The British Indo-Caribbean community consists of residents of the United Kingdom who are of Caribbean origin and whose ancestors were indigenous to India. The UK (along with Canada and the United States), is a non-Caribbean nation with a significant population of Indo-Caribbean residents.

Background

Indian people were first introduced to the Caribbean by the British government in the 1800s after the abolition of slavery and when cheap labour was needed. The majority settled in Guyana

Guyana

Guyana , officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, previously the colony of British Guiana, is a sovereign state on the northern coast of South America that is culturally part of the Anglophone Caribbean. Guyana was a former colony of the Dutch and of the British...

, Trinidad and Tobago

Trinidad and Tobago

Trinidad and Tobago officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is an archipelagic state in the southern Caribbean, lying just off the coast of northeastern Venezuela and south of Grenada in the Lesser Antilles...

 and smaller but well established population in Jamaica

Jamaica

Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...

. The Indian communities in these countries have now become extremely well established and currently have a very successful diaspora. With the strong links between the Caribbean and the UK, as well as the large Indian community in the UK

British Indian

The term British Indian refers to citizens of the United Kingdom whose ancestral roots lie in India. This includes people born in the UK who are of Indian descent, and Indian-born people who have migrated to the UK...

, it has proven a popular destination for Indo-Caribbean emigrants. In 1990 between 22,800 and 30,400 Indo-Caribbeans were estimated to be living in the UK, it is unknown how many of the 1.6 million Britons of Indian origin are also linked to the Caribbean.

Indo-Guyanese

Notable Britons of Indo-Guyanese descent include Waheed Alli, Baron Alli

Waheed Alli, Baron Alli

Waheed Alli, Baron Alli is a British multimillionaire media entrepreneur and politician. He was co-founder and managing director of Planet 24, a TV production company, and managing director at Carlton Television Productions...

, Shakira Caine

Shakira Caine

Shakira Caine , is a Guyanese-British former fashion model and actress of Indian descent....

, David Dabydeen

David Dabydeen

David Dabydeen is a Guyanese-born critic, writer and novelist.Dabydeen was born in Berbice, Guyana, his birth registered at New Amsterdam Registrar of Births as David Horace Clarence Harilal Sookram...

 and Mark Ramprakash

Mark Ramprakash

Mark Ravin Ramprakash is an English cricketer, playing for Surrey and England. A right-handed batsman, he initially made his name playing for Middlesex, and was selected for England aged 21...

.

Indo-Jamaican

Notable Britons of Indo-Jamaican descent include Omar Lye-Fook

Omar Lye-Fook

Omar Lye-Fook and known as Omar, is an internationally acclaimed British soul singer, songwriter and musician. Omar grew up in Canterbury, Kent. He learned his craft classically, playing the trumpet, piano and percussion. Omar also spent two years at Chetham's School of Music in Manchester, and...

.

Indo-Trinidadians

Indo-Trinidadian people are thought to number well over 25,000, which is even more than the number of people born in Trinidad and Tobago

Trinidad and Tobago

Trinidad and Tobago officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is an archipelagic state in the southern Caribbean, lying just off the coast of northeastern Venezuela and south of Grenada in the Lesser Antilles...

 living in the UK according to the 2001 Census. Notable Britons of Indo-Trinidadian descent include Waheed Alli, Baron Alli

Waheed Alli, Baron Alli

Waheed Alli, Baron Alli is a British multimillionaire media entrepreneur and politician. He was co-founder and managing director of Planet 24, a TV production company, and managing director at Carlton Television Productions...

, Chris Bisson

Chris Bisson

Christopher Paul "Chris" Bisson is a British actor.-Career:Born in Wythenshawe, Manchester, Chris Bisson first appeared on television as J.J. in Children's Ward in 1990...

, Vahni Capildeo

Vahni Capildeo

Surya Vahni Priya Capildeo is a Trinidadian writer, and a member of the extended Capildeo family which has produced notable Trinidadian politicians and writers ....

, Krishna Maharaj

Krishna Maharaj

Krishna Maharaj is a Trinidad and Tobago-born British businessman and brother of Ramesh Maharaj, former Attorney General of Trinidad and Tobago. In 1987 he was convicted by a Florida court for the double murders of Derrick Moo Young and his son, Duane Young, and was sentenced to death...

, Shiva Naipaul

Shiva Naipaul

Shiva Naipaul , born Shivadhar Srivinasa Naipaul in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, was a Trinidadian and British novelist and journalist.Shiva Naipaul was the younger brother of novelist V. S. Naipaul...

, V. S. Naipaul

V. S. Naipaul

Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad "V. S." Naipaul, TC is a Nobel prize-winning Indo-Trinidadian-British writer who is known for his novels focusing on the legacy of the British Empire's colonialism...

, Lakshmi Persaud

Lakshmi Persaud

Lakshmi Persaud is a Indo-Caribbean novelist. She was born in Trinidad and Tobago in 1939. She is classified also as a novelist of the Indian diaspora. Some of her writings are on Indo-Caribbean themes as well as themes of cultural change. She has published four novels...

, Raj Persaud

Raj Persaud

Rajendra Persaud , also known as Raj Persaud , born 13 May 1963, Reading, Berkshire is an English consultant psychiatrist, broadcaster, and author of popular books about psychiatry....

 and Ron Ramdin.

See also

• Indo-Caribbean
  Indo-Caribbean
  Indo-Caribbean people or Indo-Caribbeans are Caribbean people with roots in India or the Indian subcontinent. They are mostly descendants of the original indentured workers brought by the British, the Dutch and the French during colonial times...
  
  
• British Indian
  British Indian
  The term British Indian refers to citizens of the United Kingdom whose ancestral roots lie in India. This includes people born in the UK who are of Indian descent, and Indian-born people who have migrated to the UK...
  
  
• British African-Caribbean community
  British African-Caribbean community
  The British African Caribbean communities are residents of the United Kingdom who are of West Indian background and whose ancestors were primarily indigenous to Africa...
  
  
• British Asian
  British Asian
  British Asian is a term used to describe British citizens who descended from mainly South Asia, also known as South Asians in the United Kingdom...
  
  
• Indo-Caribbean American
  Indo-Caribbean American
  Indo-Caribbean American people are Americans who trace their ancestry ultimately to India, though whose recent ancestors lived in the Caribbean, where they began migrating in 1838. There are large groups of Indo-Trinidadians, Indo-Guyanese, and Indo-Jamaicans in the United States, especially in New...