Arabs in India

Arabs in India are people with Arab origins who have over a long period of time, settled in the Indian subcontinent. There have been extensive trade and cultural links between India and the Arab world spanning several millennia. The west coast region of India, especially Malabar, Gujarat and Konkan coasts were active trading hubs, where Arab merchants frequently used to visit on their way to Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. Over a span of several centuries, migrants from different Arabian nations immigrated to various regions and kingdoms of the Indian subcontinent as merchants, missionaries and through intermarriages.

Descendants of Arabs also live in the villages of Variav and Rander in Gujarat. In Hyderabad, Chaush are an Arab community of Hadhrami descent whose ancestors were recruited as soldiers by Nizam of Hyderabad. Some Konkani Muslims trace their ancestry to traders from Hadhramaut (in Yemen or South Arabia). In coastal Karnataka, a group of Persian speaking Sunni Muslims from Iraq having Assadi surname arrived in Mangalore during the reign of Tipu Sultan. They claim their ancestry from Banu Assad. These population migrations may have been favoured by both the Nizam of Hyderabad and Tipu Sultan of Mysore because both had their ancestral linkages to these populations. In Kerala, Syed Thangals of Hadhrami descent settled around the 17th century as missionaries to propagate Islam.

It is estimated that several groups in India have Middle Eastern ancestry, including Arab ancestry. Certain Muslim groups, like the Dawood Bohra, and various populations in western India have at least some Middle Eastern ancestry. Genetic analyses show that West Asian lineages could be detected at varying degrees among Indians. Although West Asian gene flow into the Subcontinent was not recent, as it occurred primarily during the Mesolithic period(Iranian hunter gatherer migration into the Indus Valley).