ABSTRACT
Migration of South Asian populations to destinations outside the Indian
subcontinent is not a new phenomenon. Right from precolonial times, there
have been sizeable movements of populations from the Indian subcontinent
to places in Southeast Asia, the Persian Gulf, and East Africa. However, with
colonialism, the scale and pace of migration changed drastically. The large-
scale movement of South Asians generally, and Hindus in particular, to other
parts of the British empire set in motion patterns and processes of settlement
and community formation that had no ready parallel in precolonial history.
