Turkic peoples (including the Turks of

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula ...

) have historically been associated as one of the non-indigenous peoples to have ruled areas of

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

and the

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a physiographical region in Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian Ocean from the Himalayas. Geopolitically, it includes the countries of Bangladesh, Bhutan, In ...

. Although modern day Turks in India are very small in number, and are likely recent immigrants from Turkey. In the 1961 census, 58 people stated that their

mother tongue A first language, native tongue, native language, mother tongue or L1 is the first language or dialect that a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period. In some countries, the term ''native language'' or ''mother tong ...

was Turkish. According to the 2001 census, 126 residents of India stated their place of birth as Turkey. In a state visit during early 2010, Prime Minister

Abdullah Gül Abdullah Gül (; ; born 29 October 1950) is a Turkish politician who served as the 11th President of Turkey, in office from 2007 to 2014. He previously served for four months as Prime Minister from 2002 to 2003, and concurrently served as bo ...

of Turkey met Turkish expatriates living in India and handed out Hindi-Turkish dictionaries to Turkish students in

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament Hous ...

History and origin

The first known mention of the term Turk applied to a Turkic group was in reference to the Göktürks in the 6th century, who were based in modern Mongolia. Over time, the term has devolved onto the Turks of modern day Turkey, but historically was also used to describe Central Asian Turkic groups. The Turk biradari claim their descent from the latter group, Turks of Rohilkhand and the Terai region. One such tradition claims that the Turks came to India as soldiers who accompanied the 11th century warrior-saint Ghazi Saiyyad Salar Masud or Ghazi Miyan (circa 1014 – 1034 CE). The Turk settlement took place at a latter date. Indeed some Turks groups, particularly those in Rampur, that are originally emigrants from Central Asia, and came in the army of Alauddin Khalji, Shahabddin Ghori and

Timur Timur ; chg, ''Aqsaq Temür'', 'Timur the Lame') or as ''Sahib-i-Qiran'' ( 'Lord of the Auspicious Conjunction'), his epithet. ( chg, ''Temür'', 'Iron'; 9 April 133617–19 February 1405), later Timūr Gurkānī ( chg, ''Temür Kü ...

(Tamerlane). These Turks had come from Turkistan region in what is now Central Asia.

Present circumstances

The

Turk Turk or Turks may refer to: Communities and ethnic groups * Turkic peoples, a collection of ethnic groups who speak Turkic languages * Turkish people, or the Turks, a Turkic ethnic group and nation * Turkish citizen, a citizen of the Republic o ...

s live in northern India, mainly in

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...

Gaziabad Ghaziabad () is a city in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and a part of Delhi NCR. It is the administrative headquarters of Ghaziabad district and is the largest city in western Uttar Pradesh, with a population of 1,729,000. Ghaziabad Mu ...

Amroha Amroha is a city in the state of Uttar Pradesh in India. It is located north-west of Moradabad, near the Ganga River. It is the administrative headquarters of the Amroha district. Geography Amroha is located north-west of Moradabad, near th ...

Moradabad Moradabad () is a city, commissionary and municipal corporation in Moradabad district of Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Moradabad is situated on the banks of the Ramganga river, at a distance of from the national capital, New Delhi and ...

, Rampur,

Sambhal Sambhal is a city located in the Sambhal district of Uttar Pradesh state in India. The city lies approximately 158 kilometres (98 mi) east of New Delhi and 355 kilometres (220 mi) north-west of state capital Lucknow. History Sambhal ...

Bijnor Bijnor is a city and a municipal board in Bijnor district in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India Muzaffarnagar Muzaffarnagar is a city under Muzaffarnagar District in the Indian State of Uttar Pradesh. It is situated midway on the Delhi - Haridwar/Dehradun National Highway (NH 58) and is also well connected with the national railway network. It is ...

and

Meerut Meerut (, IAST: ''Meraṭh'') is a city in Meerut district of the western part of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The city lies northeast of the national capital New Delhi, within the National Capital Region and west of the state capital ...

in Uttar Pradesh,

Udhamsingh Nagar Udham Singh Nagar District (officially District of Udham Singh Nagar )is a district of Uttarakhand state in northern India. Rudrapur is the district headquarters. This district consists of nine Tehsils named Bajpur, Gadarpur, Rudrapur, Jaspu ...

Nainital Nainital ( Kumaoni: ''Naintāl''; ) is a city and headquarters of Nainital district of Kumaon division, Uttarakhand, India. It is the judicial capital of Uttarakhand, the High Court of the state being located there and is the headquarters o ...

and

Haldwani Haldwani ( Kumaoni: ''Haldvānī'') is the largest city of Kumaon. It is also the third most populous city and largest commercial market in the Indian state of Uttarakhand. Haldwani is said to be the financial capital of Uttarakhand, having the ...

Kumaon Kumaon or Kumaun may refer to: * Kumaon division, a region in Uttarakhand, India * Kumaon Kingdom, a former country in Uttarakhand, India * Kumaon, Iran, a village in Isfahan Province, Iran * , a ship of the Royal Indian Navy during WWII See also ...

Bhopal Bhopal (; ) is the capital city of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and the administrative headquarters of both Bhopal district and Bhopal division. It is known as the ''City of Lakes'' due to its various natural and artificial lakes. It i ...

and Junagarh in Gujarat and in South India mainly in the city of

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River, in the northern part of Southern Indi ...

Telangana Telangana (; , ) is a state in India situated on the south-central stretch of the Indian peninsula on the high Deccan Plateau. It is the eleventh-largest state and the twelfth-most populated state in India with a geographical area of and 35 ...

Bidar Bidar (/ biːd̪ər/) is a city in the north-eastern part of Karnataka state in India. It is the headquarters of Bidar district, which borders Maharashtra and Telangana. It is a rapidly urbanising city in the wider ''Bidar Metropolitan area ...

Gulbarga Kalaburagi, formerly known as Gulbarga, is a city in the Indian state of Karnataka. It is the administrative headquarters of the Kalaburagi district and is the largest city in the region of North Karnataka (Kalyana-Karnataka). Kalaburagi is ...

Bijapur Bijapur, officially known as Vijayapura, is the district headquarters of Bijapur district of the Karnataka state of India. It is also the headquarters for Bijapur Taluk. Bijapur city is well known for its historical monuments of architectural i ...

Mysore Mysore (), officially Mysuru (), is a city in the southern part of the state of Karnataka, India. Mysore city is geographically located between 12° 18′ 26″ north latitude and 76° 38′ 59″ east longitude. It is located at an altitude o ...

Srirangapatna Srirangapatna is a town and headquarters of one of the seven Taluks of Mandya district, in the Indian State of Karnataka. It gets its name from the Ranganthaswamy temple consecrated at around 984 CE. Later, under the British rule the city ...

Karnataka Karnataka (; ISO 15919, ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a States and union territories of India, state in the southwestern region of India. It was Unification of Karnataka, formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reor ...

, Banganapalle,

Kurnool Kurnool is a city in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. It formerly served as the capital of Andhra State (1953–1956). The city is often referred to as "The Gateway of Rayalaseema".Kurnool is also known as The City of Gem Stones. It also s ...

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...

, Arcot, Tamil Nadu,

Pathanamthitta Pathanamthitta (), is a municipality situated in the Central Travancore region in the state of Kerala, India, spread over an area of 23.50 km2. It is the administrative capital of Pathanamthitta district. The town has a population of 3 ...

Erattupetta Erattupetta is a municipal town located in Kottayam district, close to the place Aruvithura, state of Kerala, India,. It is located 38 km east of Kottayam, the district capital. Erattupetta Grama Panchayath was founded in 1964 and upgrad ...

Palakkad district Palakkad District () is one of the 14 districts in the Indian state of Kerala. It was carved out from the southeastern region of the former Malabar District on 1 January 1957. It is located at the centre of Kerala. It is the largest district i ...

, Alappuzha district in Kerala. The community had traditionally served as soldiers in the armies of the various

princely states A princely state (also called native state or Indian state) was a nominally sovereign entity of the British Indian Empire that was not directly governed by the British, but rather by an Indian ruler under a form of indirect rule, subject to ...

in the

Kathiawar Agency The Kathiawar Agency, on the Kathiawar peninsula in the western part of the Indian subcontinent, was a political unit of some 200 small princely states under the suzerainty of the Bombay Presidency of British India. The agency's headquarters we ...

. They are also good traders Like other

Gujarati Muslim The term Gujarati Muslim is usually used to signify an Indian Muslim from the state of Gujarat in western coast of India. Most Gujarati Muslims have Gujarati language as their mother tongue, but some communities such as the Momin Ansari, Me ...

s, they have a caste association known as the Jamat, which acts both as a welfare organization and an instrument of social control.People of India Gujarat Volume XXI Part Three edited by R.B Lal, P.B.S.V Padmanabham, G Krishnan & M Azeez Mohideen pages 1394-1399

Notable people

Timurid dynasty The Timurid dynasty ( chg, , fa, ), self-designated as Gurkani ( chg, , translit=Küregen, fa, , translit=Gūrkāniyān), was a Sunni Muslim dynasty or clan of Turco-Mongol originB.F. Manz, ''"Tīmūr Lang"'', in Encyclopaedia of Islam, Onl ...

* Ghaznavid dynasty *

Taj al-Din Yildiz Taj al-Din Yildiz (also spelled Yaldiz, Yildoz, and Yalduz, fa, تاج‌ الدین یلدوز) was a Turkic ghulam of the Ghurid dynasty, who, after the death of Sultan Muhammad of Ghor, became the ''de facto'' ruler of Ghazni, while, howeve ...

, general of the Delhi Sultanate * Mamluk dynasty of Delhi * Shah Turkan, mistress of Iltutmish * Malik Altunia, consort of Razia Sultan *

Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar Khalji Ikhtiyār al-Dīn Muḥammad Bakhtiyār Khaljī, (Pashto :اختيار الدين محمد بختيار غلزۍ, fa, اختیارالدین محمد بختیار خلجی, bn, ইখতিয়ারউদ্দীন মুহম্মদ � ...

, general of the Delhi Sultanate * Muhammad Shiran Khalji, the 2nd governor of Bengal (Lakhnauti) under the Delhi Sultanate *

Iwaz Khalji Ḥusām ad-Dīn ʿIwaz bin Ḥusayn Khaljī ( bn, হুসামউদ্দীন ইওজ বিন হোসেন খলজী, fa, حسام الدین عوض بن حسین خلجی), later known by his regnal title as Ghiyāth ad-Dīn � ...

, the 3rd governor of Bengal (Lakhnauti) under the Delhi Sultanate *

Ali Mardan Khalji Rukn ad-Dīn ʿAlī Mardān Khaljī ( bn, রোকনউদ্দীন আলী মর্দান খলজী, fa, ركن الدین علی مردان خلجی) was a 13th-century governor of Bengal, a member of the Khalji dynasty of Bengal ...

, the 3rd governor of Bengal (Lakhnauti) under the Delhi Sultanate *

Malik Balkha Khalji Malik Balka Khalji was the governor of Bengal during 1230–1231 under Delhi Sultan Shamsuddin Iltutmish. History Balka was the son of Iwaz Khalji. After the death of Alauddin Daulat Shah Khalji, Balka captured the throne of Bengal. Malik Ba ...

, the last Khalji governor of Bengal (Lakhnauti) under the Delhi Sultanate * Saifuddin Aibak, 1st governor of Bengal (Lakhnauti) under the Mamluk Delhi Sultanate * Awar Khan Aibak, 2nd governor of Bengal (Lakhnauti) under the Mamluk Delhi Sultanate *

Tughral Tughan Khan Tughral Tughan Khan ( bn, তুগরল তুগান খান, fa, طغرل طوغان خان), later known as Mughith ad-Din Tughral ( bn, মুগিসউদ্দীন তুগরল, fa, مغيث الدين طغرل), was an offi ...

, 3rd governor of Bengal (Lakhnauti) under the Mamluk Delhi Sultanate * Tughlaq Tamar Khan, 4th governor of Bengal (Lakhnauti) under the Mamluk Delhi Sultanate * Malik Ikhtiyaruddin Iuzbak, 6th governor of Bengal (Lakhnauti) under the Mamluk Delhi Sultanate *

Ijjauddin Balban Iuzbaki Izzauddin Balban-e-Iuzbaki ( fa, عز الدین بلبن) was the Governor of Bengal during 1257–1259 CE. History After the death of Malik Ikhtiyaruddin Iuzbak who had rebelled from Delhi and declared himself Sultan of Bengal, Izzauddin was appo ...

, 7th governor of Bengal (Lakhnauti) under the Mamluk Delhi Sultanate * Nasiruddin Bughra Khan, 13th governor of Bengal (Lakhnauti) under the Mamluk Delhi Sultanate *

Rukunuddin Kaikaus Rukunuddin Kaikaus ( fa, رکن ‌الدین کیکاوس, bn, রুকনউদ্দীন কায়কাউস) was an independent Sultan of Bengal who ruled from 1291–1300 CE. He succeeded his father Nasiruddin Bughra Khan. In severa ...

, 1st governor of Bengal (Lakhnauti) under the Balban Delhi Sultanate *

Shamsuddin Firuz Shah Shamsuddin Firuz Shah ( fa, شمس الدين فيروز شاه, bn, শামসুদ্দীন ফিরুজ শাহ, ''Shams Ad-Dīn Firūz Shāh'') (reigned: 1301–1322) was the independent ruler of the Lakhnauti Kingdom. He ascen ...

, 2nd governor of Bengal (Lakhnauti) under the Balban Delhi Sultanate * Ghiyasuddin Bahadur Shah, 3rd governor of Bengal (Lakhnauti) under the Balban Delhi Sultanate * Izz al-Din Yahya, 6th governor of Bengal (Lakhnauti) under the Tughlaq Delhi Sultanate * Munim Khan, 1st Mughal Subahdar of Bengal Subah *

Khan Jahan I Hussain Quli Beg ( fa, ) was a Mughal military vassall (mansabdar) with the rank of 5000 soldiers. He was later entitled as Khān-i-Jahān ( fa, ; Khan of the World) by Emperor Akbar. Early life Beg was the son of Wali Beg Zul-Qadr and the n ...

, 2nd Mughal Subahdar of Bengal Subah * Jahangir Quli Beg, Mughal Subahdar of Bengal Subah *

Nasir ad-Din Qabacha Nasir-ud-Din Qabacha or Kaba-cha ( fa, ناصرالدین قباچه) was the Muslim Turkic Kipchak governor of Multan, appointed by the Ghurid ruler Muhammad Ghori in 1203. Successors of Ghori Ghori had no offspring, but he treated thous ...

, Governor of Multan *

Khalji dynasty The Khalji or Khilji (Pashto: ; Persian: ) dynasty was a Turco-Afghan dynasty which ruled the Delhi sultanate, covering large parts of the Indian subcontinent for nearly three decades between 1290 and 1320.Tughlaq dynasty The Tughlaq dynasty ( fa, ), also referred to as Tughluq or Tughluk dynasty, was a Muslim dynasty of Indo- Turkic origin which ruled over the Delhi sultanate in medieval India. Its reign started in 1320 in Delhi when Ghazi Malik assumed the ...

Qutb Shahi dynasty The Qutb Shahi dynasty also called as Golconda Sultanate (Persian: ''Qutb Shāhiyān'' or ''Sultanat-e Golkonde'') was a Persianate Shia Islam dynasty of Turkoman origin that ruled the sultanate of Golkonda in southern India. After the co ...

* Ghazi ud-Din Khan Feroze Jung III, 1st Nawab of Baoni State * Dürrüşehvar Sultan, Imperial Princess of the Ottoman Empire wife of prince Azam Jah *

Princess Niloufer Princess is a regal rank and the feminine equivalent of prince (from Latin ''princeps'', meaning principal citizen). Most often, the term has been used for the consort of a prince, or for the daughter of a king or prince. Princess as a subst ...

, Princess of the Ottoman Empire wife of prince Moazzam Jah *

Princess Esra Princess Qhabl Begum Sahiba Esra Birgen (born 1936) is a princess belonging to the Asaf Jah Dynasty of Hyderabad state by marriage. She was married to Prince Mukarram Jah. Princess Esra is a princess by marriage, not by birth. She is credited ...

, wife of Mukarram Jah, 8th Nizam of Hyderabad *

Manolya Onur Manolya Onur, Princess Qhabl Begum Sahiba Manolya-i-Nur (1955 – 25 October 2017) was a Turkish pageant queen and model who became a princess of Berar by marriage. She was a former Miss Turkey. Career She competed in the Miss Turkey pageant in ...

, wife of Mukarram Jah, 8th Nizam of Hyderabad * Muhammad Beg Khan-e Rosebahani, was Qiladar and Jagirdar of Banganapalle * Nawabs of Banganapalle * Rulers of Amb State *

Jackie Shroff Jaikishan Kakubhai Shroff (born 1 February 1957), popularly known as Jackie Shroff, is an Indian actor and former model. He has been in the Bollywood industry for over four decades, and , has appeared in over 220 films in 13 languages namely Hi ...

, Indian actor

References

{{Turkish people by country

Diasporas in India Ethnic groups in India Turks Muslim communities of India