Wales and India: Connections Across Continents
FROM the mountains of north-east India to the streets of Cardiff, from cricket and Bollywood to universities, healthcare and international business, the relationship between Wales and India is far deeper than many people on either side of the world might imagine.
Some of those connections stretch back almost two centuries. Others are developing right now.
Thousands of people of Indian heritage call Wales home. Indian students study at Welsh universities, Indian businesses invest in Welsh industry, healthcare professionals from India work across NHS Wales, and Welsh organisations maintain partnerships across one of the world’s largest and most dynamic countries.
And then there are the more unexpected connections.
A Welsh missionary is still commemorated annually in the Indian state of Meghalaya. Indian cricket legends have represented Glamorgan. Bollywood stars have danced, acted and filmed against Welsh landscapes. And in 2026, India’s national cricket team returned to Cardiff for an international at Sophia Gardens.
Welcome to the remarkable story of Wales and India.
A Welshman remembered in Meghalaya
One of the most extraordinary Wales–India connections begins with Thomas Jones, a Welsh missionary born near Berriew in Montgomeryshire in 1810.
Jones travelled to the Khasi Hills in the 1840s and learned the Khasi language. He helped establish its written form using Roman lettering and produced some of the earliest printed material in Khasi. His contribution to literacy and education remains recognised in Meghalaya today.
His arrival in the Khasi Hills on 22 June 1841 is commemorated through Thomas Jones Day in Meghalaya.
That is quite a legacy for a man who left mid-Wales almost two centuries ago.
The relationship did not end with Jones. Welsh missionary, educational and medical connections continued in north-east India, and modern cultural projects have revived some of those historic links. During the Wales in India programme, musicians and educators from Wales worked again with communities in Shillong and the Khasi Hills, including projects involving Welsh harp music and Martin Luther Christian University.
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Indian communities in Wales
The relationship is also very much a story of modern Wales.
According to the 2021 Census, just over 21,000 people in Wales identified as Indian, making Indian the largest individual group within the broader Asian, Asian Welsh or Asian British category.
Those communities have become part of Welsh life through business, medicine, education, food, faith, sport and culture.
In Cardiff, the Hindu Cultural Association of Wales has operated since 1991 and today runs the India Centre in Splott. The centre describes its role as helping integrate Indian and Welsh communities while celebrating Indian arts, heritage and traditions.
Diwali, Navratri, Indian Independence Day and other celebrations are now established parts of Wales’s multicultural calendar. In August 2026, Cardiff Castle hosted an Indian Independence Day celebration incorporating the Indian and Welsh national anthems, cultural performances and a flag-raising ceremony.
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When Bollywood came to Wales
This may be one of the most surprising chapters of all.
For years, Indian filmmakers have discovered that Wales offers something Bollywood needs in abundance: castles, mountains, coastlines, grand houses and city architecture – often within relatively short travelling distances.
That has brought a succession of Indian productions to Wales, including films associated with some of Bollywood’s biggest names.
Cardiff, Aberystwyth, Margam, Yr Wyddfa and other Welsh locations have appeared in Indian films, turning Wales into an unlikely supporting actor in Bollywood cinema.
For many Indian viewers, they may have seen Wales on screen without ever realising where they were looking.
That relationship is continuing rather than simply belonging to the past.
Coming soon on Ewegottalove: From Mumbai to Wales – Bollywood’s Surprising Welsh Story, exploring the stars, films and locations that have brought Indian cinema to Cymru
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Cricket: India meets Wales out in the middle
If cinema provides one connection, cricket provides another.
Sophia Gardens in Cardiff has become an established international cricket venue and has welcomed some of the biggest names in the sport.
The Indian connection goes considerably deeper than touring internationals.
Indian great Ravi Shastri spent four seasons playing for Glamorgan from 1987 and has spoken warmly about his time in Wales. Former India captain Sourav Ganguly also represented Glamorgan.
And the connection remains very current.
On 16 July 2026, India played England in a One Day International at Sophia Gardens, bringing another major Indian sporting occasion to the Welsh capital.
Cricket therefore provides another avenue through which Indian visitors, players and supporters encounter Wales, a trend we are keen to shout about here on Ewegottalove.
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Students, universities and ideas
Education has long been one of the strongest bridges between India and Wales.
Welsh universities recruit students from India and maintain academic and research partnerships with Indian institutions. Swansea University, for example, describes a thriving Indian student and staff community and maintains representation in India to support student mobility.
The Welsh Government’s Wales in India 2024 programme deliberately placed education and research alongside culture, health and business as areas in which the two countries could strengthen their relationship. It included university engagement, research partnerships and collaboration in fields including science, sustainability, technology and healthcare.
For Ewegottalove, that also creates a natural connection with our Studying in Wales section – particularly for Indian readers considering Wales as a destination for higher education.
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Healthcare provides human bridge between Wales and India
One particularly important modern connection involves healthcare.
During Wales in India 2024, Welsh representatives strengthened links with Kerala, including an agreement supporting the ethical recruitment of nurses and medical professionals into NHS Wales.
The Welsh Government subsequently reported that more than 300 healthcare professionals – predominantly nurses – had been recruited through the programme, with the relationship with Kerala continuing beyond the original year of activity.
Behind those figures are people building lives and careers in Wales while maintaining another very human bridge between the two countries.
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Mounting business, investment & trade
India is also an increasingly important economic partner for Wales.
By the year ending June 2025, goods trade between Wales and India had reached around £1 billion, according to a Welsh Government assessment published in 2026. India was Wales’s ninth-largest export market and tenth-largest import market for goods at that point.
Indian investment has also played a major role in Wales over several decades, from major industrial businesses to pharmaceuticals and technology.
The Welsh Government maintains offices in Mumbai, New Delhi and Bengaluru, reflecting the importance placed on developing long-term commercial, educational and cultural links with India.
The Wales–India relationship therefore extends far beyond occasional trade missions. It is becoming an established part of Wales’ international outlook.
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Wales in India – and India in Wales
In 2024, the Welsh Government dedicated an entire year to strengthening the relationship through the Wales in India programme.
Activities were concentrated particularly around Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala and Haryana and covered trade, investment, healthcare, universities, art and culture.
Welsh performers and writers appeared in India, businesses explored new markets, healthcare partnerships developed and cultural projects brought together artists and communities thousands of miles apart.
That programme may have had a defined calendar year, but the connections it highlighted are much older – and are continuing to develop.
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Two countries with more in common than you might think
Wales and India could hardly be more different in scale.
One has a population of around three million; the other more than a billion.
Yet both possess powerful linguistic and cultural identities, strong musical and storytelling traditions, passionate sporting followings and communities that have carried their culture around the world.
Perhaps that helps explain why some of the most interesting Wales–India stories are not found in official agreements at all.
They are found in a Welshman remembered in Meghalaya.
In an Indian family celebrating Diwali in Cardiff.
In Ravi Shastri playing cricket for Glamorgan.
In an Indian student arriving at a Welsh university.
In a Bollywood film crew discovering that a Welsh mountain looks rather good on a cinema screen.
And there will undoubtedly be more stories to come.
Explore Wales and India on Ewegottalove
As this section grows, we will be adding stories exploring Bollywood in Wales, Indian cricket connections, Indian communities in Wales, education, business and the many unexpected ways in which India and Cymru continue to cross paths.
Wales may be a small country – but its connections travel a very long way.
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Did Ewe Know?
Long before Virat Kohli became one of the biggest names in world cricket, one of his earliest ODI centuries came in Wales. He scored 107 against England at Sophia Gardens, Cardiff, on 16 September 2011 — his sixth One Day International hundred.