Indianization of SouthEast Asia

The term ‘Indianization’ has had tremendous cultural influence on Southeast Asia, and Indian cultural transformations have carried its peaceful and non-political impact throughout. The voluntary acceptance of the Southeast Asians towards the Indian cultural elements has formulated the long-grown interactions between them.

The contemporary nations of Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar (Burma), Singapore, Timor Liste (East Timor), the Philippines and Việt Nam historically enclosed a broad region immensely affected by Indian, Islamic, Chinese and eventually, European civilizations. Southeast Asia has its aboriginal particularities and variations that has created a distinctive region, too.

Hindi Language in SouthEast Asia

Among the 7,099 languages still alive, South Asia, variegated linguistically, has four language families with its share of more than 650 individual languages, according to organisers of the ongoing 13th International Conference of South Asian Languages and Literatures in Mysuru.

If we take the world perspective, Hindi ranks in the second position as per the number of speakers around the globe. Today, vigorous and sundry Hindu communities spread across Southeast Asia remain primarily in Singapore, Malaysia, Medan (Indonesia), Thailand and the Philippines, with its presence among Indians. Tamil people had migrated from the Indian subcontinent to Southeast Asia in preceding centuries.

Examples of Hindi Influence on Southeast Asian Countries

In Cambodia and Thailand, Khmer and Thai residents followed Hindu rituals and traditions alongside their Buddhist faith, and Hindu gods are still worshipped.

One momentas Southeast Asian aspect of Tamil Hinduism is the festival of Thaipusam, while other Hindu religious festivals such as Diwali are also well-observed by Hindus in the region.

The potential market for Bollywood in Southeast Asia, strengthening the Hindi influence, sustains on the large Indian Diaspora and constricted production capacity of indigenous film industries. The significance of Hindi movies is rising beyond the Little India in Singapore. Indian movie telecasts in Indonesia have been quite an inclusion, and Indian movies have started to be released with the regional language subtitles in Southeast Asian countries.

Influence through Hindi Cinema

Geographical reliability, cost-effective filming, and the indisputably have made Southeast Asia a winning destination for the Hindi cinema, to the extent that some Indian directors prefer basing the whole script in various corners of Southeast Asia. Some contemporary movies like Murder, Zinda, Anthony Kaun Hai, Don have been filmed completely in Thailand and Malaysia.

A full-blown Indian tv channel Vasantham is running in Singapore where Hindi, Tamil and other Indian language-based movies will be showcased on this channel. Adlabs Films Ltd, an Anil Ambani group's company has circulated a joint endeavour with Malaysian company, Lotus Five Star Cinemas, to function a 51-megaplex chain in Malaysia to utilize the existing Hindi market for Indian movies in Malaysia.

Historical Influences of Hindi

Multiple generations of Indians migrating to South East Asia spreading over a period of more than 1200 years and their intermixing with the locals formed the ground for Indian culture all across the region, according to a new genetic study released on Thursday. 

Instances of the Hindi influence scattered in this era throughout Southeast Asia roots back to the legacy of the Chola dynasty. The Chola school of art also transpired to Southeast Asia and influenced the language, architecture and art of Southeast Asia.

Various perspectives of looking at the multi-influence contest the Indocentric view that shows the total transplantation of Indian culture. More conclusive would be the whole process of Indian linguistic and cultural influence through an interaction between Hindi and Southeast Asia. Despite a cultural rapprochement between these two regions, it was not a transplantation of one culture upon another. It was the answer of the local Asians, who preferred those aspects of an external culture.