, South Africa, Fiji and also Sri Lanka. Some of the Tamil groups emigrated as commercial migrants. These groups then dominated the trade and finance in Myanmar, Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, South Africa and other places. The first Indian to own a merchant ship during the British times comes from this group.
These Tamilians well integrated, assimilated with their adopted countries, and became part and parcel of local populations in Réunion, Mauritius, South Africa, Guyana, and Fiji. Where as Indian Tamils and Tamil Malaysians of Malaysia were evolved into distinct communities of their own with multilingual and unique sub-culture identity.

Modern migration (1950–present)

In the second half of the 20th century, around 2 million Tamils from India migrated as skilled professionals to various parts of India and countries like UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, UK, USA, Germany, France, Singapore and so on. Some of them got citizenship of respective countries but still having strong family and cultural ties with Tamil Nadu, than those who migrated before 1950, who lost touch with their ancestral links in Tamil Nadu. In USA, more Tamilians were living and most of them are being an entrepreneurs and employees then some of them were politicians also.

Telugu emigration

The Telugu Boom refers to the migration of a large number of Telugu speaking people from the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana to the United States of America and Canada from late 80s largely consisting of the migration of students and Information Technology workers which continues to the present day.