By country · Africa
They came in 1860 to cut sugar in Natal and stayed to become 1.7 million — the community that shaped Gandhi, filled Durban, and helped bring apartheid down. The 165-year story of South Africa's Indians.
The first indentured Indians reached Natal in 1860. The community they built gave the world, among others, a young lawyer named Gandhi — and made Durban the largest Indian city outside India.
External Affairs Minister Jaishankar signed an archival cooperation agreement with Trinidad and Tobago to help members of the Indo-Caribbean diaspora trace their ancestral roots. The Government of India is creating a comprehensive global Girmitiya database.
The Government of India has extended Overseas Citizen of India eligibility to the sixth generation of Indian-origin diaspora in Trinidad and Tobago — recognising the descendants of indentured Girmitiya labourers who arrived in 1845. A historic outreach with implications for other long-tail diaspora communities.
