Indo-French people or Indians in France are residents from India in France, as well as people of Indian national origin. According to the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, there are an estimated 119,000 overseas Indians living in metropolitan France, in addition to 367,379 in the French overseas departments and regions of Guadeloupe, Réunion, Martinique and French Guiana.
History A majority of France's minority ethnic Indian community originate from Chandernagore of West Bengal and the Union territory of Pondicherry, the two former French colonies in India, mostly comprising Bengalis (from Chandannagar), Tamils, Malayalis as well as Telugus (from Puducherry).
The Indo-French population also includes a significant number of twice-migrant communities. These include Mauritian Indians (Biharis, Tamils, Telugus and Marathis), Indo-Guadeloupeans, Indo-Martinicans, and communities from the Seychelles (Tamils, Gujaratis and Biharis), Réunion (Malbars and Zarabes), French Guiana, and Madagascar (mostly Gujaratis). Additionally, it comprises 'repatriates' (locally known as « rapatriés ») from former French Indochina and other decolonized French territories.
Later immigrants to mainland France were drawn mostly from Gujarati, Sindhi, Konkani, and Punjabi backgrounds, with a subsequent wave of Keralites from the state of Kerala. Student and professional mobility also produced a local, diverse, and growing Indian NRI community.
Notable people
Severus of Vienne Jeanne Dupleix Catherine Boudet J. R. D. Tata Hidayat Inayat Khan S. H. Raza Sakti Burman Prithwindra Mukherjee Paris Viswanathan Vasant Rai Ananda Devi Anju Chaudhuri Kiran Vyas Subrata K. Mitra Vijay Singh Ivan Grésèque Partha Pratim Majumder Sujata Bajaj Chetan Eknath Chitnis Romuald Karmakar Maya Burman Shumona Sinha Vikash Dhorasoo Cynthia Brown Nalini Anantharaman Nalini Balbir Nathacha Appanah Indila Aurore Kichenin Ashley Radjarame
See also Asian diasporas in France Réunionnais of Indian origin Immigration to France Indian diaspora Indians in Guadeloupe Indo-Martinicans Indians in French Guiana Tamils in France France–India relations Romani people in France French people in India
References
External links Indians in France Indian Diaspora in Europe (France pages 13–16)