Little Poland in India. A museum for Polish refugees is being built in Valivade

During World War II, the small town of Valivade in south-western India took in nearly 5,000 Polish refugees who had survived Soviet deportation. Today a museum is being built on the site of the former settlement to commemorate this episode of Polish-Indian history.

1. The road from Siberia to India

In the summer of 1941, the Sikorski–Mayski agreement was signed in London, providing for the creation of a Polish army in the USSR under Gen. Władysław Anders. An additional protocol to the agreement guaranteed amnesty for Poles imprisoned and deported deep into Soviet Russia. In the spring and summer of 1942, thousands of soldiers and civilians were evacuated from the USSR – among them many orphaned children who had lost their parents after years of deportation and hunger. Part of this wave of refugees ended up far from Europe – in India, then under British administration.

2. "Little Poland" near Kolhapur

The largest concentration of Polish refugees in India arose in Valivade, near the city of Kolhapur, in what is now the state of Maharashtra. The settlement, which sheltered around 5,000 people, came to be known as "Little Poland". It consisted of five districts, each with about 30 buildings. The residents built a church dedicated to St. Andrew Bobola, schools, a hospital, a sports field, a theatre, a cinema and even swimming pools – the community functioned almost like a self-contained town, even though it lay thousands of kilometres from home.

The reception of Polish refugees in Valivade was made possible thanks to the consent of the local ruler – the then Maharaja of Kolhapur, who made land available for the settlement. The last Poles left Valivade in 1948, after the war ended and as the political situation in the region changed – India was then approaching independence.

3. A museum on the site of the former settlement

On the site of the former camp, the family of today's Maharaja of Kolhapur is now building an institution dedicated to this history – described in press reports as the "Little Poland museum" or the Valivade Museum of Humanity and Peace. The idea was born in 2016, when the current maharaja met Adam Burakowski, then Polish ambassador to India. In September 2019 a cornerstone-laying ceremony took place, and a symbolic Memorial Pillar was unveiled by Deputy Foreign Minister Marcin Przydacz. The coronavirus pandemic, and later local floods, slowed the project's progress, however.

One of the museum's rooms is to feature a reconstruction of a Polish family's living quarters, based on archival photographs. The institution is also to include several exhibition galleries – one devoted to the history of World War II, another to the everyday life of Poles in the settlement. Exhibits are expected to include, among others, a traditional costume of the "Mazowsze" Song and Dance Ensemble, scout uniforms, and photographs and mementoes belonging to former Valivade residents. The Polish government allocated half a million euros for the construction, and the authorities of Maharashtra state have declared additional funds for fitting out the institution.

At the turn of July and August 2026, Kolhapur was visited by a Polish parliamentary delegation led by Dr Małgorzata Bonikowska, a historian and adviser to the Polish Sejm. The delegation laid flowers at the Memorial Pillar and at the Polish cemetery in Valivade, and at Shivaji University discussions were held on scientific cooperation and student exchange between Poland and India. Local authorities and volunteers are meanwhile to identify and secure the surviving remnants of the settlement's former barracks.

On 20 August 2026, during a meeting devoted to Polish-Indian relations in New Delhi, the Polish ambassador to India, Piotr Antoni Świtalski, said the museum in Kolhapur is now nearing completion and will soon become a place where descendants of Polish refugees can learn about their family history. The opening is planned for autumn, although – as the initiators caution – the date may still be pushed back.

4. Why this story matters today

The fate of Polish refugees in India is a little-known yet telling chapter of 20th-century history – an example of how distant, culturally different places became a safe haven for people forced to flee their own country. Today the roles are sometimes reversed: for many foreigners, including refugees from Ukraine and Belarus, it is Poland that is the country where they seek shelter, work and stability. The museum being built in Valivade is a reminder that the experience of displacement and hospitality is not foreign to Polish history either, and aims to preserve the memory of this episode for future generations on both sides.