Indians in Brazil
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 9,200 | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Languages | |
| Religion | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Indo-Caribbean |
There is a small community of Indians in Brazil who are mainly immigrants and expatriates from India. There are currently about 9,200 people of Indian origin living in the country and a majority of them live in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. There are also a number of people of Indian origin (mainly from the former Portuguese colony of Goa) who came to Brazil from both Britain's and Portugal's African colonies in the later half of the twentieth century. These are spread throughout Eastern Brazil and because few had Indian nationality and most have Portuguese names, they are indistinguishable from the general Brazilian population.
The earliest South Asians to arrive in Brazil were Asian seamen or Lascars, known as "Lascarim" in Portuguese. They arrived between the sixteenth and mid-seventeenth century, when the most important parts of the Portuguese Empire were their colonies in Asia. These included Diu, Daman, Bombay, Thana, Goa, Cochin and some smaller settlements in Hugli River.
Later as the settlement of coastal Brazil developed, many governors, Catholic clerics, and soldiers who had formally served in Asia arrived with their Asian wives, concubines, servants and slaves. later Luso-Indian servants and clerics connected with the religious orders, such as the Jesuits and Franciscans and spice cultivators arrived in Brazil.
In the eighteenth century there were Luso-Indians arriving in Brazil on ships of the English East India Company.
There are as many as 1,500 PIOs and only 400 NRIs besides the descendants and only since foreign nationals can acquire local citizenship without any discrimination after 15 years of domicile in this country. Brazil has also no bar against dual citizenship. But in recent years, it has been granting immigration visas only in high technology fields. The only exceptions are the Sindhis in Manaus and the immigrants and descendants in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.
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Wikipedia