India-Tanzania relations are the warm, long-standing ties between the Republic of India and the United Republic of Tanzania, rooted in centuries of Indian Ocean trade between the Indian west coast and the East African coast, and elevated to a strategic partnership in October 2023. The relationship combines a historic Gujarati and Indian-origin presence in Zanzibar and mainland Tanzania with present-day cooperation in defence, education, water supply, health, trade and maritime security.
Tanzania is one of the larger East African economies and a key partner in India’s outreach to Africa, while India is among Tanzania’s major trading partners and a source of concessional finance. This explainer traces the history, the structure of cooperation, the flagship projects and the issues that shape the partnership.
| Attribute | Detail |
|---|---|
| Countries | Republic of India and the United Republic of Tanzania |
| Formation of Tanzania | Union of Tanganyika and Zanzibar in 1964 |
| Historic link | Monsoon-wind dhow trade between Gujarat, Kutch, the Malabar coast and the Swahili coast |
| Capital and commercial centre | Dodoma (official capital); Dar es Salaam (largest city and commercial hub) |
| Status of ties | Strategic partnership, announced in October 2023 |
| Flagship education project | IIT Madras Zanzibar campus, India’s first IIT campus abroad |
| Key development area | Water-supply projects financed through Indian lines of credit |
| Multilateral links | Both are members of the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA), the Commonwealth and the Non-Aligned Movement |
Key Takeaways
- India-Tanzania relations date back many centuries to dhow trade across the Indian Ocean, which linked the Gujarat and Malabar coasts of India with the Swahili coast and Zanzibar.
- India and Tanzania elevated their relationship to a strategic partnership in October 2023, during the visit of Tanzania’s President Samia Suluhu Hassan to India.
- Tanzania is home to a sizeable community of Indian origin, historically descended largely from Gujarati and Kutchi traders and concentrated in Dar es Salaam, Zanzibar and other urban centres.
- The Indian Institute of Technology Madras opened a campus in Zanzibar in 2023, the first IIT campus outside India.
- India has financed water-supply projects in Tanzania, including in Zanzibar, through concessional lines of credit extended via the Export-Import Bank of India.
- India and Tanzania cooperate on defence and maritime security, including training, naval visits and joint exercises in the western Indian Ocean.
How old are India-Tanzania relations?
India-Tanzania relations are many centuries old, dating from the period when seasonal monsoon winds carried Indian merchants by dhow to the East African coast. The wind system allowed vessels to sail south-west from India towards Africa in winter and return in summer, and this rhythm sustained regular commerce for well over a thousand years.
Zanzibar was the key node on the East African side. Indian traders from Gujarat, Kutch and the western coast supplied textiles, beads, grain and other goods, and took back ivory, cloves, timber and other products. Indian financiers and merchants also became important to the economy of the Sultanate of Zanzibar in the nineteenth century, and the Indian rupee circulated in East Africa until the early twentieth century.
The colonial and independence era
During the colonial period, Indians came to East Africa as traders, clerks, artisans and railway workers, and the community developed its own schools, temples, mosques and associations. India’s nationalist leaders took an interest in the anti-colonial struggle in Africa, and Mahatma Gandhi’s earlier work in South Africa had already linked Indian and African political debates.
Tanganyika became independent in 1961 and Zanzibar in 1963, with the two merging in April 1964 to form Tanzania. India recognised the new state, and Julius Nyerere, Tanzania’s first president, and India’s leaders shared a commitment to non-alignment, decolonisation and South-South cooperation.
Who are the Indian-origin community in Tanzania?
The Indian-origin community in Tanzania consists of several tens of thousands of people of Indian descent, including long-settled families and more recent migrants, many of whom trace their roots to Gujarat. They include Hindus, Muslims of different sects such as Ismailis and Bohras, Sikhs and Jains, and they are mainly based in Dar es Salaam, Zanzibar, Arusha, Mwanza and other cities.
Estimates of the community’s size vary depending on whether holders of Tanzanian citizenship, persons of Indian origin and Indian nationals are counted separately, so a precise figure is not settled. Community members are active in trade, manufacturing, real estate, hospitality, education and the professions. Their institutions, from schools to hospitals and charitable trusts, form part of the social fabric of Tanzania’s cities.
A bridge between societies
The community has been described by both governments as a living bridge. Swahili contains words borrowed from Gujarati, Hindi and Urdu, and Indian food, music and cinema are widely known in Tanzania. In the other direction, Tanzanian students and professionals travel to India for education and medical care.
What is the India-Tanzania strategic partnership?
The India-Tanzania strategic partnership is the upgraded framework for bilateral relations announced in October 2023, covering political dialogue, defence and security, maritime cooperation, trade and investment, development partnership, health, education and culture. It was declared during President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s visit to India, when the two sides signed several agreements.
The partnership builds on earlier steps, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Dar es Salaam in July 2016, when the two countries committed to expanding cooperation in water, development and trade. Foreign-ministry consultations, joint commissions and trade dialogues give the relationship a regular institutional rhythm.
| Area | Examples of cooperation |
|---|---|
| Political | High-level visits, foreign-office consultations, support in multilateral forums |
| Defence and security | Training, naval visits and exercises, a joint defence cooperation committee |
| Maritime | Blue economy, hydrography, port visits, the western Indian Ocean |
| Education | IIT Madras Zanzibar campus, scholarships, training programmes |
| Development | Water-supply projects under lines of credit, capacity building |
| Trade and investment | Pulses, cashew, minerals, pharmaceuticals, vehicles and machinery |
| Health | Medical travel, generic medicines, hospital collaboration |
How do India and Tanzania cooperate on defence?
India and Tanzania cooperate on defence through training of Tanzanian military personnel in Indian institutions, visits by Indian naval ships, joint exercises and structured dialogue between the two defence establishments. The Tanzania People’s Defence Force (TPDF) has sent officers to Indian military colleges, and India has provided slots under its Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) programme.
A defence line of credit and the supply of defence equipment and services have also formed part of the discussion on deepening the relationship, and the two sides have a joint committee that reviews cooperation. In April 2024 India and Tanzania co-hosted the Africa-India Key Maritime Engagement (AIKEYME) exercise at Dar es Salaam, bringing together navies from India and several African countries.
Why the Indian Ocean matters
Both nations border the Indian Ocean, and the western Indian Ocean is a major corridor for energy supplies and trade. Common concerns include piracy, illegal fishing, trafficking and the safety of sea lanes. Cooperation helps India extend its maritime presence, and it helps Tanzania build the capability to secure its long coastline and exclusive economic zone.
What is the IIT Madras Zanzibar campus?
The IIT Madras Zanzibar campus is the first overseas campus of an Indian Institute of Technology, established in Zanzibar, Tanzania, with teaching beginning in November 2023. The decision followed a memorandum of understanding signed in 2023 between the Government of India, the Government of Zanzibar and the Indian Institute of Technology Madras.
The campus offers undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in areas such as data science and artificial intelligence, and is intended to serve students from Tanzania and the wider African region, as well as those from other countries. It forms part of India’s broader approach of offering skills and education as a form of development partnership.
Education and capacity building beyond Zanzibar
Beyond the Zanzibar campus, India has supported Tanzanian education through ITEC training slots, Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) scholarships and institutional links. Tanzanians have long studied in Indian universities, and Indian teachers and doctors have served in Tanzania since the decades after independence.
What development projects has India supported in Tanzania?
India has supported development in Tanzania mainly through concessional lines of credit, grants and capacity-building programmes, with water supply as the most prominent sector. The Export-Import Bank of India (Exim Bank) extends lines of credit on behalf of the Government of India, and these are used by the borrowing government to contract Indian companies for specified projects.
- Water supply: Indian lines of credit have financed water-supply projects for towns in mainland Tanzania and for Unguja and Pemba islands in Zanzibar, supplying drinking water to a large number of people.
- Technology and training: India supported capacity-building institutions and information-technology training through ITEC and the Pan-African e-Network project, which connected African institutions with Indian universities and hospitals.
- Agriculture and industry: Indian assistance has included cooperation in agriculture, small industry and skills development, and Indian firms have established factories.
- Health: Indian-made medicines, hospital partnerships and the provision of medical treatment in India for Tanzanian patients are part of the relationship.
The scale of lines of credit has run into several hundred million US dollars across projects, but figures differ by source and by what is counted as approved, signed or disbursed, so readers should treat any single number with caution.
What is the state of India-Tanzania trade and investment?
India-Tanzania trade is substantial by African standards, with India among Tanzania’s largest trading partners and bilateral trade reaching several billion US dollars in recent years. The figures change from year to year with commodity prices and demand, so they are best read as a range rather than a fixed number.
| Direction | Principal items |
|---|---|
| Indian exports to Tanzania | Pharmaceuticals, vehicles and auto parts, machinery, textiles, agricultural inputs, electrical goods |
| Indian imports from Tanzania | Pulses such as pigeon peas, cashew nuts, other agricultural products, minerals and metals, and some energy-related items |
Tanzania is an important supplier of pulses to India, and the two countries have arrangements to support the pulse trade. Indian companies have invested in Tanzania in sectors including pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, mining, agri-processing, telecommunications and services, and Indian business associations are active in Dar es Salaam.
Opportunities and constraints
- Opportunities exist in agro-processing, pharmaceuticals, digital payments, renewable energy and the blue economy.
- Constraints include logistics costs, regulatory changes, financing gaps and differing standards.
- Both governments have discussed ways to reduce non-tariff barriers and to promote payments in local currencies.
What role does Zanzibar play in India-Tanzania relations?
Zanzibar plays a distinctive role in India-Tanzania relations because it holds the deepest historical ties with India and because several current projects, including the IIT Madras campus and water-supply schemes, are located there. Zanzibar has its own semi-autonomous government within the United Republic of Tanzania, so cooperation often involves both the Union Government and the Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar.
The islands’ old Stone Town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, contains Indian-style carved doors, mosques, temples and merchants’ houses that testify to centuries of Indian presence. Freddie Mercury, the singer born in Zanzibar to a Parsi family from Gujarat, is one of the better-known people of Indian descent to emerge from the island.
How do India and Tanzania work together in multilateral forums?
India and Tanzania work together in multilateral forums as members of the United Nations, the Commonwealth, the Non-Aligned Movement and the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA). They often share positions on development, climate finance, reform of global institutions and the interests of the Global South.
India’s role in the India-Africa Forum Summit process, and the admission of the African Union as a permanent member of the G20 at the New Delhi summit in 2023, have increased India’s engagement with African states. Tanzania has been a regular participant in such dialogues, and the two countries cooperate on issues such as vaccine access, food security and the blue economy.
What are the challenges in India-Tanzania relations?
The main challenges in India-Tanzania relations are the modest scale of some sectors compared with potential, the pace of project implementation, competition from other partners in Africa, and the practical difficulty of financing and logistics. Both governments acknowledge these issues and have set out to address them in the strategic partnership.
- Delays in completing lines-of-credit projects can arise from procurement and administrative processes.
- Tanzania engages with many partners, including China, the European Union, Gulf states and the United States, so India competes for attention and contracts.
- Trade is uneven, with Tanzania’s exports concentrated in a few commodities.
- Visa, banking and shipping connections require continued improvement.
What is the outlook for India-Tanzania relations?
The outlook for India-Tanzania relations is of steady deepening, driven by shared maritime interests, the Indian-origin community, education and skills cooperation, and growing commercial links. The strategic partnership gives both sides a framework for more frequent dialogue and for coordinating projects.
The areas to watch include the expansion of the IIT Madras Zanzibar campus, the completion of water projects, the development of the blue economy, defence cooperation in the western Indian Ocean, and trade in pulses and processed agricultural goods. Because the relationship is built on long historical foundations, it has generally been resilient to political change in either country.
Bottom Line
India-Tanzania relations draw on centuries of Indian Ocean trade and a large Indian-origin community, and they were formally raised to a strategic partnership in October 2023. Education through the IIT Madras Zanzibar campus, water-supply projects, defence and maritime cooperation, and growing trade give the partnership both depth and practical content.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the status of India-Tanzania relations?
India and Tanzania have a strategic partnership, announced in October 2023 during the visit of Tanzania’s President Samia Suluhu Hassan to India. The partnership covers political, defence, maritime, economic, educational and development cooperation.
Why are India and Tanzania historically close?
India and Tanzania are historically close because of centuries of dhow trade across the Indian Ocean, in which Gujarati and other Indian merchants settled in Zanzibar and the East African coast. This produced a large Indian-origin community and cultural exchange that continue today.
What is the IIT Madras Zanzibar campus?
The IIT Madras Zanzibar campus is the first overseas campus of an Indian Institute of Technology. It began teaching in November 2023 and offers programmes in fields such as data science and artificial intelligence to students from Africa and beyond.
How does India help Tanzania with development?
India helps Tanzania through concessional lines of credit, grants, training and technical cooperation. Water-supply projects, including in Zanzibar, are among the best-known examples, and many Tanzanians receive training through the ITEC programme.
What do India and Tanzania trade?
India sells Tanzania pharmaceuticals, vehicles, machinery, textiles and similar goods, while Tanzania sells India pulses, cashew nuts, other agricultural products and minerals. Bilateral trade has been in the range of several billion US dollars in recent years, and the exact figures vary by year.
Do India and Tanzania cooperate on defence?
Yes, India and Tanzania cooperate on defence through training, ship visits, joint exercises and a joint cooperation mechanism. In April 2024 the two countries co-hosted the Africa-India Key Maritime Engagement exercise at Dar es Salaam.
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