Indians in Mozambique
Encyclopedia
Indians in Mozambique form the sixth-largest Indian diaspora community in Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

, according to the statistics of India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

's Ministry of External Affairs
Ministry of External Affairs (India)
The Ministry of External Affairs is the foreign ministry of India. It is the Indian government agency responsible for the foreign relations of India. The Minister of External Affairs holds cabinet rank as a member of the Council of Ministers. The current minister is S M Krishna...

. Roughly 40,000 people of Indian descent reside in Mozambique
Mozambique
Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique , is a country in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west and Swaziland and South Africa to the southwest...

, as well as 870 Indian expatriate
Expatriate
An expatriate is a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country and culture other than that of the person's upbringing...

s.

Origins

India's links with Mozambique reach back over half a millennium. Indian Muslim
Islam in India
Islam is the second-most practiced religion in the Republic of India after Hinduism, with more than 13.4% of the country's population ....

 traders from south India
South India
South India is the area encompassing India's states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu as well as the union territories of Lakshadweep and Pondicherry, occupying 19.31% of India's area...

's Malabar region plied the trade routes of the Indian Ocean
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...

, bringing them up and down the eastern coast of Africa; Vasco da Gama
Vasco da Gama
Vasco da Gama, 1st Count of Vidigueira was a Portuguese explorer, one of the most successful in the Age of Discovery and the commander of the first ships to sail directly from Europe to India...

 also found Hindu traders in Mozambique when he paid the first Portuguese visit to ports there in 1499. By the 1800s, Vanika merchants from Diu had settled on the Island of Mozambique
Island of Mozambique
The Island of Mozambique lies off northern Mozambique, between the Mozambique Channel and Mossuril Bay. It has a population of around 14,000 people and is part of Nampula Province.-History:...

; in cooperation with Portuguese shippers, they were active in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Muslim traders from the state of Kutch
Kutch District
Kutch district is a district of Gujarat state in western India. Covering an area of 45,652 km², it is the largest district of India....

, closely allied with the Sultan of Oman
Sultan of Oman
-List of Imams :-Nabhan Dynasty :-Ya'ariba Dynasty :-Banu Ghafir Dynasty :-Ya'ariba Dynasty :-Al Said Dynasty :-See also:...

, began to expand their activities in East Africa in 1840, when the Sultanate relocated its seat of government to Zanzibar
Zanzibar
Zanzibar ,Persian: زنگبار, from suffix bār: "coast" and Zangi: "bruin" ; is a semi-autonomous part of Tanzania, in East Africa. It comprises the Zanzibar Archipelago in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of the mainland, and consists of numerous small islands and two large ones: Unguja , and Pemba...

; they also bought and sold slaves in Mozambique, but shifted towards ivory
Ivory
Ivory is a term for dentine, which constitutes the bulk of the teeth and tusks of animals, when used as a material for art or manufacturing. Ivory has been important since ancient times for making a range of items, from ivory carvings to false teeth, fans, dominoes, joint tubes, piano keys and...

 under pressure from the British. Cashew nuts were another popular trade item.

More Gujaratis began to flow into Mozambique from South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

 in the latter half of the 19th century, also as petty traders or employees of the large Indian trading firms. Hindus from Diu and Sunni Muslims from Daman
Daman District, India
Daman district is one of the two districts of the union territory of Daman and Diu on the western coast of India, surrounded by Valsad District of Gujarat state on the north, east and south and the Arabian Sea to the west. The district has an area of , and a population of 113,949 , which increased...

 also came as masons and construction workers. Migration of all Asians was officially halted in 1899 due to an outbreak of plague, blamed on Indians; even after the relaxation of the restriction in 1907, Asians who sought to migrate to the colony had to pay a disembarkation fee of 3,000 reals
Mozambican real
The real was the currency of Mozambique until 1914. It was equivalent to and circulated alongside the Portuguese real.-History:Coins specific for Mozambique were issued until 1853, whilst the first banknotes appeared in 1877...

at their port of arrival. Yet, with growing white hostility to the Indian presence in South Africa after 1911, more and more Gujaratis who had originally intended to settle in South Africa instead diverted north to Mozambique, especially in the area around Delagoa Bay.

Great Depression and World War II

Indian cashew nut traders continued to prosper even during the 1929–1934 Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

, as the price of cashew nuts remained stable. However, migration again came to a stop due to restrictions put into place by the Portuguese government, who not only barred further immigration, but also prevented the return of British subjects of India resident Mozambique who were outside of the country at the time the new migration regulations were announced. British protests had little effect. This produced a significant change in settlement patterns; whereas many Indian migrants had effectively been sojourners, leaving their families in India while they did business abroad, they instead brought their wives and children over to Mozambique, thus cutting a bit more of their ties to their country of origin.

Furthermore, the Portuguese put into place indigenisation quotas which required that two Portuguese citizens be employed for every one non-indigenous worker in a firm. Indians circumvented the regulations by firing their non-trusted workers and naming the remaining ones as partners, so that they would not count towards the total number of employees. Some of the large trading firms eventually gave in and hired white Portuguese employees, typically women to work as shop assistants, or brought in workers from the Portuguese enclaves in India
Portuguese India
The Portuguese Viceroyalty of India , later the Portuguese State of India , was the aggregate of Portugal's colonial holdings in India.The government started in 1505, six years after the discovery of a sea route to India by Vasco da Gama, with the nomination of the first Viceroy Francisco de...

, while others continued to circumvent the regulations. This strategy would suffice through World War II, as Portugal's official neutrality meant that Portuguese ships remained untouched by either Allies or Axis, and trade volumes picked up. Though the price of cashew nuts dropped, warehouse owners and exporters were largely unexpected; suppliers were hardest hit, often going out of business and returning to paid employment.

Post-war and independence

In 1948, the government countered the Indian strategy of reclassifying employees as partners by requiring that partners too be counted towards the total number of employees for purposes of calculating the racial quota. However, the 1950s saw further rises in cashew nut prices, so Indian firms continued to prosper. By the end of the decade, 12,000 Indians were living in the country.

Indian independence and Partition
Partition of India
The Partition of India was the partition of British India on the basis of religious demographics that led to the creation of the sovereign states of the Dominion of Pakistan and the Union of India on 14 and 15...

 in 1947 had brought with it a choice for South Asians in Mozambique: Pakistani nationality
Pakistani nationality law
The Pakistani nationality law governs citizenship of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. The principal legislation determining nationality, the Pakistan Citizenship Act was passed by the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan on 13 April, 1951.-Citizenship:...

, or that of the Republic of India. Most of the Hindus, as well as some of the Muslims, chose Indian citizenship
Indian nationality law
The Indian citizenship and nationality law and the Constitution of India provides single citizenship for the entire country. The provisions relating to citizenship at the commencement of the Constitution are contained in Articles 5 to 11 in Part II of the Constitution of India...

. Some of the larger traders also took advantage of a third option, retention of British nationality
British nationality law
British nationality law is the law of the United Kingdom that concerns citizenship and other categories of British nationality. The law is complex because of the United Kingdom's former status as an imperial power.-History:...

. Finally, many registered their Mozambican-born children as Portuguese citizens
Portuguese nationality law
Portuguese nationality law is the legal set of rules that regulate access to Portuguese citizenship, which is acquired mainly through descent from a Portuguese parent, naturalisation in Portugal or marriage to a Portuguese citizen....

. These choices would soon come to have large political significance. In response to the 1961 Indian annexation of Goa, the Portuguese interned all the Indian nationals in Mozambique in concentration camps, and froze their bank accounts by order of Portuguese dictator António de Oliveira Salazar
António de Oliveira Salazar
António de Oliveira Salazar, GColIH, GCTE, GCSE served as the Prime Minister of Portugal from 1932 to 1968. He also served as acting President of the Republic briefly in 1951. He founded and led the Estado Novo , the authoritarian, right-wing government that presided over and controlled Portugal...

. Though ostensibly done for their protection, in fact, the Portuguese hoped to use their freedom as a bargaining chip in exchange for the freedom of 3,200 Portuguese who had been captured in Goa. Among other effects, this spurred many of the Muslims who had initially chosen Indian nationality to switch their allegiance to Pakistan.

A significant number of Indians even faced expulsion from the country, though the heads of the larger trading firms were spared this fate due to their symbiotic relations with the Portuguese elite: they traded economic freedom for political support. Even after the cessation of hostilities in Goa, Indian nationals in Mozambique continued to face restrictions by the colonial government. Some chose to resettle in other countries in East Africa. Later, in the 1970s, as the process of decolonisation began and until the end of Portuguese rule drew near, South Asians began leaving the country in larger numbers; the outflow was especially significant among Ismailis, who were urged to leave by the Aga Khan IV
Aga Khan IV
Prince Karim, Aga Khan IV, NPk, NI, KBE, CC, GCC, GCIH, GCM is the 49th and current Imam of the Shia Imami Nizari Ismaili Muslims. He has held this position under the title of Aga Khan since July 11, 1957, when, at the age of 20, he succeeded his grandfather, Sultan Mahomed Shah Aga Khan...

. Some returned to Pakistan or India, while others re-established themselves in Portugal.

In contrast, large proportions of Sunnis and Hindus stayed in Mozambique after independence. With the increasing socialisation of the economy, they had to employ legally marginal strategies to remain in business and to send funds abroad, such as requesting their suppliers abroad to invoice them for more than the amount of goods sold. A typical pattern was that one member of the family would be asked to make a sacrifice and remain in the country to face the dangers of continuing to do business, while the others moved on to neighbouring countries, to Portugal, or back to South Asia.

External links

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