History and Insight: Exploring Thailand's Indian Community [S5.E48]

One of the great things about Thai culture is the many
facets that make up the whole. One of them is the Indian
community, and Greg is happy to welcome Ram Sachdev, a first
generation Thai-Indian and founder of Masala
Magazine, a leading voice of the Thai-Indian
community, to talk about it. 


We begin by going over the many historical cultural
connections between India and Thailand, from Sanskrit's influence
on Thai language to Buddhism's origin in India, in addition to
the myriad Thai holidays which can be traced back to ancient
Indian celebrations. No doubt the Indian influence on Thai
culture is more than it might appear on the surface, and more
than most Thais might admit. 
Ram then expertly describes the Indian diaspora to
Malaysia and later Thailand that resulted from the partition of
India after World War II. This leads to a discussion of Thai-Indian
identity in Thailand, which K. Ram contends is still misunderstood.
This includes a discussion of the common word used by Thais for
South Asians, "khaek". Another common misconception is to group
Hindu Indians along with Malaysia Muslims. Greg and K. Ram discuss
the struggle of Thai-Indians to be recognized as truly Thai, but
also of Hindu Indian descent. 

The conversation continues to cover many aspects of
Indian-Thai life in Thailand, revealing Thailand to be a society
that is more multicultural than most people realize. 


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