Indians ( Eng. Indians , Chinese. 香港 印度人 ) - one of the oldest population groups in Hong Kong , which appeared in the colony with the beginning of British rule [1] . Many generations of Indians were born in Hong Kong and consider it their home. According to the 2011 census, 28.6 thousand Indians officially lived in Hong Kong [2] . In conversation, all South Asians , despite their geographical, linguistic, or religious affiliations, are often referred to as “Indians” (including Pakistanis , Nepalese , Sri Lankans, and Bangladeshis), since almost all of Hong Kong’s South Asian communities came from British India .
Prominent Hong Kongs of Indian descent were Hormusji Naroji Modi , Jehangir Hormusji Ruttonji , Hari Harilela (founder of the hotel and trading company Harilela Group) [3] , Harnam Singh Greval (since 1984 Commissioner for Customs and Excise Duties, since 1986, Secretary of Transport, in 1987-1990 Secretary of Civil Services of the Government of Hong Kong).
History
Indians appeared in Hong Kong from the first days of British rule. Sikh soldiers were present at the ceremony of raising the British flag when Charles Elliot declared Hong Kong a British possession. Already at the beginning of 1841 about 2.7 thousand Indian soldiers from the British garrison were based here. Soon, the Indians also made up a significant share in the Hong Kong police [4] [5] [6] .
In addition to civil servants, Indian businessmen began to settle in Hong Kong, many of which specialized in the supply of opium from British India to southern China [7] . In 1865, Parsi merchants supported the establishment of The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation . In 1888, the merchant-pars of Dorabji Narodzhi Mithaiwala founded the Kowloon Ferry Company ferry company, which transported passengers and cargo between Kowloon and Hong Kong Island (in 1898 the company was renamed to Star Ferry and still operates). In 1911, with the participation of Hormusji Naroji Modi , the University of Hong Kong was founded [8] [9] .
In 1931, about 3.5 thousand Indians lived in Hong Kong, about 1.8 thousand of them worked in the administration of the colony [5] . In 1952, traders in the Indian community established the Indian Chamber of Commerce Hong Kong. In the 1960s, a wave of Marwar merchants fled from Burma settled in Hong Kong [10] . By 1985, out of 14,000 Hong Kong Indians, about 6,000 had passports of British Overseas Territories citizen citizens [11] . In the late 1980s, four hundred Indian trading firms controlled about 10% of Hong Kong's exports [12] . On the eve of the transfer of Hong Kong to the PRC (1997), almost all Hong Kong Indians received British or Indian passports, and only a few agreed to Chinese citizenship.
Current situation
As of 2011, the largest Indian communities lived in Yauchimwon County (5.3 thousand), Central and Western County (3.8 thousand) and Kowloon City County (3.3 thousand).
Hong Kong Indians have the citizenship of India, Great Britain or China (according to the Committee on the Indian Diaspora, in 2000, 22 thousand Hong Kong Indians had Indian passports, and 28.5 thousand people of Indian descent had passports of other countries) [13] .
Among the Hong Kongers of Indian descent there is a significant stratum of businessmen and financiers, many working in the field of tourism, hospitality, medicine, insurance, telecommunications and information technology, as managers in the offices of multinational companies and banks. In 2005, there were about 1.3 thousand domestic workers from Hong Kong in Hong Kong [14] [15] . Among the Indians, there are rich communities of Muslim Tamils who own jewelry stores and workshops, and Gujarati dealers in diamonds and diamonds. The Sindh community is very influential in the field of export-import operations [16] . Also, the Indians own many restaurants, cafes, bars, hotels, shops and tailor workshops [17] .
Indian clothing and fabric stores are concentrated on Nathan Road and Modi Road in the Chimsachey district. In Hong Kong, there are many Indian and Ayurvedic yoga studios.
The main Indian organizations of Hong Kong are the Council of Indian Associations of Hong Kong, the Indian Chamber of Commerce, the Indian Association, the Indian Club, the Association of Hindus, the Hong Kong Club of Indian Women and the sports club Nav Bharat [18] .
Ethnic Religion
First wave Indians who arrived in Hong Kong in the middle of the 19th century came mainly from Bombay and Gujarat . Many Indians arrived in Hong Kong as soldiers of the British army, and after demobilization they went to work in the police, prisons or private security guards [1] [19] . Among the merchants of Indian origin, there were significant groups of Parsis , Marvars, and Tamils . Before World War II, nearly 60% of Hong Kong police were Sikhs [20] . After India gained independence in 1947, some Indians left Hong Kong (including many police Punjabi of the Sikh and Muslim faith, as well as Pashtuns ) [14] .
Due to their different origins, several regional languages are common among Indians - Sindhi , Gujarati , Marvari , Punjabi , Bengali , Tamil , Malayalam and Marathi . Most Indians speak one of their native languages (58%) and English (37%), some in Cantonese (4.6%) [21] . Among the Indians there are significant groups of Hindus, Muslims (including Ismailis) [22] , Christians and Sikhs, as well as small groups of Jains (about 500 people), Zoroastrians (about 200) and Buddhists. Jains come from Gujarat and Rajasthan , their community grew rapidly in the 1980s. The Jains dominate the diamond trading sector; in 1996, they opened their Sri Hong Kong Jain Sangh Temple in the Chimsachey district.
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 Melvin Ember, Carol R. Ember, Ian Skoggard. Encyclopedia of Diasporas: Immigrant and Refugee Cultures Around the World. - Springer Science & Business Media, 2004. - S. 510. - ISBN 9780306483219 .
- ↑ 2011 Population Census - Fact Sheet for The Whole Territory of Hong Kong . Population Census Office, Census and Statistics Department.
- ↑ Pacific Indians: Profiles in 20 Pacific Countries. - Suva, Fiji: University of the South Pacific, 1981.- S. 151.
- ↑ Kwok & Narain, 2003 , p. 18.
- ↑ 1 2 Joseph YS Cheng. The Other Hong Kong Report. - Chinese University Press, 1990 .-- S. 148. - ISBN 9789622014947 .
- ↑ John M. Carroll. A Concise History of Hong Kong. - Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2007 .-- S. 45-46. - ISBN 9780742574694 .
- ↑ John Nguyet Erni, Lisa Yuk-ming Leung. Understanding South Asian Minorities in Hong Kong. - Hong Kong University Press, 2014 .-- S. 18. - ISBN 9789888208340 .
- ↑ Kwok & Narain, 2003 , p. 22, 32.
- ↑ Melvin Ember, Carol R. Ember, Ian Skoggard. Encyclopedia of Diasporas: Immigrant and Refugee Cultures Around the World. - Springer Science & Business Media, 2004. - S. 511. - ISBN 9780306483219 .
- ↑ Joseph YS Cheng. The Other Hong Kong Report. - Chinese University Press, 1990 .-- S. 149. - ISBN 9789622014947 .
- ↑ Official Report of Proceedings . Hong Kong Legislative Council (1985).
- ↑ Martha C. Pennington. Language in Hong Kong at Century's End. - Hong Kong University Press, 1998 .-- S. 346. - ISBN 9789622094185 .
- ↑ Report of the High Level Committee on the Indian Diaspora (inaccessible link) (2000). Date of treatment February 6, 2017. Archived March 3, 2016.
- ↑ 1 2 Kwok & Narain, 2003 , p. 60.
- ↑ Kesavapany, Mani, Ramasamy, 2008 , p. 213-214.
- ↑ Kesavapany, Mani, Ramasamy, 2008 , p. 212.
- ↑ Kesavapany, Mani, Ramasamy, 2008 , p. 218.
- ↑ White, 1994 , p. 6.
- ↑ Jayati Bhattacharya, Coonoor Kripalani. Indian and Chinese Immigrant Communities: Comparative Perspectives. - Anthem Press, 2015 .-- S. 190. - ISBN 9781783083626 .
- ↑ Kwok & Narain, 2003 , p. thirty.
- ↑ 2011 Census Thematic Report: Ethnic Minorities . Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department.
- ↑ Paul O'Connor. Islam in Hong Kong: Muslims and Everyday Life in China's World City. - Hong Kong University Press, 2012 .-- S. 24. - ISBN 9789888139576 .
Literature
- Brooke S.I.Population of the world. Ethno-demographic reference. - Moscow: Science, 1981.
- Ivanov P.M. Hong Kong. History and modernity. - Moscow: “Science”, Main Edition of Oriental Literature, 1990. - ISBN 5-02-016958-7 .
- K. Kesavapany, A. Mani, P. Ramasamy. Rising India and Indian Communities in East Asia. - Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2008 .-- ISBN 9789812307996 .
- ST Kwok, K. Narain. Co-prosperity in Cross-culturalism: Indians in Hong Kong. - Beijing, China: Commercial Press, 2003. - ISBN 9789620763250 .
- Barbara-Sue White. Turbans and Traders: Hong Kong's Indian Communities. - Oxford University Press, 1994. - ISBN 9780195852875 .
- KN Vaid. The Overseas Indian Community in Hong Kong. - Center of Asian Studies, University of Hong Kong, 1972.