Indians in Madagascar

The so-called 'Karana or Karane' are a generally Muslim racial group in Madagascar with a long history on the island. A large proportion of them arrived on the north-west port of Mahajanga in the early 1880s.^[2]

The Malagasy term Karana mainly refers to Khoja (a Muslim tribe which was once based on the Indian subcontinent) families on the island who control the economic affairs of the country due to their good business acumen. The term does, however, sometimes include Indian and occasionally even Pakistani (extremely few in number) families though the Khoja make up the sizeable majority. Though they have contributed greatly to the nation's development, unlike their counterparts, the Al-Lawatia in Oman, they do not enjoy the same level of acceptance and freedom with kidnappings rife and a lack of acceptance into the institution both politically and otherwise.^[3]

Estimates of Karana population is 400,000.^[2] The group migrated from the Indian subcontinent somewhere between five and fifteen generations ago, spearheaded by the Khoja tribe with many Indians joining alongside.

Among those that are commonly referred to as 'Indians in Madagascar' today, are 867 non-resident Indians, with the rest most probably being those locally-born descendants of early immigrants Khojas or Indians.^[1][4] They form a minority ethnic group in Madagascar.