Category:Italian Diaspora (India)

Overview

Since Roman times, people from the Italian peninsula moved to India mainly as merchants.[3] During the Middle Ages, the first Italians to arrive in India were Jesuits and Christian missionaries.

Since the 16th century, many of these Italian Jesuits came to South India, mainly Goa, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Some of the most well known Jesuits in India include Antonio Moscheni, Constanzo Beschi, Roberto de Nobili and Rodolfo Acquaviva

In the 1940s, during World War II, the British brought Italian prisoners of war, who were captured in either Europe or North Africa, to Bangalore and Madras.

In recent years, many Italians have been coming to India for business purposes. Today, Italy is India's fifth largest trading partner in the European Union.

There are currently between 15,000 to 20,000 Italian nationals in India based mostly in South India. The city of Mumbai itself has a sizeable number of Italians and some in Chennai.

Timeline

1st-2nd cent. CE - The first direct contacts between India and Italy dates back to Roman times.

Merchant Marco Polo visited parts of India. In his travelogue The Travels of Marco Polo he described the life and customs in India at the end of the 13th century.

1310c - Franciscan friar Odoricus Mattiuzzi (Odoric of Pordenone)

1420s-1430s - Merchant Niccolò de' Conti

1560s - Merchant Cesare Federici

1579-88 - Merchant Gasparo Balbi

1583-1588 - Scholar Filippo Sassetti

1605-1656 - Missionary Roberto de Nobili (other Jesuits include Antonio Moscheni, Constanzo Beschi, and Rodolfo Acquaviva)

1624 - Scholar Pietro della Valle

1656-1717 - Niccolò Manucci spent his entire life in India under Mughal rule.

1671-1675 - Merchant Ambrosio Bembo

1800s

1830s-1840s - General Rubino Ventura

1843–1858 - Gaspare Gorresio's translation of the Valmiki Ramayana, the great Hindu epic.

The Italian unification movement inspired some Indian freedom fighters, and the works of the Italian patriot Giuseppe Mazzini and Giuseppe Garibaldi were translated and widely read by Indian intelligentsia.

1850s

1881 - Nunciature to India (established)

1884-1887 - Antonio Agliardi (nuncio)

1887-1891 - Andrea Aiuti (nuncio)

1900s

1919-1924 - Pietro Pisani (nuncio)

1931 (dic) - Gandhi's visit to Italy (Milan and Rome). Meeting with Benito Mussolini.

1941-1946: Around 68,000 Italian POWs were shipped by the British to India and they were housed in camps across the country. After Sep 1943, when Italy surrendered to the Allies, living conditions improved.

1943-45 - Indian troops played a role in liberating Italy from Nazi control.

1947 - Establishment of diplomatic relations between the Republic of India and the Italian Republic.

1950s

1953 - Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru visited Italy.

1964 - Pastoral Visit of Pope Paul VI to India (2-5 Dec)

1967-1969 - Giuseppe (Joseph) Caprio (nuncio)

1971 - Istituto Italiano di Cultura (New Delhi)

1971-1975 - Amedeo Guillet (ambassador)

1976-1981 - Luciano Storero (nuncio)

1979- Ileana Citaristi (dancer)

1981-1990 - Agostino Cacciavillan (nuncio)

1984-2023 - Sonia Maino Gandhi (married Rajiv Gandhi in 1968). Since 1984 She had an active political career. Mother of *Rahul Gandhi (b.1970) and *Priyanka Gandhi (b.1972)

1995 - Pres. Oscar Luigi Scalfaro was the first Italian head of state to visit India.

1995-present - * Dino Morea (actor)

1999 - Istituto Italiano di Cultura (Mumbai)

1999-2002 - Lorenzo Baldisseri (nuncio)

2000s

2004-2008 - Antonio Armellini (ambassador)

2005 - Pres. Carlo Azeglio Ciampi visited India.

2007 - Romano Prodi became the first Italian Prime Minister to visit India.

2008-2010 - Roberto Toscano (ambassador)

2009 - Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited Italy to attend the 35th G8 summit at L'Aquila.

2010-2016 - Salvatore Pennacchio (nuncio)

2011 - External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna represented India at the 150th anniversary celebrations of the unification of Italy in Rome In June 2011.

2017 - Prime minister Paolo Gentiloni visited India.

2017-2020 - Giambattista Diquattro (nuncio)

2019-present - Vincenzo De Luca (b.1959) (ambassador)

2021- Leopoldo Girelli (nuncio)

2023 - Prime minister Giorgia Meloni visited India.

Apostolic Nuncios

Antonio Agliardi (23 Sep 1884 Appointed - 9 May 1887 Appointed, Pro-Secretary of the Congregation for Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs)
Andrea Aiuti (31 Mar 1887 Appointed - 24 Jul 1891 Appointed, Official of the Congregation for Propagation of the Faith)
<Wladyslaw Michal Zaleski> † (15 Mar 1892 Appointed - 7 Dec 1916 Appointed, Titular Patriarch of Antiochia {Antioch})
Pietro Pisani † (15 Dec 1919 Appointed - Oct 1924 Resigned)
<Edward Aloysius Mooney> † (18 Jan 1926 Appointed - 30 Mar 1931 Appointed, Apostolic Delegate to Japan)
<Leo Peter Kierkels>, C.P. † (23 Mar 1931 Appointed - 29 Jun 1952 Resigned)
<Martin Lucas>, S.V.D. † (3 Dec 1952 Appointed - 1 Jan 1957 Appointed, Official of the Secretariat of State)
<James Robert Knox> † (14 Feb 1957 Appointed - 13 Apr 1967 Appointed, Archbishop of Melbourne)
Giuseppe (Joseph) Caprio (22 Aug 1967 Appointed - 19 Apr 1969 Appointed, Secretary of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See)
<Marie-Joseph Lemieux>, O.P. † (30 May 1969 Appointed - 16 Feb 1971 Resigned)
<John Gordon> † (11 Aug 1971 Appointed - 11 Jun 1976 Appointed, Apostolic Pro-Nuncio to Netherlands)
Luciano Storero † (14 Jul 1976 Appointed - 2 Feb 1981 Appointed, Apostolic Nuncio to Venezuela)
Agostino Cacciavillan † (9 May 1981 Appointed - 13 Jun 1990 Appointed, Apostolic Pro-Nuncio to United States of America)
Giorgio Zur ? (13 Aug 1990 Appointed - 7 Dec 1998 Appointed, President of the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy)
Lorenzo Baldisseri (19 Jun 1999 Appointed - 12 Nov 2002 Appointed, Apostolic Nuncio to Brazil)
<Pedro López Quintana> (8 Feb 2003 Appointed - 10 Dec 2009 Appointed, Apostolic Nuncio to Canada)
Salvatore Pennacchio (8 May 2010 Appointed - 6 Aug 2016 Appointed, Apostolic Nuncio to Poland)
Giambattista Diquattro (21 Jan 2017 Appointed - 29 Aug 2020 Appointed, Apostolic Nuncio to Brazil)
Leopoldo Girelli (13 Mar 2021 Appointed - )