The Indian Diaspora, comprising People of Indian origin and Non-Resident Indians, as India itself, constitutes a heterogeneous and global community, representing diversity of forms, types, geographies and times of formation. It, therefore, requires diverse and distinct approaches to engage them and connect with India. The common thread that binds them together is the idea of India and its intrinsic values. Historically, the dispersion of people from India and the formation of Indian Diaspora communities is the result of different waves of migration over hundreds of years driven by a variety of reasons: slavery under mercantilism, indentured labour under colonization, and guest work programmes post colonialism. Contemporary flows from India are of two kinds: the first is the emigration of highly skilled professionals, workers and students with tertiary and higher educational qualifications migrating to developed countries, particularly to the USA, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. This flow started after Indian independence and gathered momentum with the emigration of IT professional in the 1990s. The second is the flow of unskilled and semi-skilled workers going mostly to the Gulf countries and Malaysia, following the oil boom in the Gulf countries, mainly from Kerala and other south Indian states.

Indians have been visiting the African continent since ages. Despite age-old linkages, modern settlement of Indians in Africa is certainly linked with the colonial exploration of the continent.

Today, estimates on overseas Indians indicate sizeable strength of Indian Diaspora in the African countries as Persons of Indians (PIOs) as well as Non-Resident Indians (NRIs), a large number of Indians is residing as PIOs and NRIs in other part of world. Thus, Indian communities in Africa constitute 9.11% of the total strength of India Diaspora and they reside in 46 countries of Africa inhabiting all linguistic, cultural or geographical regions of the continent. These people faced great difficulties in finding resources, wealth, and place along with challenging climatic and physical conditions of the region. However, their hard work, commitment, courage, given a hand them to conquer the unfavorable conditions and stay alive there, away from their country of origin. This paper attempts to present some qualitative and quantitative characteristics of Indian diaspora with special reference to African countries.