A New Democrat MLA in British Columbia has promised to help thousands of South Asians living in Canada who he says might be unsuspecting victims of land theft in India.

Harry Lali, MLA for Yale-Lillooet, said after six weeks travelling in India he discovered an Indian politician was conspiring to steal land worth $1 million that had been willed to Lali by his great-great-grandfather.

"It is very corrupt over there, and I would argue that if there are nearly one million South Asians living in Canada, there's got to be at least 100,000 cases of Non-Resident Indian land that is illegally being possessed by relatives or the 'land mafia' in India," he said.