Tracing the history of Indian migration to New Zealand

An exhibition titled Asha ka Darwaza (Doorways of Hope) currently on display at Auckland's Mahatma Gandhi Centre is giving visitors a rare opportunity to trace the rich history of New Zealand's Indian community.

Organised by the Auckland Indian Association, the exhibition in Eden Terrace showcases artifacts, photographs and displays that honour the cultural heritage and resilient spirit of a community that first started migrating to New Zealand in the late 18th century.

The Indian sailors, seafarers and soldiers that arrived on British East India Company ships stayed to engage in activities such as mining, trench-digging and bottle-collecting.

Many of the earliest Indian settlers travelled from regions in the modern Indian states of Gujarat and Punjab.

"The ongoing development of rural areas in the North Island provided many Punjabi settlers with opportunities, firstly in hawking and then in flax-cutting in the swamps of the Hauraki Plains and Waikato," according to a book titled Mokaa - The land of Opportunity: 125 years of Indians in New Zealand that has been published by the New Zealand Indian Central Association.

These Punjabi Sikhs, who often had farming experience, subsequently settled in the Waikato district and took up dairy farming.

Early immigration

"The early Gujaratis to New Zealand mainly came from the regions of Navsari and Bardoli, with Keshaw Daji who moved here in 1902 probably the first Gujarati to settle here," says Shanti Patel, the exhibition's curator.

These areas of Gujarat were hot spots for emigration in those days due to their proximity to the coast, with some areas already engaged in local shipping activities.

Over the next two decades, the Indian population in New Zealand fluctuated due to tighter immigration laws and World War I.

What's more, life in New Zealand was not easy for the early immigrants, with many facing discrimination, according to the material included in the exhibition.

"Prior to the 1920s, Indians and Chinese were all classified as 'Asiatic'," one display in the exhibition notes. "This stereotyping created fear among the general population. The fear came from an unfamiliar label. This was compounded by [the introduction of] several polls to restrict their movements to and within the country."

Another display highlights examples of early racism directed at Asian immigrants.

"By 1920, some Indians were in the business of selling fruit and vegetables, and also utilising land to grow vegetables commercially, albeit on a small scale," the display notes.

"This entrepreneurship by a minority group was perceived as threatening to the local white population. ... It was the leasing and selling of land to Asians that fuelled protests in Pukekohe."

The racism became more entrenched in the 1920s.

"It started with the Immigration Restriction Amendment Act 1920, which initiated agitation against Asian immigration

"In 1925, the White New Zealand League held its inaugural meeting. ... In 1925 and 1926, racial xenophobia ... was organised into campaigns across the country.

"[But] the Chinese and Indians protested by writing letters to newspapers ... [and] by [late] 1926, the activities of the league quietened."

United against discrimination

However, the early Indian pioneers recognised the importance of working together as a collective, which led to the formation of the Auckland Indian Association in 1920, Patel says.

The Auckland Indian Association was the first Indian community organisation in New Zealand, she says.

A few years later, the Wellington Indian Association (established in 1925) and the Country Section New Zealand Indian Association (established in 1926) joined forces with the Auckland Indian Association to form a national body called the New Zealand Indian Central Association.

"The main goal of these associations was to create unity and fight discrimination against the Indian community through lawful means, and to defend and protect the rightful place of Indians as British subjects in New Zealand," a display at the exhibition notes.

As rural labouring declined after 1936, Gujaratis moved into market gardening in Otahuhu and Pukekohe in South Auckland.

Discrimination against Indians continued for decades, as well-documented by Jacqueline Leckie in a book titled Invisible: New Zealand's history of excluding Kiwi-Indians.

"[In] the 1930s, Indians faced exclusion from whites-only spaces in Pukekohe. Barbers refused to cut the hair of Chinese, Māori or Indians. These groups were also banned from the better-quality dress circle within a Pukekohe cinema," Leckie writes. "White racism at Pukekohe, while localised and extreme, nonetheless had widespread support throughout the country."

The exhibition details how there was a difference in treatment between white- and dark-skinned people at the tepid baths.

"In one of the posters [at the exhibition], you can read about the incident when Jelal Natali was stopped from using the bathrooms. All except one bath, were reserved for white people," Patel says.

"There was also the case of Chhotubhai Jivan who had managed to secure a job as a shipping clerk. But white men refused to work under him, so he decided to leave."

Community organisations

By 1950s, Gujarati Muslims as well as Muslims from other parts of India founded the New Zealand Muslim Association in Auckland.

Suliman Bhikoo, the first president of the New Zealand Muslim Association, and Ismail Ali Moses, its first secretary, were instrumental in acquiring a property for communal worship to use as a mosque, according to the exhibition organisers.

Meanwhile, Auckland's first Indian community centre - Gandhi Hall - was inaugurated in October 1955.

However, the community eventually outgrew the Victoria St venue, and the Auckland Indian Association took over the site of Findlay's Bakery at 145 New North Rd in 1989.

The venue - known as the Mahatma Gandhi Centre - is now one of the major hubs of Indian community activities in Auckland, housing offices of the Auckland and New Zealand Central Indian associations, as well as Radha Krishna Temple, which opened in June 2001.

Sports associations

The Auckland Indian Association launched its own sports club in 1936.

Almost three decades later, Indian community sports associations started an annual hockey competition in 1965.

Hockey teams from across the country now compete for the prestigious Dhyan Chand Trophy in the King's Birthday Hockey Tournament each year.

Family ties

The Auckland Indian Association launched a language school to teach Gujarati in 1955 and established a women's wing called Mahila Samaj in 1971.

Not many women travelled to New Zealand in the early days of immigration in the 1920s and '30s.

However, Indian women and children started coming to New Zealand in large numbers after World War II to help their husbands run their businesses.

"Food was a major problem, as Indian vegetables and spices were not available," says Champa Patel of Mahila Samaj.

Slowly, the population learnt to grow their own chillies, coriander, garlic and eggplant.

A passage in Mokaa notes that spices and lentils were shipped from Fiji by boat twice a year, with Indian households storing the ingredients in large drums until the next visit.

"Things changed a bit in the 1950s, with Dunningham's being the sole local supplier of spices for the Indian community and strategically located close to Auckland's wholesale fruit and vegetable markets," a display at the exhibition notes.

After World War II ended, New Zealand introduced progressive reform to its immigration policy in 1958 that opened the gates to immigration.

"This allowed New Zealand-born Indian women to bring in husbands from other countries," a passage in Mokaa notes. "Previously the act permitted only Indian men born here to bring in wives and children who were minors."

What lies ahead

The Indian community in New Zealand started with a handful of individuals, with just six Indians registered in the 1881 Census.

A total of 292,092 people claimed Indian descent in the 2023 Census, an increase of 22 percent from 2018.

This makes the Indian community the third-largest ethnic group in the country after New Zealand Europeans and Māori.

So what's next for the community in New Zealand?

Pushpa Lekhinwal, president of the Auckland Indian Association, wants the community to thrive as it balances tradition with innovation.

"The community should aspire to strengthen bonds between each other, aim to bridge the gaps between young and the old, and keep empowering women as we move forward," Lekhinwal says.

Asha ka Darwaza is on display at the Mahatma Gandhi Centre in Eden Terrace through 24 November.