Indians in Korea
Encyclopedia
Indians in Korea consist of migrants from 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...

 to Korea
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...

 and their locally born descendants. A majority of them live in Seoul
Seoul
Seoul , officially the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea. A megacity with a population of over 10 million, it is the largest city proper in the OECD developed world...

 while there are smaller populations living in other parts of Korea.

Ancient history

According to a few short passages in the Samguk Yusa
Samguk Yusa
Samguk Yusa, or Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms, is a collection of legends, folktales, and historical accounts relating to the Three Kingdoms of Korea , as well as to other periods and states before, during, and after the Three Kingdoms period.The text was written in Classical Chinese, which was...

, an 11th-century Korean chronicle, Heo Hwang-ok
Heo Hwang-ok
Heo Hwang-ok was a princess who travelled from the ancient kingdom of Ayodhya to Korea. Information about her comes almost entirely from a few short passages in the Samguk Yusa, an 11th-century Korean chronicle. According to that chronicle, she arrived on a boat and married King Suro of Gaya in...

, consort of Suro of Geumgwan Gaya was originally a princess born in the ancient kingdom of Ayodhya (in modern day India). She was the first queen of Geumgwan Gaya
Geumgwan Gaya
Geumgwan Gaya , also known as Bon-Gaya or Garakguk , was the ruling city-state of the Gaya confederacy during the Three Kingdoms Period in Korea. It is believed to have been located around the modern-day city of Gimhae, Southern Gyeongsang province, near the mouth of the Nakdong River...

, and is considered an ancestor by several Korean lineages. Archeologists discovered a stone with two fish kissing each other, a symbol of the Gaya kingdom
Geumgwan Gaya
Geumgwan Gaya , also known as Bon-Gaya or Garakguk , was the ruling city-state of the Gaya confederacy during the Three Kingdoms Period in Korea. It is believed to have been located around the modern-day city of Gimhae, Southern Gyeongsang province, near the mouth of the Nakdong River...

 that is unique to the Mishra
Mishra
Mishra or Misra is a Hindu Brahmin surname found mostly in the northern and central parts of India.It is one of the most widespread Brahmin surnames in the fertile Gangetic plain region and in the Indian states of Punjab, Delhi, Orissa, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh,...

 royal family in Ayodhya, India. This royal link provides further evidence that there was an active commercial engagements between India and Korea since the queen's arrival to Korea in the year 48 CE.

Members of both the Heo
Heo
Heo is a family name in Korea. It is also often spelled as Hur or Huh, or less commonly as Hue or Her. In South Korea in 1985, out of a population of between roughly 40 and 45 million, there were approximately 264,000 people surnamed Heo. The name is also found in North Korea...

 lineages (including the clans of Gimhae, Gongam, Yangcheon, Taein, and Hayang) and the Gimhae Kim lineage consider themselves descendants of Heo Hwang-ok and King Suro. Two of the couple's ten sons chose the mother's name. The Heo clans trace their origins to them, and regard Heo as the founder of their lines. The Gimhae Kims trace their origin to the other eight sons.

Korean War

The Indian army
Indian Army
The Indian Army is the land based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. With about 1,100,000 soldiers in active service and about 1,150,000 reserve troops, the Indian Army is the world's largest standing volunteer army...

 provided paramedical units to facilitate the withdrawal of the sick and wounded in the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...

. With the communist invasion of South Korea in 1950, the UN sent out a call to the free world for assistance. India decided not to get involved militarily but contributed a medical unit, the 60 Parachute Field Ambulance which served in Korea for a total of four months.

They were involved in providing medical cover to the forces of the UN Command as well as the ROK Army and local civilians, and earned a very well-deserved title, "The Maroon Angels". The unit also looked after the North Korea
North Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...

n POWs. The highlight of the tenure undoubtedly was when the unit provided their services during Operation Tomahawk
Operation Tomahawk
Operation Tomahawk was an airborne military operation by the 187th Regimental Combat Team on 23 March 1951 at Munsan-ni as part of Operation Courageous in the Korean War. Operation Courageous was designed to trap large numbers of Chinese and North Korean troops between the Han and Imjin Rivers...

 in March 1951 to the US Army’s 187 Airborne Regimental Combat Team.

After the Division of Korea

South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...

 has been gaining popularity among Indian expatriates. Since the 1970s, many Indians have been coming to the South Korea and now there are about 7,000 Indians living and working in the country.

According to officials of the Indian mission in South Korea, over 1,000 engineers and software professionals have recently come to South Korea, working for large conglomerates such as LG
LG
LG may refer to:*LG Corp., a South Korean electronics and petrochemicals conglomerate*LG Electronics, an affiliate of the South Korean LG Group which produces electronic products* Lawrence Graham, a London headquartered firm of business lawyers...

 and Samsung
Samsung
The Samsung Group is a South Korean multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea...

, which have today become household names back in India. There are also around 125 Indian scientists and post-doctoral research scholars working or conducting research at various institutions in the country. Indian companies are also making inroads in South Korea. The agreement between Indian and South Korea on IT will leverage the IT software capabilities of India and IT hardware capabilities of South Korea, resulting in an increased flow of IT professionals between the two countries.

According to statistics of the South Korean immigration department, there are 1,547 Indians staying illegally in the country (24.3%).

Indian organizations and associations in Korea

Some of the Indian associations in South Korea include the Indian Association of Korea, with mainly professionals as members and the Annapurna Indian Women's Association.

Issues

Many Indian IT professionals and engineers who came to South Korea in search of better career prospects are finding it tough surviving on their salaries. Most engineers, in fact, are not willing to extend their stay in the country beyond one year, the minimum contract period as their salaries are not sufficient to sustain a decent lifestyle in Seoul. This is so despite the fact that South Korean companies are keen to employ Indian engineers and are willing to pay them salaries that are impressive by Indian standards.

According to Indian engineers, they are paid far less than their foreign and Korean counterparts and they are expected to work long hours. Besides the discrimination in salary, the high cost of living in South Korea is the other reason why many Indians wouldn't want to settle here. The conditions in South Korea are also nowhere as good as those in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 and Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 and most South Korean companies do not provide food or accommodation for the Indian workers.

See Also

  • India - South Korea relations
  • India – North Korea relations
  • Koreans in India
    Koreans in India
    There is a small community of Koreans in India, consisting largely of expatriate professionals from South Korea and their families, as well as some missionaries and international students at Indian universities.-Migration history:...

  • Hinduism in Korea
    Hinduism in Korea
    Hinduism is a minority religion in Korea. Through Buddhism, it has also had an indirect impact on certain aspects of traditional Korean thought...


External links

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