Indians had been employed for a long time on the European ships trading in
Colonial India and the
East Indies. Many of the early voyages to the Pacific either started or terminated in India and many of these ships were wrecked in the uncharted waters of the
South Pacific. Indians began to arrive in New Zealand in the late eighteenth century, mostly as crews on
British ships. The earliest known Indians to set foot in New Zealand were Muslim lascars who arrived in Dec 1769 on the
French East India Company's ship
Saint Jean Baptiste captained by Frenchman Jean François Marie de Surville sailing from Pondicherry a union territory town bounded by the southeastern Tamil Nadu state, India. Their arrival marks the beginning of Indian presence in New Zealand, in which hundreds of unnamed Indian lascars visited New Zealand on European ships in order to procure timber and seal skins. After establishment of
first European colony in Sydney in Australia in 1788 by the colonial
British Indian Empire under the British East India Company, the company had exclusive right on control of all trade to and from the penal colony. These colonies multiplied and expanded to include whole Australia, various Islands in Oceania, initially colonies were established under the British Indian Empire including New Zealand which was administered as part of New South Wales until 1841. The period of Indian settlement begins with the earliest known Indian resident of New Zealand, a lascar of Bengali descent from the visiting ship
City of Edinburgh who jumped ship in 1809 in the
Bay of Islands to live with a
Māori wife. Possibly the earliest non-Māori settlers of the
Otago region of
South Island were three Indian
lascars who deserted ship to live among the Māori in 1813. There, they assisted the
Ngāi Tahu by passing on new skills and technologies, including how to attack colonial European vessels in the rain when their guns could not be fired. There were a number of Indian soldiers who served New Zealand, 17 are recorded to have served in WWI and WWII. The most well documented of these soldiers being
Jagt Singh who served in Gallipoli during WWI. The late 1800s and early 1900s saw the first wave of migration of Indians arriving in the country. A number of them came directly to New Zealand but some came via Fiji and others via other British colonies such as Burma. A large number of these early migrants were Indian teenagers, mainly from
Punjab and
Gujarat. They were generally looked after by the Māori community, and tended to have unions with Māori women. Official policy in New Zealand to restrict non-European immigration resulted in difficulties for Indians to enter the country in the 1920s. Groups like The White New Zealand League, established in 1926, was opposed to both Chinese and Indian immigration because it was seen as a threat to the economic prosperity of European New Zealanders. In the beginning of the 20the century, Indians were classified as "race aliens", which legally barred from any public service occupation such as police or the army, and also were not receiving any
pensions. Early Indian migrants consciously chose jobs in remote areas that did not interest
Pākehā: cutting grass, processing flax and digging drains. The shared experience of discrimination facilitated solidarity between members of different
castes. On the other hand, The Shop and Office Act of 1921 allowed all British subjects to own shops and businesses, so many Indians struggling to find other employment became business owners, especially in
dairies. Racial tensions between local Indians and Pākehā lasted for decades in
Pukekohe. Until the late 1950s, Indians there were excluded from barbershops, hair salons, bars, and balcony seats in cinemas, and could not join the local growers' association. At this time, a large number of Punjabi Sikhs, who often had farming experience, settled in the
Waikato district and took up dairy farming. Before the 1970s it remained difficult for Indians not related to the earlier immigrants to enter New Zealand. However, a small number of
Fijian Indians and
Indian-descent refugees from Uganda arrived in the country. By the 1980s, the official attitude towards Asian immigration relaxed and an increased number of Indians arrived in New Zealand.
Early cultural contact theory In 1885,
Edward Tregear published the controversial book
The Aryan Maori (1885), in which he placed the Māori language in the ranks of the Indo-European language family. He further claimed, that Māori were descended from Hindu Brahmins who spread south from India. The
Tamil bell may indicate contact between Māori and South India going back to the 14th or 15th century. A 1954 report by V Lakshmi Pathy, published in the Journal of Polynesian Studies, hinted at similarities between the South Indian
Kannada language and various Polynesian languages including Māori. ==Socioeconomics==