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INDIANS IN SWEDEN

Indians in Sweden: 75 years of diplomatic relations show it’s all about the people

How can Indians and Swedes benefit from the diplomatic relationship, how many Indians are in Sweden's top one percent of earners, and much more in The Local's monthly newsletter for Indians in Sweden.

Published: 25 July 2023 08:46 CEST
Indians in Sweden: 75 years of diplomatic relations show it's all about the people
People walking through Malmö, left, and Mumbai. Photo: Johan Nilsson & Leif R Jansson/TT

Hej,

2023 sees Sweden and India celebrate 75 years of formal diplomatic relations. But, what we are really celebrating is the centuries long bonhomie between Swedes and Indians. Ultimately, relations between any two nations are all about you and me – the common people, the real ambassadors of a country.

Today, Sweden and India relations are perhaps the best they have ever been. This is visible not least in the numerous collaborations and partnerships between the two countries, but also by a growing Swedish-Indian diaspora which successfully contributes to Swedish society and the economy.

To fully understand the present and unlock the true future potential of this fast-paced relation, let us get some context and look at the past connections between Sweden and India. Not to make it a history lecture, I will just skim the surface, touching upon some interesting milestones.

A sixth-century, 8.4 centimetre Buddha statuette from Northern India discovered at Helgö near Stockholm at a Viking archaeological dig in 1954 is the first known historical linkage between Sweden and India.

In business terms, the Swedish East India Company began trading with India in the 1700s. But Mr Joseph Stephens, a railway contractor with the Great Indian Peninsula Railway during the 1860s was perhaps the first Swedish entrepreneur to make a fortune in India.

In 1903, Swedish telecoms giant Ericsson got its first order from India. In 1923, the tobacco company Swedish Match and ball-bearing makers SKF also started operations in India.

Culturally, in 1913 Rabindranath Tagore received the Nobel Prize in Literature. He was the first Indian and non-European to be awarded the Nobel Prize.

Post-1947, when India became independent, Sweden and India came together on many international issues like nuclear disarmament, anti-apartheid, world peace, the six-nation peace initiative. But the one that deserves a special mention is the environment – the most pertinent and persistent subject of the present times.

The 1972 UN Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm was the world’s first conference to make the environment a major global issue. Sweden hosted it and India participated with a delegation led by the then Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

Both countries showed remarkable far-sightedness by realising not only the importance of preserving the environment but also designing progress of people in harmony with the environment.

In 2022, at the Stockholm+50 conference, once again India was represented by a big ministerial delegation led by the environment minister of India, Mr Bhupender Yadav. Today India and Sweden are working together on various green projects like LeadIt, Solar Alliance and so on.

A Venn diagram showing the changing trends of the Sweden-India relations over the years and some of the reasons causing those changes. By: Manu Uniyal

Relations between the two countries have accelerated unprecedentedly since the new Indian government took office in 2014.

Many Indian government initiatives like Make in India, India-Sweden Innovation Partnership for a Sustainable Future, Polar Research, Arctic Council and Space, India-Sweden Innovations’ Accelerator have spawned successes in sectors ranging from research and development to manufacturing.

India is one of the top non-EU import and export trading partners for Sweden. Sweden and India are also signatories to many different treaties, like the agreement for avoidance of double taxation and prevention of tax evasion.

India-Sweden economic relations have grown rapidly in recent years. Today, trade and commerce figures hover around $5 billion. India is the third largest trading partner for Sweden in Asia.

Around 250 Swedish companies are present in India, enjoing the fruits of a growing Indian economy. Indian companies are relatively new entrants in Sweden. Around 75 Indian companies are present in Sweden, growing successfully in sectors like IT, automotive, pharma, bio refinery, power transmission, AI, space et cetera.

Political engagements grew steadily since 1948, then skyrocketed in recent years. There have been more high-level visits between India and Sweden in the past decade than in the 67 years between 1947 and 2014.

Increasing numbers of Swedes and Indians are travelling to each other’s countries for business and pleasure. In 2020 India was among the top ten countries of origin among international overnight tourists in Sweden by number of nights spent. India and the US were the only non-EU countries in the top ten.

So what does this translate into for us, the people?

It means more opportunities for collaboration and creating innovative solutions to many of the global problems. This will lead to an economic ecosystem where many jobs will be created both for Swedes and Indians, allowing them and their future generations to achieve a good quality of life.

But the success of this economic ecosystem will depend on how well Swedes and Indians can work together. To be able to fully capitalise on this potential, both Indians and Swedes will need to integrate with each other as well as they can.

And to do that, we need to be open to learning about each other’s cultures, traditions, values, idiosyncrasies and redefine our knowledge base about each other. If we can do that, then the future of Sweden-India relations looks brighter than ever. And knowing how both the Swedes and Indians aspire to the same goals, with some hard work it is certainly possible.

Sweden and India relations after 75 years of international geopolitical ups and downs are stronger than ever, because at the core of those relations, it has always been about “our” interests – the people of the two countries.

Best wishes,

Manu

The Local would like to thank Manu Uniyal for contributing to this month’s newsletter. Manu is a consultant and writer based in Sweden, working in the areas of India-Nordic geo-politics and economics, innovation and startups.

Here’s what The Local has been writing about for Indians in Sweden:

How many Indians are in Sweden’s top 1% of earners?

You need an annual income of just over 1.2 million kronor (roughly 9.7 million rupee) to be in Sweden’s top one percent of earners, according to a new report based on the highest incomes in 2021. How many Indians in Sweden belong to this group? Exactly 528 people, it turns out.

How many Indians live in Gothenburg?

This month The Local reported that Sweden’s second-largest city, Gothenburg, grew by more than 3,700 people in 2023, passing the 600,000 people milestone in May.

According to number-crunchers Statistics Sweden, 9,392 people born in India lived in Gothenburg in 2022, including 3,974 women and 5,418 men.

A special hello to you if you’re one of them!

Academics in uproar after Sweden cancels research funding

Sweden’s government last month cancelled further funding for development research at just one week’s notice, angering researchers who saw months spent writing applications go to waste. 

The Local spoke to Indian researcher Ashok Swain, head of the Peace and Conflict department at Uppsala University, about what the decision means for Sweden’s international image.

Help us update our recommendations for Indians in Sweden

In 2019 we published a series of articles with recommendations on where in Sweden to find the best of various cultures, including this one about Indian culture.

With the help of readers we listed where to find the spices and ghee to make an authentic meal at home, or events centred on Indian culture. 

But the article is now a few years old, so it may not be up to date. It’s high time to update it, so if you know of any restaurants, businesses or organisations that should be added to this list, please let us know at [email protected]. 

Indian events in Sweden

Are you organising an event for Indians in Sweden? Email us and we’ll share the details in our next newsletter. Please note that the next issue will be out in mid-August, so we won’t be able to publicise events taking place before that.

This newsletter for Indians in Sweden is available to paying members of The Local. To receive it in your inbox every month, update your newsletter settings here.

Would you like to guest edit a future edition of The Local’s Indians in Sweden newsletter? Get in touch with The Local’s editor at [email protected].

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INDIANS IN SWEDEN

My Swedish Career: ‘People in Sweden are warm and welcoming’

IT consultant Debjyoti Paul tells The Local of the Indian society he co-founded in Helsingborg, and why local Swedes' reputation as closed off and reserved may not be true.

Published: 12 April 2024 06:49 CEST
My Swedish Career: 'People in Sweden are warm and welcoming'

Working as an IT consultant for Sogeti, Debjyoti was moved around to various countries as part of different projects throughout his career. In 2014, he finished a job in England, after which he was sent to Sweden to work with companies such as Ikea in designing new systems and upgrading their old systems.

However, once he arrived in Helsingborg he missed the Indian culture.

“Once you are away from home, you want your culture, your tradition, you want to remain in touch with your roots and you want your family, especially the younger generations, to also have some kind of attachment with the traditional stuff,” he tells The Local.

As a result, Debjyoti helped set up Sambandh, a society to connect the more than 2,000 Indians based in Helsingborg, many drawn there, as Debjyoti, by Ikea’s IT development hub in the city.

The society aims to help Indian newcomers have a smooth integration process in Sweden, by providing information and translation assistance.

“We also focus on helping them with basic stuff like how to open an account in the bank, guidance on getting a driving licence in Sweden, so that it is easier for them to seamlessly integrate locally. We also help with information about the school system and the healthcare system,” says Debjyoti.

“It is not easy for a new person coming in here and knowing all this, especially as most of the things are written in Swedish.”

More than 2,000 Indians live in Helsingborg. Photo: Sambandh

The society also regularly collaborates with the Indian embassy to organise an “Indian Embassy Consular Camp” which allows Indians in Helsingborg to use the embassy’s services without having to travel for five to six hours to Stockholm.

The name of the community comes from the Hindi word sambandh, meaning relationship, which is similar to samband, the Swedish word for connection. Sambandh has grown to over 400 members, welcoming everyone no matter their background.

“We only have one event which is specific to our members, that is our members’ picnic, which happens every summer. Other than that, all our events are open to all and we invite all other communities. We advertise locally and try to get people from different backgrounds into our events,” says Debjyoti.

“We even have certain religious events, but even those events are open to all, open to people from all religions. We love the attention that we get from different communities, from people from different backgrounds, different countries, different religions, speaking different languages,” he says. “So if you are at any of our events, you will see so many different kinds of people.”

Holi or Indisk Fiesta is another event that is celebrated by the society with the aim of welcoming springtime. Along with that they celebrate World Environment Day to inspire their younger members to care for their surroundings.

“We encourage our kids to participate in World Environment Day. They make small projects, they plant trees, they talk about and learn about recycling stuff. We make them aware of the environment and everything that day,” he says.

Sambandh organises, among other things, an event called Indisk Fiesta. Photo: Sambandh

Sambandh’s sports club also plays an important role, keeping the society’s members fit and healthy.

“There is a typical habit within the Indians. Once we have families, we get more focused on our kids and we spend all our energy on our kids’ education, kids’ sports activities, kids’ cultural activities. We forget about ourselves. So, we encourage our members to participate in sports. In India, sports like cricket and badminton are very popular, but with the help of local sports bodies, we encourage our members to participate in sports like padel, which is more popular in Sweden.”

When Debjyoti and his family moved to Sweden in 2014, their son was just one year old, and he got a place in a local preschool. Both Debjyoti and his wife thought it would be best to settle down since it would be difficult for their son to be moved around from country to country due to their work. He also says that Sweden is a great country to raise a child in.

“Gradually we liked Sweden because of the work-life balance, the equality, and several other good stuff. Especially when you are a family with a kid, Sweden is like a paradise. So then gradually we made Sweden our home and we continued staying here.”

When they bought their home in Helsingborg, they received a warm welcome from their neighbours, and he said that they continue to do so.

“I bought a house outside Helsingborg in a village, and a lot of people advised me not to, because they felt local Swedish people are not very open. They don’t become friends very easily. But I had a completely different experience and I was so well supported by my neighbours,” says Debjyoti.

“They even mowed my garden when I was away for a month to India. And I returned the favour. When they were on their way to the recycling centre, they used to knock on my door: ‘Do you have anything to throw away? Then I can help you,’ and I was like, OK, what I heard is probably not true. People are warm, they are welcoming. So I actually have a very, very positive view of Swedes.”

As president of Sambandh, Debjyoti is tasked with keeping the society’s aim in the forefront.

“My main objective is to keep our objective in mind and make sure the organisation is driven in a way so that we become a melting pot for all the different communities, the local Swedish community, the other immigrant communities. And of course, so that our kids, our future generations, remain rooted to their traditions,” he says.

He hopes to see the younger generations take over Sambandh so that it keeps going and growing.

“We would love to have our younger generation to manage and drive these events because they are more exposed to the local culture because they are in the local schools and all, which is of course good. It is easier for them to integrate completely.”

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