Uganda is home to one of the most dramatic chapters in the Indian diaspora's global history. Indentured labourers built the Uganda Railway from 1896, Gujarati traders built commercial life in Kampala and Jinja through the early 1900s, and in 1972 Idi Amin's expulsion order forced roughly 80,000 people of Indian descent to leave the country within 90 days, with departing families limited to USD 120 in cash and 220 kilograms of belongings. Since the mid-1980s, under a restitution policy pursued by President Museveni's government, many families have returned and rebuilt -- most visibly the century-old Mehta Group and Madhvani Group business houses. The current community is estimated at roughly 35,000 (per the High Commission of India, Kampala), concentrated in Kampala and Jinja. Legal questions that reach back into India -- property, succession, taxation -- apply the same underlying Indian law regardless of country of residence, alongside Uganda-specific realities such as Uganda not being a Hague Apostille Convention member, the Expropriated Properties Act, 1982 restitution framework for Amin-era confiscated property, and the Succession (Amendment) Act, 2022's major gender-equality reforms. Seven dedicated Uganda guides are live below.
