The Indian community in Tanzania has genuinely ancient roots -- Indian craftsmen were documented in Zanzibar as early as the 13th-14th centuries -- with the current community estimated at roughly 40,000 Persons of Indian Origin (per the High Commission of India, Dar es Salaam's current figure, though an older 2015 MEA estimate cites roughly 60,000) concentrated in Dar es Salaam, Arusha, and Zanzibar. Foreign nationals working in Tanzania generally require a Class A, B, or C residence and work permit depending on their role.
A community with roots to the 13th century
The Indian community in Tanzania has a genuinely old history among the countries this platform
covers. Indian craftsmen were documented in Zanzibar as early as the 13th-14th centuries -- including
glass-bead manufacturing using tube-drawing technology -- and Indian trade links to Zanzibar and Kilwa
Kisiwani were already established by the time of Vasco da Gama's arrival in the late 15th century.
Gujarati traders came to dominate Zanzibar's commerce through the colonial period, and several historic
Indian-built buildings remain standing in Zanzibar's Stone Town today. A Dawoodi Bohra community --
Gujarati merchants who settled via dhow trade routes from roughly the 18th-19th centuries -- today
numbers around 13,000 across Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda combined, with institutions including Saifee
Hospital in Dar es Salaam. This platform explicitly did not find reliable evidence that Tanzania's
German-era Central Line railway (construction began 1905) used indentured Indian labor comparable to
the well-documented Uganda Railway, and is careful not to extend that narrative -- which properly
belongs to Kenya and Uganda's history -- to Tanzania without direct support.
Population estimates, and a distinctive recent milestone
Population estimates for the current community conflict across sources this platform found: the
High Commission of India, Dar es Salaam's own bilateral-relations page currently cites roughly 40,000
Persons of Indian Origin (mostly from Gujarat) plus 15,000-20,000 Indian national expatriates, while an
older 2015 Ministry of External Affairs figure cites roughly 60,000 PIOs plus roughly 10,000 Indian
nationals. This platform anchors on the HCI figure as the more current source while flagging the
discrepancy. The community is concentrated in Dar es Salaam, Arusha, and Zanzibar. A genuinely
distinctive and very recent milestone: IIT Madras opened its first-ever offshore campus in Zanzibar in
November 2023, positioning the island as a regional education hub.
Work and residence permits -- three classes
Foreign nationals working in Tanzania fall into one of three residence-and-work-permit classes,
confirmed via the Tanzania High Commission, New Delhi's own India-facing services page: Class A for
employed foreign investors in designated sectors (industry, mining, forestry, social services,
business), requiring a minimum USD 300,000 capital investment if not routed through the Tanzania
Investment Centre; Class B for foreigners employed by Tanzanian companies or institutions needing
specialized or rare professional skills; and Class C for missionaries, researchers, students,
volunteers, and retirees. Applications are generally lodged while the applicant is outside Tanzania,
with the High Commission in New Delhi processing applications for Indian applicants.
Common mistakes people connected to Tanzania make:
- Assuming a business visa alone is sufficient for long-term work in Tanzania, without securing
the separate Class A, B, or C permit.
- Assuming the well-documented Kenya/Uganda railway indentured-labor history applies to Tanzania
as well, when this platform found no support for that specific claim.
- Overlooking that OCI status does not substitute for Tanzania's own immigration formalities.
