Indians in the United Arab Emirates
| Total population | |
|---|---|
|
(4,000,000 40% of the UAE population (2013)) |
|
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Abu Dhabi • Dubai • Sharjah | |
| Languages | |
| Malayalam • Marathi • Telugu • Kannada • Hindi • Tamil • Urdu • Gujarati | |
| Religion | |
| Islam • Catholicism • Protestantism • Hinduism • Sikhism |
(4,000,000
Indians in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) constitute the largest part of population of the country. Over 2.2 million Indian migrants (mostly from the Kerala and other south Indian states) are estimated to be living in the UAE, who form over 30% of the total population of the UAE. A majority of Indians live in the three largest cities of the UAE — Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah. Indian contact with the emirates that now constitute the UAE dates back several centuries, as a result of trade and commerce between the emirates and India. More recently, the UAE has experienced a tremendous increase in the population of Indians who, having migrated to the country as a result of opportunities in petroleum, finance and other industries. While most Indian migrants support the financial, manufacturing, and transport industries, a sizeable minority of migrants are involved in professional services and entrepreneurship. Relations between India and the UAE have traditionally been friendly, though recent incidents relating to the treatment of the Indian migrant labour force by companies in the UAE have been the source of friction and outrage in India.
Countries in the Persian Gulf region have had a long-established economic and political link with India. Trucial Oman (now UAE), was nominally independent in the 19th century but was administered by the British Raj; trade and banking sectors in the territory were administered by the Khoja and Kutchi communities of India. In 1853, the rulers of the emirates signed a Perpetual Maritime Truce with the British, effectively bringing the region under Britain's sphere of influence. Administered from British India, the emirates developed commonalities with South Asia. Indian Rupees were used as currency, as were Indian stamps (overlaid with the name of the emirate) for postal correspondence. A fairly homogeneous society at the turn of the 20th century, the region that now comprises the UAE experienced an economic boom as a result of the pearling industry; the few Indian traders emigrating to the emirates moved to the coastal towns and remained on the fringes of Emirati society. Dubai had traditionally served as an entrepôt for trade between the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent and was dominated by Hindu merchants in both gold and textile trade. Dubai was also an important trading post for Indians prior to the discovery of oil (in commercial quantities) in the UAE in 1959; the emirate had been at the centre of a smuggling route of gold to India via small boats, where the importation of gold was illegal.
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