Koreans in India

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Koreans in India
Total population
10,397 (2013)[1]
Regions with significant populations
Tamil Nadu 3,934[1]
National Capital Region 3,545[1]
Maharashtra 1,042[1]
Karnataka 880[1]
West Bengal 209[1]
Elsewhere 785[1]
Religion
Korean Buddhism, Christianity[2]
Related ethnic groups
Korean diaspora

There is a small Korean community in India, consisting largely of South Korean expatriate professionals and their families, as well as some missionaries and international students at Indian universities.[3]

Migration history

There was known to have been Korean migration to India as early as the 1950s; the Korean Association of India was founded in that decade in New Delhi by three South Koreans who had gone into exile after being released from prison in their home country. However, large-scale growth in the community did not begin until the 1990s.[4] In 1997, the Korean community in India numbered just 1,229 people, according to South Korean government statistics; it grew somewhat by 42% to 1,745 people by 2003, but then in the next six years it nearly quintupled in size, making them the 25th-largest Korean community in the world, behind Koreans in Guatemala and ahead of Koreans in Paraguay.[5][1]

Distribution

Chennai was the earliest hub of the Korean community in India, thanks to Hyundai's decision to open factories there in 1995. Koreans concentrated largely in the Kilpauk township, which has acquired the nickname of "Little Korea" as a result.[6][7] Later communities in Delhi and Bangalore experienced rapid growth in the 2000s.[4] According to the 2013 statistics of South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 3,934 lived in Tamil Nadu, 3,545 lived in the National Capital Region (mainly in New Delhi, Gurgaon, and Noida), 1,042 in Maharashtra, 880 in Karnataka, and 209 in West Bengal. Only 11 held Indian citizenship.[1]

Business and employment

Most corporate expatriates come for maximum three- to five-year stints before returning home.[4] In New Delhi, major employers of South Korean expatriates include Samsung and LG Electronics.[8] In the Chennai area, many work for Hyundai Motors and its suppliers.[9] Some expatriates have also opened Korean restaurants, aimed largely at their co-ethnics rather than local Indians, in Chennai, New Delhi, and Bangalore, though not in Mumbai.[3]

Education

According to MOFA's statistics, 1,030 of the South Koreans in India in 2013 held student visas.[1] As early as 2002, roughly 200 South Koreans were studying at local universities in New Delhi, mainly the University of Delhi and Jawaharlal Nehru University.[10] At Delhi University, with roughly 90 students from South Korea, they have even formed a Korean Students Union as well as a traditional Korean drum group.[11] The Korean Association, with an office in the Hauz Khas Complex, also holds extracurricular Korean-language classes for Korean expatriate children.[8] South Korean information technology students have also been attending courses at private institutes in the Pune area since 2002.[10] There are also some North Korean students studying in New Delhi as well.[12]

There is also an increasing number of South Korean primary and secondary students entering India on student visas; their parents send them unaccompanied to international boarding schools there in order to take advantage of inexpensive English-medium education, at roughly half the price of comparable schools in the United States or United Kingdom. In addition to language proficiency and cost, the reputation of Indian mathematics education, seen as even more rigorous than that in South Korea, let alone the US or UK, is another draw for parents. In 2006, there were 1,435 South Korean primary and secondary visa students in India, according to the Indian embassy in Seoul.[13] For example, South Korean children comprised 16% of all students at the American Embassy School in New Delhi, making them the largest nationality behind Americans, and 20% of the students at the Woodstock School in Landour, Uttarakhand.[13][14]

Unlike other foreigners, South Korean adult expatriates have enthusiastically joined in Hindi classes; about half of all foreign students enrolled in advanced Hindi classes or certificate or degree courses are Koreans, and major employers such as Samsung have organised year-long Hindi courses for their employees.[15]

Media

The Korean Association of India publishes a bimonthly magazine in Korean, Namaste India.[4]

Religion

Koreans have formed a number of Christian churches in India, including two in New Delhi, two in Chennai, and one in Mumbai.[2] Local Christian denominations also have Korean members, as in Pune, where the Church of North India began offering Korean-language services from 2005. Some Koreans also attend English-language Christian services, but where numbers permit, they have broken off to hold their own services in Korean.[16]

Sarnath, where Gautama Buddha first taught the Dharma, has long been a popular destination for travelling Korean Buddhists, as in the case of Hyecho's 8th-century pilgrimage there.[17]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.; cites Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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