Asians have played important roles in the social and economic history of Uganda from the start of the colonial period up to the present. Asians had contact with the East African Coast for at least 2000 years. The first Asians to arrive in Uganda were troops from the Punjab, sent to join the colonial army in the mid-1890s. They were followed immediately by indentured workers and ‘free migrants’. Although some colonial officials viewed Asians as important agents in social change and sought to encourage the indentured workers to settle in Uganda, less than twenty percent chose to remain after their contracts expired.

For much of the twentieth century growth of the Asian population in Uganda was due to migration and natural increase in roughly equal proportions. Most migrants came from either the Punjab or Gujurat in Western India, but were not in any sense a homogenous group.