Indian Filipinos are Filipinos of Indian descent who have historical connections with and have established themselves in what is now the Philippines. The term refers to Filipino citizens of either pure or mixed Indian descent currently residing in the country, the latter a result of intermarriages between the Indians and local populations.

Indians in the Philippines, Indian Filipinos
Indyanong Pilipino/Indyanong Pinoy/Bumbay (colloquial)/Turko (Cebuano reference)
Total population
As of the year 2018, there are over 120,000 Indians alone in the Philippines, not including illegal Indian immigrants and Filipinos of Indian descent.[1] Furthermore, according to a Y-DNA compilation by the DNA company Applied Biosystems, they calculated an estimated 1% frequency of the South Asian Y-DNA "H1a" in the Philippines. Thus translating to about 1,011,864 Filipinos having full or partial Indian descent, not including other Filipinos in the Philippines and Filipinos abroad whose DNA (Y-DNA) have not been analyzed.[2][A]
Regions with significant populations
Languages
Religion

Archaeological evidence shows the existence of trade between the Indian subcontinent and the Philippine Islands at least since the ninth and tenth centuries B.C.[4] As of the year 2018, there are over 120,000 Indians in the Philippines.[1] Indians in the Philippines have generally arrived in four waves since pre-colonial times: Indian merchants and traders who visited the Philippines regularly from India and Southeast Asia; slaves from South India and Bengal, who made up the majority of slaves imported into the Philippines by the Spanish in the 1500s and 1600s; Indian soldiers and sepoys who arrived in the Philippines and mutinied during the British occupation of the Manila in the 1760s, deserting and intermarrying with native Filipinos; and the fourth wave, continuing to the present of Indians who have immigrated to the Philippines since the 1890s for work, education, and business, with this number continuing to grow as relations between the Philippines and India continue.

The first census in the Philippines was in 1591, based on tributes collected. The tributes counted the total founding population of the Spanish-Philippines as 667,612 people.[5]: 177 [6][7] 20,000 were Chinese migrant traders,[8] at different times: around 15,600 individuals were Latino soldier-colonists who were cumulatively sent from Peru and Mexico and they were shipped to the Philippines annually,[9][10] 3,000 were Japanese residents,[11] and 600 were pure Spaniards from Europe.[12] There was a large but unknown number of South Asian Filipinos, as the majority of the slaves imported into the archipelago were from Bengal and Southern India,[13] adding Dravidian speaking South Indians and Indo-European speaking Bengalis into the ethnic mix.

In addition, Indian-Filipino unions and marriages are very common in countries with large populations of both nationalities, such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the United States, Canada, and Australia.

History

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Prehistory

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Indian genetic signatures found among the Dilaut native ethnic group of the Sulu archipelago show that Indian immigration to the Philippines happened even before the start of formal written Philippine history.[14]

Ancient history

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Iron Age finds in Philippines also point to the existence of trade between the Indian Subcontinent and the Philippine Islands during the ninth and tenth centuries B.C.[4] India had greatly influenced the many different cultures of the Philippines through the Indianized kingdom of the Hindu Majapahit and the Buddhist Srivijaya. For at least two millennia before the arrival of the Spanish, Philippines was ruled by Hindu kings called Rajahs and Pramukhas. Numerous kings with written genealogies and Sanskrit names were found by Spanish warlords and friars.[15][self-published source?] Indian presence in the Philippines has been ongoing since ancient times along with the Japanese people and the Han Chinese and Arab and Persian traders, predating even the coming of the Europeans by at least two millennium. Indian people together with the natives of the Indonesian Archipelago and the Malay Peninsula, who came as traders introduced Hinduism to the natives of the Philippines. Indian migrants have been crucial in the establishment of several Indianized kingdoms or "rajahnates" in the Philippines, Rajahnates such as that of Butuan and Cebu. Indian Bania converts to Islam brought Sunni Islam to the Philippine islands in the course of trade, which was later enhanced and strengthened by Arab Muslim Sea traders to Mindanao and Sulu Sultanate.[16]

The semi-legendary first Rajah and founder of the Rajahnate of Cebu, Sri Rajahmura Lumaya, whose existence is only confirmed through oral tradition in the Cebuano epic Aginid, Bayok sa atong Tawarik, was said to be of Tamil and Malay ancestry, and a minor prince of the maritime Tamil Chola Empire originating in Southeast India.[17] The Chola were known for their seafaring and mercantile exploits, and had traded with, settled in, and occasionally conquered numerous areas of Southeast Asia including the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra, and had traded with the Philippines from these regions.

By the 17th century, Gujarati merchants with the aid of Khoja and Bohri ship-owners had developed an international transoceanic empire which had a network of agents stationed at the great port cities across the Indian Ocean. These networks extended to the Philippines in the east, East Africa in the west and via maritime and the inland caravan route to Russia in the north.[18]

Colonial Period

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Indian Filipinos on the Velarde map, 1754
A "Canarin" (Konkani) and a Lascar, right side
A Mughal and a "Malabar", right side

During the Spanish era, the chief source of slaves bought by Spanish administrators, native Filipino nobilities, and Chinese merchants in the Philippines, were: India and Bengal. Together they formed a cosmopolitan community in even the rural areas of the country.[19] Sepoy troops from Madras (now Chennai, Tamil Nadu), British India also arrived with the British expedition and occupation between 1762 and 1764 during the Seven Years' War. When the British withdrew, many of the Sepoys (Army privates) mutinied and refused to leave. Virtually all had taken native brides (or soon did so). They settled in what is Cainta, in what was then the Province of Manila (currently part of Rizal Province).[20] As of 2006, between 70 and 75 percent of Indians in the Philippines lived in Metro Manila, with the largest community outside of Manila being in Isabela province.[21] The region in and around Cainta still has many Sepoy descendants.

However, Indian business people started to arrive in larger numbers in The Philippines during the American colonial period (1898–1930s) – especially during the 1930s and 1940s, when many Indians and Indian Filipinos lived in Filipino provinces, including Davao. The longest serving mayor of Manila, Ramon Bagatsing, was of Indian-Punjabi descent, having moved to Manila from Fabrica, Negros Occidental before the second world war.

A second surge of Indian businessmen, especially Sindhis arrived in Philippines during the Partition of India.[22]

Present

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Most of the Indians and Indian Filipinos in the Philippines are Sindhi and Punjabi as well as a large Tamil population. Many are fluent in Tagalog and English as well as local languages of the provinces and islands. Many are prosperous middle class with their main occupations in clothing sales and marketing. Sikhs are involved largely in finance, money lending (locally called Five – six[23]), sales and marketing.

Over the last three decades, a large number of civil servants and highly educated Indians working in large banks, Asian Development Bank and the BPO sector have migrated to Philippines, especially Manila.[24] Most of the Indian Filipinos and Indian expatriates are Hindu, Sikh, Christians or Muslims, but have assimilated into Filipino culture. The community regularly conducts philanthropic activities through bodies such as the Mahaveer foundation, The SEVA foundation[25] and the Sathya Sai organization.[26]

Most Indians congregate for socio-cultural and religious activities at the Hindu Temple (Mahatma Gandhi Street, Paco, Manila), the Indian Sikh Temple (United Nations Avenue, Paco, Manila), and the Radha Soami Satsang Beas center (Alabang, Muntinlupa, Metro Manila).

Many Indians have intermarried with Filipinos, more so than in neighboring countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, mainly because their populations are largely Muslim, and the Indians there (with the exception of Indian-Muslims) are averse to marrying Muslims in those host countries.[27]

Indian Filipino companies with the largest work force include Indo Phil Textile (1,800 employees), Global Steel (950 employees and 8,000 in Iligan), Hinduja Global (3,500 workers) and Aegis People Support (over 12,000).[28]

Demography and DNA studies

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According to the National Geographic's DNA study covering 80,000 Filipinos in 2008–2009, "The Genographic Project", 3% of the average Filipino's genes are of South Asian origin.[29] 3 percent equates to nearly 3,300,000[30] Filipinos living in Philippines having full or partial Indian descent as of June 2020.

The Indian Mitochondrial DNA hapolgroups, M52'58 and M52a are also present in the Philippines suggesting that there was Indian migration to the archipelago starting from the 5th Century AD.[31]

According to another much smaller study by the Applied Biosystems, a DNA company which undertook Y-DNA compilation, calculated an estimated 1% frequency of the South Asian Y-DNA "H1a" in the Philippines. Thus translating to about 1,011,864 Filipinos having full or partial Indian descent, not including other Filipinos in the Philippines and Filipinos abroad whose DNA (Y-DNA) have not been analyzed.[2]

The integration of Southeast Asia into Indian Ocean trading networks around 2,000 years ago also shows some impact, with South Asian genetic signals present within some Filipino ethnic groups like the Sama-Bajau communities.[14]

A recent genetic study found 10-20% of Cebuano ancestry is attributable to South Asian (Indian) descent,[32] dated to a time when Precolonial Cebu practiced Hinduism.[33]

As of 2018, there are over 120,000 Indians alone in the Philippines, not including illegal Indian immigrants or Filipinos of Indian descent living in the Philippines.[34]

Filipino people of Indian descent

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Beauty Pageant Winners

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Movies & TV

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Radio

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  • Sam Y.G., Filipino-Indian radio disc jockey
  • Mo Twister, Filipino-Indian DJ, actor, host and podcaster

Author

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Politics

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Sports

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Army and Revolution

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Notes

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  1. ^ The number of Filipinos of full or partial Indian descent is unknown as a great portion of the community has merged with the rest of the population therefore making it impossible to gather accurate statistical figures within the Philippines.[3]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Population of Overseas Indians" (PDF). Ministry of External Affairs (India). 31 December 2018. Archived (PDF) from the original on 25 December 2018. Retrieved 18 April 2019.
  2. ^ a b "With a sample population of 105 Filipinos, the company of Applied Biosystems, analysed the Y-DNA of average Filipinos and it is discovered that about 0.95% of the samples have the Y-DNA Haplotype "H1a", which is most common in South Asia and had spread to the Philippines via precolonial Indian missionaries who spread Hinduism and established Indic Rajahnates like Cebu and Butuan". Archived from the original on 25 May 2017. Retrieved 26 December 2018.
  3. ^ Kesavapany, K.; Mani, A.; Ramasamy, P. (18 December 2017). Rising India and Indian Communities in East Asia. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. ISBN 9789812307996 – via Google Books.
  4. ^ a b "Tamil Cultural Association – Tamil Language". tamilculturewaterloo.org. Archived from the original on 13 April 2015. Retrieved 24 July 2015.
  5. ^ Pearson, M. N. (1969). "The Spanish 'Impact' on the Philippines, 1565-1770". Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient. 12 (2). Brill: 165–186. doi:10.2307/3596057. ISSN 0022-4995. JSTOR 3596057. Archived from the original on 7 May 2021. Retrieved 22 July 2021.
  6. ^ The Unlucky Country: The Republic of the Philippines in the 21st Century By Duncan Alexander McKenzie (page xii)
  7. ^ Demography Philippine Yearbook 2011 Archived October 24, 2021, at the Wayback Machine Page 3
  8. ^ Bao Jiemin (2005). "Chinese in Thailand". In Carol R. Ember; Melvin Ember; Ian A. Skoggard (eds.). Encyclopedia of Diasporas: Immigrant and Refugee Cultures around the World, Volume 1. Springer. pp. 759–785. ISBN 9780306483219.: 751 
  9. ^ Stephanie Mawson, 'Between Loyalty and Disobedience: The Limits of Spanish Domination in the Seventeenth Century Pacific' (Univ. of Sydney M.Phil. thesis, 2014), appendix 3.
  10. ^ Mawson, Stephanie J. (August 2016). "Convicts or Conquistadores? Spanish Soldiers in the Seventeenth Century Pacific". Past & Present. 232 (1). Oxford Academic: 87–125. doi:10.1093/pastj/gtw008.
  11. ^ "Japanese Christian". Philippines: Google map of Paco district of Manila, Philippines. Archived from the original on 7 May 2010. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  12. ^ "Spanish Settlers in the Philippines (1571–1599) By Antonio Garcia-Abasalo" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 17 January 2021. Retrieved 23 November 2020.
  13. ^ Peasants, Servants, and Sojourners: Itinerant Asians in Colonial New Spain, 1571-1720 By Furlong, Matthew J. Archived April 29, 2022, at the Wayback Machine "Slaves purchased by the indigenous elites, Spanish and Hokkiens of the colony seemed drawn most often from South Asia, particularly Bengal and South India, and less so, from other sources, such as East Africa, Brunei, Makassar, and Java..." Chapter 2 "Rural Ethnic Diversity" Page 164 (Translated from: "Inmaculada Alva Rodríguez, Vida municipal en Manila (siglos xvi-xvii) (Córdoba: Universidad de Córdoba, 1997), 31, 35-36."
  14. ^ a b Larena, Maximilian; Sanchez-Quinto, Federico; Sjödin, Per; McKenna, James; Ebeo, Carlo; Reyes, Rebecca; Casel, Ophelia; Huang, Jin-Yuan; Hagada, Kim Pullupul; Guilay, Dennis; Reyes, Jennelyn (30 March 2021). "Multiple migrations to the Philippines during the last 50,000 years". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 118 (13): e2026132118. Bibcode:2021PNAS..11826132L. doi:10.1073/pnas.2026132118. PMC 8020671. PMID 33753512.
  15. ^ "Pre Colonial Period", An Online Guide to Philippine History, geocities.comCollegePark/Pool, archived from the original on 27 October 2009, retrieved 17 May 2008{{citation}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)[unreliable source?]
  16. ^ "2010/07/528/the-cultural-influences-of-india-china-arabia-and-japan". philippinealmanac.com. Archived from the original on 1 July 2012. Retrieved 24 July 2015.
  17. ^ Ouano-Savellon, Romola (2014). ""Aginid Bayok Sa Atong Tawarik": Archaic Cebuano and Historicity in a Folk Narrative". Philippine Quarterly of Culture and Society. 42 (3/4): 189–220 – via JSTOR.
  18. ^ Rajesh Rai, Peter Reeves, ed. (2008). The South Asian Diaspora: Transnational Networks and Changing Identities. Routledge. p. 1. ISBN 9781134105953. Retrieved 4 October 2013.
  19. ^ Peasants, Servants, and Sojourners: Itinerant Asians in Colonial New Spain, 1571-1720 By Furlong, Matthew J. "Slaves purchased by the indigenous elites, Spanish and Hokkiens of the colony seemed drawn most often from South Asia, particularly Bengal and South India, and less so, from other sources, such as East Africa, Brunei, Makassar, and Java..." Chapter 2 "Rural Ethnic Diversity" Page 164 (Translated from: "Inmaculada Alva Rodríguez, Vida municipal en Manila (siglos xvi-xvii) (Córdoba: Universidad de Córdoba, 1997), 31, 35-36."
  20. ^ Rye 2006, p. 713
  21. ^ Rye 2006, pp. 720–721
  22. ^ K.Kesavapany, A.Mani and P.Ramaswamy (2008). Rising India and Indian communities in East Asia. LSEAS Publishing. ISBN 978-981-230-799-6.
  23. ^ "Indians in the Philippines". Philippines Indian Business and Community guide. phindia.info. Archived from the original on 19 January 2014. Retrieved 21 January 2014.
  24. ^ "Departments and offices". Organisation. Asian Development Bank (ADB). Retrieved 21 January 2014.
  25. ^ "Community work". phindia.info. Retrieved 21 January 2014.
  26. ^ "International Sai Haiyan mission". Sathya Sai Organization. Retrieved 21 January 2014.
  27. ^ Sandhu, K.S.; Mani, A. (1993). Indian Communities in Southeast Asia (First Reprint 2006). Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. p. 707. ISBN 9789812304186. Retrieved 24 July 2015.
  28. ^ Enriquez, march (15 October 2011). "Meet some of PH's Fil-Indian businessmen". Inquirer. Retrieved 18 March 2014.
  29. ^ "Reference Populations – Geno 2.0 Next Generation". Archived from the original on 7 April 2016.
  30. ^ Current total Philippines population, worldometers, accessed on: 19 June 2020.
  31. ^ Delfin, Frederick (12 June 2013). "Complete mtDNA genomes of Filipino ethnolinguistic groups: a melting pot of recent and ancient lineages in the Asia-Pacific regio". European Journal of Human Genetics. 22 (2): 228–237. doi:10.1038/ejhg.2013.122. PMC 3895641. PMID 23756438. Indian influence and possibly haplogroups M52'58 and M52a were brought to the Philippines as early as the fifth century AD. However, Indian influence through these trade empires were indirect and mainly commercial; moreover, other Southeast Asian groups served as filters that diluted and/or enriched any Indian influence that reached the Philippines
  32. ^ Delfin, F., Min-Shan Ko, A., Li, M., Gunnarsdóttir, E. D., Tabbada, K. A., Salvador, J. M., Calacal, G. C., Sagum, M. S., Datar, F. A., Padilla, S. G., De Ungria, M. C. A., & Stoneking, M. (2014). Complete mtDNA genomes of Filipino ethnolinguistic groups: a melting pot of recent and ancient lineages in the Asia-Pacific region. European Journal of Human Genetics, 22(2), 228–237.
  33. ^ Kuizon, Jose G. (1962). The Sanskrit loan-words in Cebuano-Bisayan language and the Indian elements to Cebuano-Bisayan culture (Thesis). University of San Carlos, Cebu. OCLC 3061923.
  34. ^ "Punjabi community involved in money lending in Philippines braces for 'crackdown' by new President". The Indian Express. 18 May 2016.
  35. ^ "We stan this Queen; on 1st paragraph "Rabiya Occeña Sundall Mateo, Miss Universe Philippines 2020, will have a very memorable reign."". Manila Bulletin. Retrieved 30 October 2020.
  36. ^ "Rabiya Sundall Mateo usou um look vermelho sensacional". missnews.com.br. Retrieved 20 October 2020.
  37. ^ "Meanwhile, Rabiya Sundall Mateo from Ilo-ilo City is the crowned winner of Miss Universe Philippines 2020". zeibiz.com. Retrieved 20 October 2020.
  38. ^ "(Her Full name on Major Awards List, Best in Swimsuit: Rabiya Occeña Sundall Mateo, Iloilo City) >> Rabiya Mateo from Iloilo City crowned Miss Universe Philippines 2020". whatalife.ph. Retrieved 20 October 2020.
  39. ^ "Mga kaibigan kaklase at kakilala ni Miss Universe Philippines; on 1st paragraph "Rabiya Occeña Sundall Mateo, Miss Universe Philippines 2020..."". Manila Bulletin. 29 October 2020. Retrieved 30 October 2020.

Citations

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