India-Uganda relations are the long-standing bilateral partnership between the Republic of India and the Republic of Uganda, rooted in more than a century of Indian migration to East Africa, interrupted by the 1972 expulsion of Asians under Idi Amin, and rebuilt since the 1990s through Indian investment, concessional credit, defence training and political dialogue. Uganda has one of the most visible Indian-origin communities in Africa, and Indian businesses are among the largest foreign investors in the country.
The relationship gained new momentum in July 2018, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the Ugandan Parliament and set out ten guiding principles for India’s engagement with Africa. This explainer covers the history, the Amin years, the return of Indian-origin entrepreneurs, trade and investment, development assistance, defence and cultural links, and the challenges that remain. Figures are rounded and hedged because official statistics change from year to year. Last reviewed: 17 October 2026.
| Attribute | Detail |
|---|---|
| Uganda’s independence | 9 October 1962, from British rule |
| Missions | High Commission of India in Kampala; High Commission of Uganda in New Delhi |
| Historical link | Indian labourers and traders arrived in the late nineteenth century, during construction of the Uganda Railway |
| Defining rupture | Idi Amin’s expulsion order of August 1972, which forced tens of thousands of Asians to leave |
| Return of investors | Policy of welcoming back exiled Asians and returning property began in the early 1990s under President Yoweri Museveni |
| Landmark visit | Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Kampala, July 2018 |
| Cultural landmark | Part of Mahatma Gandhi’s ashes were immersed at the source of the Nile at Jinja in 1948 |
| Main economic ties | Indian investment in sugar, pharmaceuticals, telecommunications and manufacturing; Indian exports of medicines, vehicles and machinery |
Key Takeaways
- India-Uganda relations draw on a migration history that began in the 1890s, when Indian workers helped build the Uganda Railway and Indian traders settled across the East African interior.
- Idi Amin ordered the expulsion of Uganda’s Asian population in August 1972, and tens of thousands left the country, many for Britain, Canada and India.
- From the early 1990s, President Yoweri Museveni invited Asian entrepreneurs back and returned many seized properties, and Indian-origin business families rebuilt major enterprises in sugar, steel and trade.
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s July 2018 visit to Kampala was the first bilateral Indian prime ministerial visit to Uganda in decades, and it produced the ten guiding principles of India-Africa engagement.
- India has offered Uganda lines of credit, training and scholarships, and it has supported the Ugandan military through training and the Senior Command and Staff College at Kimaka, Jinja.
- Indian-origin companies such as the Madhvani Group and Mehta Group, along with Bharti Airtel and Cipla-linked pharmaceutical manufacturing, are among the best-known Indian names in the Ugandan economy.
How did the Indian presence in Uganda begin?
The Indian presence in Uganda began in the 1890s, when the British colonial administration recruited thousands of indentured workers, mostly from Punjab and Gujarat, to build the Uganda Railway from Mombasa on the Kenyan coast toward Lake Victoria. Many of the workers returned to India after their contracts ended, but a significant number stayed in East Africa and set up as shopkeepers, artisans, clerks and traders.
Trading connections were older still. Gujarati merchants had been active on the Swahili coast for centuries, and they extended their networks inland as the railway opened new markets. By the early twentieth century, Indian families dominated retail and wholesale trade, cotton ginning, and later sugar and manufacturing in Uganda. The colonial system placed Asians in a middle position between British administrators and African farmers, a structure that created economic success but also lasting social tension.
The Indian independence movement was closely followed by the community. Mahatma Gandhi had begun his public career in South Africa and kept links with Indians across Africa. After Gandhi’s assassination in 1948, a portion of his ashes was carried to Uganda and immersed at the source of the Nile at Jinja, where a memorial now stands. The site remains a symbol of the connection between the two countries.
What happened in 1972 when Idi Amin expelled Uganda’s Asians?
In August 1972, Ugandan President Idi Amin announced that Asians would be expelled from Uganda and gave them 90 days to leave, a decision that affected tens of thousands of people, most of them of Indian origin. Amin had seized power in a coup in January 1971, and he justified the order as an effort to transfer economic control to black Ugandans.
Estimates of the number affected vary, but roughly 50,000 to 80,000 people are commonly cited. Many held British passports, and the United Kingdom admitted a large share, often cited as about 27,000. Canada accepted several thousand, and India took in thousands more, with others going to Kenya, Pakistan, the United States, Sweden and other countries. Many families left with little more than a small cash allowance, and their businesses, homes and land were seized or redistributed.
The expulsion damaged Uganda’s economy because Asian entrepreneurs ran much of its commerce and industry. Production in sugar, tea and manufacturing fell, and the country entered a long period of instability. Amin was overthrown in 1979 after a war involving Tanzanian forces and Ugandan exiles. The episode remains a defining and painful chapter for many Indian-origin families, and it also shaped India’s cautious engagement with Uganda during the following years.
How did Indian-origin investors return to Uganda?
Indian-origin investors returned to Uganda after President Yoweri Museveni took power in 1986 and, in the early 1990s, publicly invited exiled Asians to come back and reclaim their expropriated property. The government created a mechanism for returning seized assets, and it combined that step with economic liberalisation, investment incentives and efforts to restore the rule of law.
Several well-known business families returned and rebuilt. The Madhvani Group, whose sugar operations at Kakira in eastern Uganda date back to the 1920s, recovered its assets and expanded into sugar, power, steel and other sectors. The Mehta Group, which operates the Sugar Corporation of Uganda at Lugazi, likewise returned and resumed large-scale operations. Both groups are among the biggest private employers in the country.
Not every returning family reclaimed its former assets. Many were unable to do so, and newer migrants from India arrived during the 1990s and 2000s to work in trade, construction, education and services. The community today is often estimated at around 30,000 or more people, which is far below its pre-1972 size, yet it remains economically influential relative to its numbers.
Why the return matters for bilateral ties
The return of Indian-origin entrepreneurs gave India-Uganda relations a durable commercial backbone. Business families act as informal ambassadors, and their investments created employment, tax revenue and supply chains that link the Indian and Ugandan economies.
What did Narendra Modi’s 2018 visit to Uganda achieve?
Narendra Modi’s July 2018 visit to Uganda achieved a political reset of the relationship, a package of development commitments and a statement of principles for India’s wider Africa policy. Modi was the first Indian prime minister to make a bilateral visit to Uganda in decades; Manmohan Singh had travelled to Kampala in 2007 only for a multilateral Commonwealth summit. Modi was received by President Museveni and addressed the Parliament of Uganda.
In that speech, Modi announced ten guiding principles for India-Africa engagement, often called the Kampala Principles. The principles placed Africa at the top of India’s priorities, promised partnership on terms set by African needs rather than by conditionality, and committed India to support local jobs and skills, open its markets to African goods, back African positions on global governance including United Nations Security Council reform, and cooperate on digital technology, climate and maritime security.
The visit also produced announcements on lines of credit, reported at around 200 million US dollars for electricity transmission and for agriculture and dairy, along with agreements on defence cooperation, cultural exchange and other areas. Modi also announced that India would open several new diplomatic missions in Africa in the following years, a plan meant to broaden Indian representation beyond the traditional capitals.
What do India and Uganda trade with each other?
India and Uganda trade a mix of Indian manufactured goods and Ugandan commodities, with bilateral trade usually estimated at somewhat over one billion US dollars a year, depending on the year and the commodity prices. The balance has generally favoured India, which sells more to Uganda than it buys.
| Direction | Main items |
|---|---|
| India to Uganda | Pharmaceuticals, vehicles and auto parts, machinery, electrical equipment, plastics, textiles, rice and food products |
| Uganda to India | Agricultural products such as coffee and oilseeds, hides and skins, minerals and some metals |
| Investment | Sugar, steel, telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, real estate, education and retail |
India has been counted among the top sources of foreign investment in Uganda by number of projects licensed, according to Ugandan investment agency data in different years, with Indian and Indian-origin companies active across manufacturing and services. Bharti Airtel operates Airtel Uganda, one of the country’s main mobile networks. Indian pharmaceutical firms supply generic medicines, and a Kampala manufacturer, Quality Chemical Industries, linked to the Indian company Cipla, produces antiretroviral drugs and other essential medicines for the region.
What development assistance does India provide to Uganda?
India provides development assistance to Uganda mainly through concessional lines of credit, technical training under the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) programme, scholarships and project support. Lines of credit are extended through the Export-Import Bank of India (EXIM Bank) on behalf of the Ministry of External Affairs, and they have supported electricity transmission and distribution, agriculture and dairy, water and industrial equipment.
ITEC, launched in 1964, offers Ugandan civil servants, engineers, health workers and teachers courses in India. The Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) offers scholarships for university study. India’s Pan-African e-Network project, which linked African institutions with Indian hospitals and universities, included Uganda. At the 2015 India-Africa Forum Summit, India pledged up to 10 billion US dollars in concessional credit over five years and 600 million US dollars in grants to Africa as a whole.
The assistance model differs from some other donors in that it is demand-driven and does not attach political conditions, a point often stressed by Indian officials. Critics, including some African analysts, note that credit lines tie purchases to Indian suppliers and that completion of projects can be slow, which are fair questions to monitor.
How do India and Uganda cooperate on defence and security?
India and Uganda cooperate on defence and security mainly through military training, institutional support and dialogue on counter-terrorism and peacekeeping. Ugandan officers attend courses at Indian military institutions, and India has supported the Senior Command and Staff College at Kimaka, Jinja, a mid-level officer training institution for the Uganda People’s Defence Force.
An agreement on defence cooperation was signed during the 2018 visit. India and Uganda are both significant contributors to international peace efforts, and Uganda has been a major troop contributor to the African Union Mission in Somalia, now known by a successor name. India, for its part, has contributed more United Nations peacekeepers than almost any other country across its history, so the two sides share practical experience.
The partnership also includes cooperation on maritime issues in the wider Indian Ocean region and on cyber and intelligence-related topics at a lower profile. The security relationship remains modest compared with the commercial and cultural ties.
Why is cricket and culture important to the relationship?
Cricket and culture matter to the relationship because they reflect the daily presence of Indian traditions in Ugandan life. Cricket arrived in Uganda through British colonial and Asian communities, and the national team has grown to be among the stronger associate sides in Africa, qualifying for the men’s T20 World Cup for the first time in 2024.
Indian festivals such as Diwali and Holi are celebrated in Kampala, Jinja and other towns, and Hindu temples, Sikh gurdwaras, Jain temples and Ismaili centres are visible parts of the urban landscape. The Indian High Commission runs cultural events, Yoga Day programmes and Bollywood screenings. Gandhi’s memorial at Jinja draws Indian visitors and officials, and Gandhi commemorations are held on his birth anniversary.
What challenges remain in India-Uganda relations?
The main challenges in India-Uganda relations are the memory of the 1972 expulsion, uneven project delivery, competition from other partners, and the need to widen a relationship still dominated by a few business groups. Some Ugandans resent perceptions that Asian business families dominate certain sectors, while some Indian-origin Ugandans still feel the effects of historical dispossession.
On the economic side, India competes with China, the Gulf states, Turkey and Western partners for contracts and influence in East Africa. Indian companies also face challenges from taxation disputes, regulatory changes, and the high cost of doing business in a landlocked country dependent on transit routes through Kenya and Tanzania. On the diplomatic side, India has generally avoided public criticism of Uganda’s domestic politics, while partners elsewhere have raised concerns about governance and human rights; analysts differ on whether this restraint helps or hurts India’s standing.
Bottom Line
India-Uganda relations combine a century of shared history, the scar of 1972 and a business-driven recovery that began in the 1990s. The 2018 Modi visit and the Kampala Principles raised the relationship’s political profile, but the next step is delivering projects and broadening trade beyond a handful of companies.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why did Idi Amin expel Indians from Uganda?
Idi Amin expelled Asians from Uganda in 1972 because he said he wanted to transfer economic control to black Ugandans. He announced the decision in August 1972 and gave a 90-day deadline. Estimates of those affected range from about 50,000 to 80,000, most of Indian origin.
Where did the expelled Ugandan Asians go?
The expelled Ugandan Asians went mainly to the United Kingdom, Canada and India, with smaller numbers settling in Kenya, Pakistan, the United States and elsewhere. The United Kingdom admitted roughly 27,000 people, according to commonly cited figures. Canada took several thousand and India took in thousands more.
When did Narendra Modi visit Uganda?
Narendra Modi visited Uganda in July 2018, in the course of an Africa tour that also included Rwanda and South Africa. He addressed the Ugandan Parliament and announced ten guiding principles for India’s engagement with Africa. The visit was the first bilateral visit by an Indian prime minister to Uganda in decades.
How many Indians live in Uganda today?
The Indian-origin community in Uganda is commonly estimated at around 30,000 or more people, including Indian nationals and people of Indian origin who hold Ugandan citizenship. That is far below the pre-1972 population. The community remains influential in sugar, steel, retail, education and services.
Is India a major investor in Uganda?
India has been among the largest sources of foreign investment in Uganda by number of licensed projects, according to Ugandan investment data in different years. Indian and Indian-origin companies operate in sugar, telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing and real estate. Exact investment rankings change from year to year, so current data should be checked.
What is the Gandhi connection to Uganda?
Mahatma Gandhi has a direct connection to Uganda because part of his ashes was immersed at the source of the Nile at Jinja in 1948. A memorial at the site marks the event. The location is a symbol of the cultural bond between India and Uganda.
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