Indo Nordic Author’s Collective

Gujarat’s Africa connection

Dr Uday Dokras

INTRODUCTION: In his address to Gujaratis and other Asians at the Swaminarayan temple in
London in October 1997, the Ugandan president Yowri Kaguta Museveni asked them to return
their African roots. Many of them had been forced to leave Uganda during Idi Amin’s regime of
the 1970s, but as the African nation desperately tried integrate into the global economy, it needed
the famous entrepreneurial zeal of Gujaratis.As well-known historian Makrand Mehta put it,
“Gujarati businessmen, ranging from ‘dakuwalas’ and middlemen to industrialists have played
an important role in the economic development of East Africa. As creative emigrants and an
inner gift for innovation and entrepreneurship, they were involved in every facet of commercial
life until the military regime of Uganda forced them to leave in the early 1970s, which resulted in
the mass emigration to the US, UK and Canada.”

According to some experts, Gujarati migrants of the 19th century are credited with transforming
East Africa’s barter society into a money economy. No wonder then that a large number of the
Indian victims killed in the terrorist attack at a mall in Nairobi were Gujaratis. According to one
estimate, around 70 shops of the 300 in the mall are owned by Gujaratis. Over 100,000 people of
Indian origin live in Kenya at present. Though, Indians constitute less than 1% of the population,
they play a key role in the economy.

Traders from Kutch and Kathiawad transformed East Africa's barter society into a money
economy in the 19th century Maritime history shows there were trade links between Gujarat and
the African east coast dating back to ancient Babylon Sidi, a Persian word for African migrants,

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were once nawabs of Sachin (Surat), Khambad and Jafrabad. Sidis were also founders of two
major heritage landmarks in Ahmedabad — Sidi Saiyyed Mosque and Sidi Bashir Mosque
Folklore has it that a Sidi guard scarified his life to prevent Ahmedabad's 'Nagar Laxmi' from
leaving the city during the rule of Ahmed Shah.

Gujarat’s Africa connection

So well integrated are Indians, especially Gujaratis, into the cultural life of Kenya
and Tanzania that there are today around 15 Swaminarayan temples in Nairobi, Mombasa,
Kerugoya, Kisumu, Nakuru and Eldoret towns. Interestingly, of the 15-member international
Kenyan cricket team between 1995 and 2005, seven players had been trained by a club run by
the Swaminarayan sect in Nairobi. This included their star batsman Steve Tikolo.
Although maritime history shows that there were trade links between Gujarat and the African
coast dating back to ancient Babylon, it was in the 1860s that modern day migration of Indians to
East Africa started. National Museum of Kenya says that 31,983 workers were taken from India,
mainly from Kutch and Punjab, to lay a railway line from Mombasa in Kenya to Kampala in
Uganda.

Between 1896 and 1901, 2,493 workers died and 6,454 persons became invalid while laying the
tracks. But after the contract was over, about 7,000 Indians chose to stay back. Gujaratis started

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pouring in as free emigrants, and founded their trades and businesses in Kenya, Tanzania and
Uganda
.
Today, Gujaratis have large land-holdings and industrial units which generate employment for
millions of native Africans. Sociologist Vidyut Joshi says, “There is a recorded 450-year-old
history of spice trade through Indian Ocean, mainly with Kenya, Mozambique, Tanzania and
Uganda through Gujarat's ports - Cambay, Surat and Mandvi.”
The prosperity of Indians in Uganda led to their expulsion in 1972. The Idi Amin government
gave a 90-day ultimatum to Asians, mainly Indians, to leave the shores. Many of them
immigrated to UK. British took 27,200 refugees, Canada took 6,000, India took 4,500 and 2,500
went to Kenya. Other countries too accommodated them. Still, there are over 12,000 Indians
living in Uganda.

There is a sizable community of people of Indian origin living in Uganda. In 2003, there were an
estimated 15,000 people of Asian descent (majority Indians and Pakistanis) living in Uganda
compared to approximately 80,000 before they were expelled by dictator Idi Amin in 1972.[1]
Many returned to Uganda in the 1980s and 1990s and have once again gone on to dominate the
country's economy. Despite making up less than 1% of the population they are estimated to
contribute up to 65% of the country's tax revenues.[2] Sudhir Ruparelia, who is of Indian origin, is
the richest man in Uganda and has an estimated fortune of $1 billion.

Shree Sanatan Dharma Mandal faith (SSDM) was established by early Asians who came to
Uganda to work on the Uganda railway under the colonial era. The foundation stone to this
temple, was laid in 1954 and completed in 1964. It was the first Shikma temple built outside

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India. This structure was built without any iron bars or steel right from the foundation up to
it’s dorm which is over four floors high.
In 1895 construction of the Uganda Railway began. The Imperial British East Africa
Company awarded Alibhai Mulla Jeevanjee, an agent based in Karachi, with the contract to
supply the required labour force. Jeevanjee recruited his workforce from the Punjab region of
British India. The first group to arrive had a total of 350 men, and over a six year period a total
of 31,895 men worked on the project. Some died, others returned to India after the end of their
contracts, and others chose to stay. The population was later bolstered by Gujarati traders called
"passenger Indians", both Hindu and Muslim free migrants who came to serve the economic
needs of the indentured laborers and to capitalize on the economic opportunities.
Over time, Indians became prosperous and dominated much of the Ugandan economy, which
prompted the rise of resentment and Indophobia. These resentments came to a crisis when Idi
Amin ousted Milton Obote by military coup d'état in 1971. The following year, Amin ordered
the expulsion of Asians living in Uganda. As a result, many Indians migrated to the United
Kingdom, Canada, the United States, and elsewhere and began rebuilding their lives. After
Amin's death, however, more Indians who were born in Uganda started migrating back.
Demographically, the number of people of mixed Ugandan-Indian heritage is not known
(Multiracial Ugandans in Uganda).

Notable Ugandan people of Indian descent or notable people of Indian-Ugandan descent

 Akbar Baig - Ugandan cricketer

 Alykhan Karmali - Ugandan industrialist
 Charli XCX - British singer
 Anup Singh Choudry - Former judge of the High Court of Uganda
 Arif Virani - Member of Parliament (Canada)
 Asif Din - English cricketer
 Bharat Masrani - CEO of TD Canada Trust
 Hasmukh Dawda - Businessman
 Jayesh Manek - Indian fund manager
 Jitendra Patel - Canadian cricketer
 Mahmood Mamdani - Ugandan academic
 Mayur Madhvani - Ugandan industrialist
 Miraj Barot - Businessman
 Mobina Jaffer - Canadian senator
 Mukesh Shukla - Ugandan industrialist
 Nandikishore Patel - Ugandan cricketer
 Naomi Scott - English actress and singer
 Nehal Bibodi - Ugandan cricketer
 Priti Patel - British politician
 Peter Nazareth - Ugandan-American author
 Rajat Neogy - Ugandan-American poet, Founder & First Editor of Transition Magazine

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 Shailesh Vara - British politician

 Shekhar Mehta - Kenyan rally driver
 Shimit Amin - Indian film director
 Sikander Lalani - Ugandan steel magnate
 Sudhir Ruparelia - Ugandan businessman
 Suresh Dalal - Ugandan & American Attorney
 Wilfred de Souza - Politician and Chief Minister of Goa
 Walter de Sousa - Indian field hockey player.

 Bhaskar Bhattacharya- Indian independent film-maker and scholar.

The Madhvani Group of Companies commonly referred to as the Madhvani Group, is one of

the largest conglomerates in Uganda. The group has investments in Uganda, Rwanda, South
Sudan, Tanzania, the Middle East, India, and North America.
Muljibhai Madhvani

In 1912, Muljibhai Madhvani, then aged 18, arrived in Jinja following his older brother
Nanjibhai. Starting in 1914, he was able to join his brothers small trading concern and help
create a business that would later account for 10 percent of Uganda's gross domestic product.
Following the Asian expulsion of 1972 Muljbhai's five sons decided to split parts of the business
equally. His workers and their dependents have enjoyed free education, housing, and healthcare
under the Group. The Group's businesses are run primarily by Madhvani family members, but
many of the newer investments are joint ventures with other businesses.
During the 1970s, the Madhvani family was expelled from Uganda by Idi Amin and their
businesses were nationalized and mismanaged to near-extinction. In 1985, the family returned to
Uganda and with loans from the World Bank, the East African Development Bank, and
the Uganda Development Bank, they resurrected and rehabilitated their businesses and started
new ones.
The Muljibhai Madhvani Foundation is a charitable trust that was established in 1962, just
before Uganda gained its independence, to honor the vision of Muljibhai Madhvani (14 May
1894 – 11 July 1958). The foundation awards scholarships to deserving undergraduate and
postgraduate university students to study in Ugandan universities. One of the foundation's
primary objectives is to maintain and promote scientific and technical education among the
people of Uganda.
The Madhvani Group includes but is not limited to the following companies:

 Chobe Safari Lodge, Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda

 East African Packaging Solutions, Njeru, Uganda – now sole owner after buying out
partner
 East African Distributors Limited – furniture and hardware merchandising, Kampala,
Uganda
 East African Glass Works Limited – Defunct

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 Excel Construction Limited, Jinja, Uganda and Juba, South Sudan

 East African Underwriters Limited – 51 percent shareholding by Liberty Holdings
Limited of South Africa Kampala, Uganda
 Industrial Security Services Limited, Jinja, Uganda
 Kabuye Sugar Works, Kabuye, Rwanda
 Kajjansi Roses Limited, Kajjansi, Wakiso District, Uganda
 Kakira Airport, Kakira, Uganda[6]
 Kakira Power Company, Kakira, Uganda – the owner-operators of Kakira Power Station
 Kakira Sugar Works, Kakira, Uganda – the flagship company of the Group
 Kakira Sugar Works Hospital, Kakira, Uganda
 Silver Back Lodge, Bwindi Forest, Uganda
 Kakira Sweets & Confectioneries Limited, Kakira, Uganda
 Liberty Life Assurance Uganda Limited, Kampala, Uganda
 Madhvani Group Central Purchasing, Jinja, Uganda
 Madhvani Group Projects Limited, Kampala, Uganda
 Madhvani Group Steel Division – Jinja Uganda
 Marasa India Resorts and Hotels, Rajkot, Gujarat, India
 Madhvani Properties Limited, Kampala, Uganda
 Makepasi Match Limited Jinja, Uganda – the largest producers of wax safety matches in
Africa
 Marasa Holdings Limited, Kampala, Uganda
 Muljibhai Madhvani Foundation, Kakira, Uganda
 Mwera Tea Estate, Mityana District, Uganda
 Mweya Safari Lodge, Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda
 Nakigalala Tea Estate, Wakiso District, Uganda
 Paraa Safari Lodge, Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda
 Premier Safaris Limited, Jinja, Uganda
 Software Applications Uganda Limited, Kampala, Uganda
 Madhvani Group Steel Division, Jinja, Uganda
 TPSC Turbo Prop Service Centre Uganda Limited, Aircraft Maintenance, Kakira,
Uganda
 Umabano Hotel – Kigali Rwanda
 Marasa Africa – Holding company for all hotels and safari lodges in Uganda, Kenya and
Rwanda.

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Muljibhai Madhvani was born on 18-05-1894 in Ashiyapat, Porbandar in the state of Gujarat,
India. He was an Indian-born Ugandan Businessperson, Entrepreneur, Industrialist &
Philanthropist. He has done his schooling from Lohana Boarding School, Gujarat, but soon
decided to drop out of school. In the year 1908, NanjibhaiMadhvani, Muljibhai’s elder brother
took him along to Uganda.Nanjibhi had shortly started working in the African countries in those
days.Muljibhai had a hard road that he had to follow to attain all the glory that he had.

 When he was 17years old(1911) he got himself occupied in a retail business owned by his
relatives Vithaldas and Kalidas in Iganga.He was taught about the line of trade and business. The
same year, his relatives helped him to open a shop in Kaliro, which did very well. Muljibhai then
went on to open a 2nd factory in Jinja and named it the VithaldasHaridas and Company as he
was still working for his relatives.

 Muljibhai then overtook the complete business done by the company which made him the
Managing Director of the company VithaldasHaridas company which is also known as Kakira
Sugar Works as it primarily was a sugar factory. Today, Kakira Sugar Works is stretched over a
land of 9500 hectares. By 1950’s, Kakira Sugar was well set up and recognised.

 In the year 1946, Muljibhai expanded his work of line into beer and the industry of textiles, in
1957, he attained the factory Nile breweries which were split up and set up in South Africa.

Health Issues, Illness and Death Info

Muljibhai Madhvani died on 08-07-1958 in Kakira, Eastern, Uganda. He died at age of 64.

 DEATHDAY  DEATH PLACE  DEATH COUNTRY

8 July, 1958 (Thursday) Kakira, Jinja, Eastern Uganda

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 DEATHDAY  DEATH PLACE  DEATH COUNTRY

Mayur is the youngest son and child of Muljibhai Madhvani (1894 -1958), the family
patriarch who founded the Madhvani Group in 1930. Mayur's four older brothers are Jayant,
Manubhai, Pratap and Surendra. Jayant, the eldest, died at age 49 of a heart attack in 1971 while
on a business trip to India. Manubhai, the second born, died in May 2012 at the age of 81.
In 1972, Uganda dictator Idi Amin expelled all Asians from Uganda, regardless of citizenship.
Mayur, with other family members relocated to London. In 1974, he married Mumtaz, the
former Bollywood actress. Together they are the parents of two daughters, Natasha and Tanya.
After Amin was deposed in 1979, the Madhvanis returned to Uganda and reclaimed their assets.
Kakira Sugar Limited the flagship company was successfully recovered in 1985. Under the
leadership of the Madhvani family they have steered KSW to become the largest producer of
refined sugar in East Africa. KSW produces an estimated 165,000 metric tonnes of sugar
annually, accounting for about 47 percent of the national output in 2011. The Group has also
spearheaded co-generation of electricity at Kakira, which now produces 52 megawatts, of which
20 megawatts is used internally and 32 megawatts is sold to the national grid. [6] In 2016, an
Ethanol distillery was also set up with a total capacity of 60,000 litres of ethanol per day.

Lohana, also referred to

as Loharana, Luvana, Lohrana, Lohbana, Lobana, Labana, Lubana, are an Indian caste. Lohanas
claim to be descendants of the Luva, son of Rama, and to descend from
the Raghuvanshi dynasty. They mainly came from the lahore region of Punjab and spread all
over India.  The Lohanas are divided into many separate cultural groups as a result of centuries
apart in different regions. Originally Lohanas were a prominent community of the Kshatriya
Rajput caste (Sanskrit Kshatriya) that originated in Iran and Afghanistan, then in the region of
Punjab and later on migrated to Sindh and present day Gujarat state in India around 800 years
ago. As administrators and rulers, Kshatriya Lohanas were assigned with protecting the people,
and serving humanity. Over time, however, as a result of economic and political exigencies, the
majority of Lohanas are now mainly engaged in mercantile occupations. Thus there are
significant differences between the culture, language, professions and societies
of Punjabi Lohanas, Gujarati Lohanas, Sindhi Lohanas, Kutchi Lohanas.Gujarati lohanas trace
their origin to Saurashtra region in present-day state of Gujarat, India.
Origin
The Lohanas originated in the Indus Valley. They claim to descend from Lava, son of the
deity Rama in the Hindu epic script Ramayana. The name Lohana derives from Lava. Another
myth of origin states that the Lohanas were originally Rathor Rajputs who received help from the
god Varuna in a battle against the king of Kannauj. It states Varuna built the Rathors an iron fort

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to protect them, which then disappeared 21 days after the battle. After the battle Rathors came to
be called Lohanas, which they claim meant "those of iron".
Sindhi Lohanas
Sindh fell under the Muslim rule of Muhammad bin Qasim after defeat of Dahir. Its Hindus were
increasingly pressured to convert to Islam. It was around this time that Uderolal - a Sindhi Hindu
Lohana also known as Jhulelal, Dariyalal and Jinda Pir - assumed the mantle of Lohana and
Hindu leadership. Today Uderolal is revered by both Sindhis and Sufis, thus both Hindus and
Muslims visit the site of his tomb. For two centuries after him, Lohanas lived without fear until
they found themselves being increasingly threatened and persecuted in Sindh due to their Hindu
identity. It was then that they began to migrate mainly towards Kutch and Saurashtra.
Sindhi Lohanas have since been divided into several groups, among which are:

 Amils : In the 18th-19th century, they stopped being merchants and began working for
local rulers. They currently are generally involved in clerical jobs in government offices, as
working in posts of revenue collectors and other senior positions. They originally composed
10-15% of the Lohana community, but soon acquired a status higher than Lohanas
and Khatris, and continued to draw members from those castes.
 Bhaibands : mainly involved in trade and commerce and so mostly merchants. The
community was involved in international and trade in interior of Sindh even before the
arrival of the British. They also played an important part in the development of the city
of Karachi
 Sahitis: placed somewhere between Amils and Bhaibands, they could be either in
government service or traders
 Ladii-Lohana(Ladii-Sindhi) : Traditionally these were farmers and landowners whose
ancestors tilled land for rice and build the community of Hindu-Sindhis near and around
Hyderabad,Sindh but had to leave all types of assets and wealth behind during partition.They
remain true to their ancestors identity and values even during all the skirmishes faced during
that time(800 AD to 1800's) due to continuous invasions.
For hundreds of years, the Lohanas absorbed other communities from the western Indian
subcontinent.
Formation of Khoja and Memon Islamic communities
The community's oral history says that the decline of their kingdom began after the death of Veer
Dada Jashraj. It also says that their name derives from the city of Lohargadh (/Lohanpur/Lohkot)
in Multan, from which they migrated in the 13th century after the establishment of Muslim rule
there.
Pir Sadardin converted some Lohanas to the Shia Ismaili Nizari sect of Islam in the 15th century.
As Lohanas were worshippers of Shakti, the emergence of a devotional Ismaili oral tradition that
incorporated indigenous conceptions of religion, known as ginans, played a role in the forming
of a new ethnic caste-like grouping. This group came to be known as Khojas (from Khawaja), a
title given by Sadardin, that would predominantly merge into what is now understood as the
Nizari Ismaili branch of Shia Islam.

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In 1422, Jam Rai Dan was tribal leader in Sindh during the Samma Dynasty; he was converted to
Islam by Sayad Eusuf-ud-Din and he adopted a new name Makrab Khan. At that time a person
named Mankeji was head of 84 nukhs of Lohanas, who were in favour in court of that Samma
king. He was persuaded by ruler and the Qadri to convert to Islam. However, not all Lohanas
were ready to convert from Hinduism. But 700 Lohana families comprising some 6,178 persons
converted in Thatta, Sindh. These are now known as Memons (from Momins).
Post-Partition
After the Partition of British India in 1947, Lohanas from Kutch and Sindh migrated in large
numbers to Maharashtra, mostly to Bombay (modern Mumbai), Mulund, Pune, Nasik,
and Nagpur.
Thousands of Hindu Gujaratis left India between 1880 - 1920 and migrated to British
colonies in the African Great Lakes region of Uganda, Kenya and Tanganyika.A significant
number of these came from the Patidar and Lohana communities.[10] At that time,however, there
was already a bustling merchant class diaspora of Gujarati Muslims in these countries.
The Lohana migrants to East Africa, of which there were 40,000 in 1970, came mainly from the
Saurashtran cities of Jamnagar and Rajkot. Many Lohanas set up businesses in those countries,
two of the most successful being those set up by Nanji Kalidas Mehta and Muljibhai Madhvani.
In the later part of 20th century, following the independence of British colonies, and particularly
after Idi Amin's expulsion order for South Asians in 1972, most Lohanas moved to the United
Kingdom, and to a lesser extent to United States and Canada.[16] In the UK, the highest
concentration of Lohanas and other Gujarati Hindu communities is around the West
London suburbs of Wembley and Harrow, and the city of Leicester in the East Midlands region
of England.
Lohanas largely follow Hindu rituals and worship Hindu deities such as Krishna. They worship
avatars of Vishnu such as Rama with his consort Sita and Krishna in the form of Shrinathji. They
worship Shakti in the form of Ravirandal Mataji, and Ambika. The 19th century saints Jalaram
Bapa, and Yogiji Maharaj, also attract many Lohana devotees. Their main clan deities are Veer
Dada Jashraj, Harkor Ba, Sindhvi Shree Sikotar Mata and Dariyalal. The Sun is also worshipped
by the community. Some Lohana branches worship Hinglaj as a clan goddess.
The Lohanas, Bhatias, and Khatris were close communities and were known to intermarry. The
Lohanas recruit Saraswat Brahmins as priests.

Mehbs Bandali
Tanzania also has nearly one lakh people of Indian origin. They control a sizeable portion of
economy here. Political leadership ensured that exodus of Kenya and Uganda did not repeat here.
Rock-star Freddie Mercury was born as Farouk Bulsara in Tanzania.
Historian Mehta in an article in an academic journal says, “The creation of a Gujarati business
community diaspora in East Africa since the 1880s and the recent migrations back to the area
from the UK is, thus, of more than mere historical interest. It suggests that if the democratic
system in the East African states creates a favourable entrepreneurial climate, Gujaratis are likely
to do well into the next millennium.”

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IT is a humid day in March, and the picture-postcard town of Murud on the Konkan coast a few
hours south of Mumbai is boiling in the summer heat. From the coast, the impregnable fortress of
Janjira shimmers and looks like it is floating on the sea. A motorboat from the tiny pier takes
visitors close to the ramparts from where they are transferred to a smaller rowboat that takes
them up to the stone steps leading to the fort.

A frieze at the entrance immediately grabs one’s attention: it shows a tiger clawing six elephants.
A local guide says that it depicts the military prowess of Siddis, the name given to African
settlers in India, who ruled Janjira for more than 400 years. The tiger represents Siddis, while the
elephants represent the various kingdoms in the region, including the Mughals and the Marathas,
who had tried in vain to capture this island fortress. It is unclear when the fort was originally
built, but it assumed its current majesty when it was reconstructed in the early 18th century.
Janjira was one of more than 500 princely states that acceded to the Union of India in 1948. At
the time, the dominion of the little kingdom extended inland for around 800 square kilometres. It
had a population of 103,000 in 1941. The island, 22 acres (8.9 hectares) and oval shaped, still has
the detritus of what must have once been a flourishing military court. Several cannons overlook
the sea from strategically located embrasures. Two freshwater ponds, a lone mosque and the
skeleton of a multi-storey building that was the durbar are enclosed by the majestic bastions of
the fortress that run around the island. A recent exhibition of paintings and photographs titled
“Africans in India: From Slaves to Generals and Rulers” curated by the renowned American
scholars Sylviane A. Diouf and Kenneth X. Robbins has turned the spotlight on the small but
strategically located kingdom of Janjira and its undefeated fortress, which is considered a feat in
military architecture. (The exhibition was brought to India by the Indira Gandhi National Centre
for the Arts in collaboration with the Schomburg Centre for Research in Black Culture, New
York. It is on at SS Fine Arts College, Vijayapura, Karnataka, until April 30. Over the next few
months, it will travel to Surat, Mumbai, Vadodara and Gandhinagar.)
The story of Africans in India begins long before the island fortress of Janjira was constructed,
but the fortress remains the most significant architectural vestige of this hoary connection.
East Africa and India had an ancient association that strengthened in medieval times. By the time
the British recognised the Siddi nawabs of Janjira as independent rulers in the 19th century, the
African presence in the Indian subcontinent, as part of their historic presence in the Indian Ocean
world, was long established and pervasive. The term used for an African in India, “Siddi”, is
thought to be a corruption of the word “Sayyid”, which attests to the overwhelming Muslim
component in the migration of Africans to India. “Habshi”, derived from the Arabic word for
Abyssinia (now known as Ethiopia), was also commonly used in the past, but its usage has died
down now.
Historians have speculated that Indian merchants brought African slaves to India right from the
sixth century B.C. But there is concrete evidence to show that forts along the Konkan coast were
entrepots for African slaves from the third century A.D. With the expansion of commerce, the
trade in slaves grew substantially, with Arab traders taking the lead. Most of the slaves who
found their way to India were brought from the region of East Africa coinciding with the modern
states of Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya and Tanzania and found employment in Muslim and Hindu
kingdoms across the subcontinent as soldiers, eunuchs and elite slaves who were not meant for
hard labour but for specialised tasks.
Ibn Batuta’s account

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The itinerant Moroccan savant Ibn Batuta, who travelled through India in the 1330s and 1340s,
writes about a Habshi eunuch called Sunbul who attended on him while he was in Delhi. The
Sultan of Delhi also gifted Batuta African slave girls. About the Habshis of Gujarat, Batuta
writes that they “are the guarantors of safety on the Indian Ocean; let there be but one of them on
a ship and it will be avoided by Indian pirates and idolaters”. In 1572, when the Mughals
conquered Gujarat, there were 700 Habshis among the 12,000 horsemen in the service of
Gujarat. Many Africans also came to India as traders.
With the establishment of the Portuguese Asian empire in the 16th century, slaves began to be
shipped regularly to India from the region of modern Mozambique as well. Goa, Daman and Diu
served as the chief ports for this international trade in people. The slave trade was a crucial
component of the political economy of the Indian Ocean trade. One estimate says that some 4.7
million Africans were traded as slaves and shipped to Arab lands, Persia and India from 800
A.D. to 1896.
How did Africans fit into Indian society? Contrary to the dictum of Islam that stresses equality
among all men, a negative image of “blackness” began to develop in Indian Muslim society in
medieval times. Hinduism also did not find space for these black Africans within the caste
system. In spite of this, upward social mobility did take place among slaves, mainly in Muslim
kingdoms, as mixed marriages took place and Islamic practice allowed for manumission. Siddis
married women from the local population and became more “Indianised” with every subsequent
generation. In the process, they assimilated with the local population. Among the Siddi elites, it
was only the nawabs of Janjira and Sachin (in modern Gujarat) who retained their African
features well into the 20th century by consciously practising endogamy.
Another route to upward mobility was their military prowess. The Sharqi sultans of Jaunpur
(1394-1479) and the Habshi sultans of Bengal (1486-1493) were of African origin, but it was in
the Deccan that they had the most pervasive impact, with the Bahmani, Ahmednagar, Bijapur
and Golconda sultanates having high-ranking Africans in their courts. With the decline of the
Delhi sultanate and the coming of the Mughals, there was ferment in the subcontinent. In the
Deccan, several sultanates were in a tussle with the kingdom of Vijayanagar for political
superiority that culminated in the Battle of Talikota (1565). Increasing military competitiveness
between the 15th and 16th centuries led to a constant demand for valorous African mercenaries.
Among them, the charismatic Malik Ambar in Ahmednagar was a bugbear for the Mughals.
Jahangir’s hatred for this Deccani bulwark was so intense that he commissioned a richly
metaphorical painting in 1616 of him shooting an arrow through the decapitated head of Ambar.
An owl, a symbol of the night, is perched on Ambar’s lifeless head. Two inscriptions
accompanying the painting show how skin colour was used as a factor in the battles of the era.
The first inscription states: “The head of the night-coloured usurper has become the house of the
owl.” The second inscription reads: “Thine enemy-smitting arrow has driven from the world,
[Ambar] the owl, which fled the light.” In both these pithy statements, Jahangir’s obsession with
Ambar’s colour is evident and can perhaps be inferred as an attempt on his part to consolidate
support on the basis of race.
The Ethiopia-born Ambar came to the Deccan via West Asia where he was enslaved as a youth.
His ownership changed hands at least three times before he arrived in India, where he was sold to
a Habshi nobleman in 1575. By this time, Africans in India could already be found in senior
military and political positions. Ikhlas Khan, a Habshi in Bijapur, was also immensely powerful
at around the same time.

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With the death of his master, Ambar gained his freedom and built a large Habshi force,
transforming himself into an important player in Ahmednagar. Ambar had surrounded himself
with a cohort of powerful Habshi nobles. He played a role in establishing the kingdom of Janjira
as well. By 1607, he had become the regent of Ahmednagar and was a formidable foe of the
Mughals. He developed the guerrilla art of warfare called bargi-giri (later used by the Marathas),
which frustrated the forces of Jahangir as he mentioned in his court memoir, Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri.
Ambar is also credited with building the city of Khadki (now Aurangabad), and his astuteness as
a military tactician played an important role in the history of medieval India. He died in 1626 at
the age of 80; his tomb is in Khuldabad, Aurangabad district, Maharashtra. Ambar’s case shows
how Siddis in India could attain their freedom and move socially upward.
The Deccan also saw Siddi architects such as the eunuch Malik Sandal, who is said to have
designed several majestic monuments in Bijapur in the late 16th century, including the Ibrahim
Rauza. Evidence shows that African women also married Indian royals. Yasmin Mahal, one of
the wives of Wajid Ali Shah, the last king of Oudh, was an African.
The Portuguese freed several African slaves in the 18th century. Some of them went south to the
forests of north-west Karnataka, while some may have found their way to Bombay (now
Mumbai). There is evidence to show that in the late 18th century, British families in Bombay
employed African slaves imported by Portuguese and Arab traders. An estimate made in 1811,
stated that 6,000 to 10,000 slaves were shipped annually to Muscat, India and the Mascarene
Islands (the island chain that includes Mauritius). Up to 1860, well after the abolition of slavery
in the British Empire, slaves continued to be surreptitiously shipped to India. Bombay is said to
have had a population of 2,000 Africans in 1864. Many of them migrated to Hyderabad where
the Nizam formed an exclusive African cavalry guard.
When Nawab of Janjira Siddi Mohammad Khan acceded to India in 1948, he vacated his island
fortress and moved to the ornate Ahmedgunj palace on the coast of Murud. Today, the island
fortress stands as a reminder of how Siddis once controlled the strategic marine lanes in the
region. The current nawab, a son of Mohammad Khan, is fiercely private and reclusive.
According to the residents of Murud, he does not have any contact with them, but the aura of his
presence and that of his royal forbears seems to linger over the bucolic little town, which comes
alive during the summer school holidays. Urban legends thrive and are freely told by the local
people to curious tourists.
In Murud, a tea vendor on the beach, tells a couple of young men that the nawab is Habshi.
While the duo look at him quizzically, he helpfully adds: “…like Dharmendra in the film Razia
Sultana”. The men nod as they get it, but the vendor is quick to add a caveat: “The nawab is tall
and broad and has curly hair like Africans, but he’s fair. You really can’t make out that he’s
Habshi. He looks like one of us now.”
Excavations at the Swahili stonetown of Shanga, on the northern Kenya coast,1 recovered
one of the more enigmatic and suggestive artefacts known from the eastern African coast during
the pre-colonial trading period. The bronze figure of a lion, dated to c. AD 1100, is unique
among finds from the coast of eastern Africa, yet is typical of a number of similar figurines
found in India—specifically the Deccan Plateau—known to have been used in Hindu
rituals.2 One explanation for the presence of this figurine in an archaeological context in East
Africa is that it was brought by an Indian merchant or traveller, or imported by a member of the
increasingly rich local elite; Shanga was deeply connected with Indian Ocean routes of
commerce and interaction dominated by Islamic traders.
From the examination of just these four categories of artefacts, then, we can identify a number of

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different types of contacts between India and Africa during the late first millennium AD. The
record of shared symbolism on coinage, shared aesthetics in semi-precious stone beads, and
possible shared practice seen in the changing repertoire of ceramics suggest a dense yet
amorphous web of changing social connections that bound communities together in various ways
and at different times. During this early period, we can see only traces of this web of
connections. Certainly, from the 11th century onwards, direct connectivity is easier to recognize,
through a range of goods (in particular, the growing record of Indo-Pacific glass beads) that
moved between regions across the Indian Ocean. It is into this denser network that the Shanga
lion fits, evoking notions of diaspora and the movement of craftspeople among a cosmopolitan
community of producers and consumers.
57We argue that it is precisely the elusiveness of these earlier connections that makes them
interesting and important. Shared senses of value, notions of aesthetics, and social practices such
as these are not recorded in the accounts of travellers or trade itineraries and do not fit into the
usual models that chart the directions of trade. Nor were they always mediated by commodity
trade. Recognizing these connections thus extends our conception of Indian Ocean interactions
beyond the traditional understanding of trade relationships that

According to the historian Strabo (II.5.12.) the Roman trade with India trade initiated

by Eudoxus of Cyzicus in 130 BCE kept increasing. Indian ships sailed to Egypt as the thriving
maritime routes of Southern Asia were not under the control of a single power. In India, the ports
of Barbaricum (modern Karachi), Barygaza, Muziris, Korkai, Kaveripattinam and Arikamedu on
the southern tip of India were the main centres of this trade.  The Periplus Maris
Erythraei describes Greco—Roman merchants selling in Barbaricum "thin clothing, figured
linens, topaz, coral, storax, frankincense, vessels of glass, silver and gold plate, and a little wine"
in exchange for "costus, bdellium, lycium, nard, turquoise, lapis lazuli, Seric skins, cotton cloth,
silk yarn, and indigo". In Barygaza, they would buy wheat, rice, sesame oil, cotton and cloth.

The Ethiopian kingdom of Aksum was involved in the Indian Ocean trade network and was
influenced by Roman culture and Indian architecture. Traces of Indian influences are visible
in Roman works of silver and ivory, or in Egyptian cotton and silk fabrics used for sale in
Europe. The Indian presence in Alexandria may have influenced the culture but little is known
about the manner of this influence.[6] Clement of Alexandria mentions the Buddha in his writings
and other Indian religions find mentions in other texts of the period. The Indians were present in
Alexandria and Christian and Jewish settlers from Rome continued to live in India long after the
fall of the Roman Empire, which resulted in Rome's loss of the Red Sea ports, previously used to
secure trade with India by the Greco—Roman world since the time of the Ptolemaic dynasty.

Historic Indosphere cultural influence zone of Greater India for transmission of elements

of Indian elements such as the honorific titles, naming of people, naming of places, mottos

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of organisations and educational institutes as well as adoption

of Hinduism, Buddhism, Indian architecture, martial arts, Indian music and
dance, traditional Indian clothing, and Indian cuisine, a process which has also been aided
by the ongoing historic expansion of Indian diaspora.

Austronesian proto-historic and historic maritime trade network in the Indian Ocean

During this period, Hindu and Buddhist religious establishments of Southeast Asia came to be
associated with economic activity and commerce as patrons entrusted large funds which would
later be used to benefit local economy by estate management, craftsmanship and promotion of
trading activities. Buddhism, in particular, travelled alongside the maritime trade, promoting
coinage, art and literacy.[  This route caused the intermixing of many artistic and cultural
influences, Hellenistic, Iranian, Indian and Chinese, Greco-Buddhist art represents one such
vivid examples of this interaction. Buddha was first depicted as human in the Kushan period with
intermixing of Greek and Indian elements, and the influence of this Greco-Buddhist art can be
found in later Buddhist art in China and throughout countries on the Silk Road. Ashoka and after
him his successors of Kalinga, Pallava and Chola empires along with their vassals Pandya and
Chera dynasties, as well as Vijayanagra empire all played a vital role in expanding Indianisation,
extending Indian maritime trade and growth of Hinduism and Buddhism. Port of Kollam is an
example of important trade port in Maritime Silk Route.

Maritime Silk Route, which flourished between the 2nd century BC and 15th century AD
connected China, Southeast Asia, the Indian subcontinent, Arabian
peninsula, Somalia, Egypt and Europe. Despite its association with China in recent centuries, the
Maritime Silk Route was primarily established and operated by Austronesian sailors in Southeast
Asia, Tamil merchants in India and Southeast Asia, Greco-Roman merchants in East
Africa, India, Ceylon and Indochina, and by Persian and Arab traders in the Arabian Sea and
beyond. Prior to the 10th century, the route was primarily used by Southeast Asian traders,
although Tamil and Persian traders also sailed them. For most of its history,
Austronesian thalassocracies controlled the flow of the Maritime Silk Road, especially
the polities around the straits of Malacca and Bangka, the Malay peninsula, and the Mekong
delta; although Chinese records misidentified these kingdoms as being "Indian" due to
the Indianization of these regions.] The route was influential in the early spread
of Hinduism and Buddhism to the east. The Maritime Silk Road developed from the
earlier Austronesian spice trade networks of Islander Southeast Asians with Sri
Lanka and Southern India (established 1000 to 600 BCE).

Kalinga (in 3rd century BCE was annexed by the Mauryan emperor Ashoka) and Vijayanagara
Empire (1336-1646) also established footholds in Malaya, Sumatra and Western Java. Maritime
history of Odisha, known as Kalinga in ancient times, started before 350 BC according to early
sources. The people of this region of eastern India along the coast of the Bay of Bengal sailed up
and down the Indian coast, and travelled to Indo China and throughout Maritime Southeast
Asia, introducing elements of their culture to the people with whom they traded. The 6th
century Manjusrimulakalpa mentions the Bay of Bengal as 'Kalingodra' and historically the Bay
of Bengal has been called 'Kalinga Sagara' (both Kalingodra and Kalinga Sagara mean Kalinga
Sea), indicating the importance of Kalinga in the maritime trade. The old traditions are still

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celebrated in the annual Bali Jatra, or Boita-Bandana festival held for five days in October /
November.

Textiles from India were in demand in Egypt, East Africa, and the Mediterranean between the
1st and 2nd centuries CE, and these regions became overseas markets for Indian exports.
In Java and Borneo, the introduction of Indian culture created a demand for aromatics, and
trading posts here later served Chinese and Arab markets. [10] The Periplus Maris
Erythraei names several Indian ports from where large ships sailed in an easterly direction
to Chryse. Products from the Maluku Islands that were shipped across the ports of Arabia to
the Near East passed through the ports of India and Sri Lanka. After reaching either the Indian or
the Sri Lankan ports, products were sometimes shipped to East Africa, where they were used for
a variety of purposes including burial rites.
Indian spice exports find mention in the works of Ibn Khurdadhbeh (850), al-Ghafiqi (1150 CE),
Ishak bin Imaran (907) and Al Kalkashandi (14th century). Chinese traveler Xuanzang mentions
the town of Puri where "merchants depart for distant countries."  The Abbasid caliphate (750–
1258 CE) used Alexandria, Damietta, Aden and Siraf as entry ports to India and China.
Merchants arriving from India in the port city of Aden paid tribute in form
of musk, camphor, ambergris and sandalwood to Ibn Ziyad, the sultan of Yemen.

Chola territories during Rajendra Chola I, c. 1030 CE.Model of a Chola (200—848 CE)

ship's hull, built by the ASI, based on a wreck 19 miles off the coast of Poombuhar,
displayed in a Museum in Tirunelveli.

The Chola dynasty (200—1279) reached the peak of its influence and power during the
medieval period. Emperors Rajaraja Chola I (reigned 985-1014) and Rajendra Chola I (reigned
1012-1044) extended the Chola kingdom beyond the traditional limits. At its peak, the Chola
Empire stretched from the island of Sri Lanka in the south to the Godavari basin in the
north. The kingdoms along the east coast of India up to the river Ganges acknowledged Chola
suzerainty. Chola navies invaded and conquered Srivijaya and Srivijaya was the largest empire
in Maritime Southeast Asia. Goods and ideas from India began to play a major role in the
"Indianization" of the wider world from this period. The Cholas excelled in foreign trade and
maritime activity, extending their influence overseas to China and Southeast Asia.  Towards the
end of the 9th century, southern India had developed extensive maritime and commercial
activity. The Cholas, being in possession of parts of both the west and the east coasts of
peninsular India, were at the forefront of these ventures. The Tang dynasty (618–907) of China,

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the Srivijaya empire in Maritime Southeast Asia under the Sailendras, and

the Abbasid caliphate at Baghdad were the main trading partners.

One of the Borobudur ships from the 8th century, they were depictions of large native
outrigger trading vessels, possibly of the Sailendra and Srivijaya thalassocracies. Shown
with the characteristic tanja sail of Southeast Asian Austronesians.

Srivijaya empire, an Indianised Hindu-Buddhist empire founded at Palembang in 682 CE as

indicated in Tang records, rose to dominate the trade in the region around the straits and the
South China Sea emporium by controlling the trade in luxury aromatics and Buddhist artifacts
from West Asia to a thriving Tang market. Chinese records also indicate that the early Chinese
Buddhist pilgrims to South Asia booked passage with the Austronesian ships that traded in
Chinese ports. Books written by Chinese monks like Wan Chen and Hui-Lin contain detailed
accounts of the large trading vessels from Southeast Asia dating back to at least the 3rd century
CE.

One of the Pandya empire (3rd century BCE to 14th century CE) ruler Parantaka

Nedumjadaiyan (765–790) and the Chera dynasty (absorbed into the Pandya political system by
10th/11th century AD) were a close ally of the Pallavas (275 CE to 897 CE). Pallavamalla
Nadivarman defeated the Pandya Varaguna with the help of a Chera king. Cultural contacts
between the Pallava court and the Chera country were common. Eventually, Cheras dynasty
were subsumed by Pandya dynasty, which in turn was subsumed by the Pallava dynasty.

Kollam (also called Quilon or Desinganadu's) in coastal Kerala become operational in AD.825,

and has a high commercial reputation since the days of the Phoenicians and Romans, The ruler
of Kollam (who were vassals of pandya dynasty who in turn later became vassals of Chola
dynasty) also used to exchange the embassies with Chinese rulers and there was flourishing
Chinese settlement at Kollam. The Indian commercial connection with Southeast Asia proved
vital to the merchants of Arabia and Persia between the 7th and 8th centuries CE, and merchant
Sulaiman of Siraf in Persia (9th Century) found Kollam to be the only port in India, touched by
the huge Chinese junks, on his way from Carton of Persian Gulf. Marco Polo, the great Venician
traveller, who was in Chinese service under Kublakhan in 1275, visited Kollam and other towns
on the west coast, in his capacity as a Chinese mandarin. Fed by the Chinese trade, port of
Kollam was also mentioned by Ibn Battuta in the 14th century as one of the five Indian ports he
had seen in the course of his travels during twenty-four years.

Growth and development of agriculture in Kerala hinterlands brought about plentiful availability

of surplus. The excess agricultural crops and grains were bartered for other necessities in angadis
or trading centres, turning the ports to cities. Traders used coins especially in foreign trade to

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export spices, muslin, cotton, pearls and precious stones to countries of the west and received the
wine, olive oil, amphora and terracotta pots from there. Egyptian dinars and Venetian ducats
(1284-1797) were in great demand in medieval Kerala’s international trade.

The Arabs and the Chinese were important trade partners of medieval Kerala. Arab trade and
navigation attained a new enthusiasm since the birth and spread of Islam. Four gold coins
of Umayyad Caliphate (665-750 CE) found in Kothamangalam testifies the visit of Arab traders
to Kerala in that period. With the formation of Abbasid Caliphate (750-1258 CE) the Golden
Age of Islam began and trade flourished as the religion was favorably disposed towards trade.
Ninth century on wards the Arab trade to Malabar was raised to new esteems and saw many
outposts of Muslim merchants. This, later on, became a strong element of Kerala Maritime
History.

Port of Kollam (est. 825 CE) & Calicut, map C.1500.

The Trade with Malabar resulted in the drainage of Chinese gold in abundance that the Song
dynasty (1127-1279) prohibited the use of gold, silver and bronze in foreign trade in 1219 and
silk fabrics and porcelain was ordered to be bartered against foreign goods. Pepper, coconut, fish,
betel nuts, etc were exported from Malabar in exchange for gold, silver, colored satin, blue and
white porcelain, musk, quicksilver and camphor from China.

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Trade between Africa and Gujrath

Trade between Africa and Gujrath: During the Muslim period, in which the Muslims had
dominated the trade across the Indian Ocean, the Gujaratis were bringing spices from
the Moluccas as well as silk from China, in exchange for manufactured items such as textiles,
and then selling them to the Egyptians and Arabs. Calicut was the center of
Indian pepper exports to the Red Sea and Europe at this time with Egyptian and Arab traders
being particularly active.
Arabic missionaries and merchants began to spread Islam along the western shores of the Indian
Ocean from the 8th century, if not earlier. A Swahili stone mosque dating to the 8th–15th
centuries have been found in Shanga, Kenya. Trade across the Indian Ocean gradually
introduced Arabic script and rice as a staple in Eastern Africa. Muslim merchants traded an
estimated 1000 African slaves annually between 800 and 1700, a number that grew to c. 
4000 during the 18th century, and 3700 during the period 1800–1870. Slave trade also occurred
in the eastern Indian Ocean before the Dutch settled there around 1600 but the volume of this
trade is unknown.
In Madagascar, merchants and slave traders from the Middle East (Shirazi Persians, Omani
Arabs, Arabized Jews, accompanied by Bantus from southeast Africa) and from Asia
(Gujaratis, Malays, Javanese, Bugis) were sometimes integrated within the indigenous Malagasy
clans  New waves of Austronesian migrants arrived in Madagascar at this time leaving behind a
lasting cultural and genetic legacy.

Indian sea merchants from the Gulf of Kutch in the Western coast of India sailed for East Africa
in their very seaworthy dhows, using the alternating sea winds for navigation. The North-East
monsoon winds brought these merchant sailors across the Indian Ocean from December to
March. After trading and bartering, they returned to East Africa during June and September,
using the reverse South-East winds. They sailed regularly to the Zenj coast (Zanj Coast:
Zanzibar), as it was called in those times, to obtain incense, palm oil, myrrh, gold, copper, spices,
ivory, rhino horn and wild animal skins. They sold cloth, metal implements, foodstuff like wheat,

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rice and jaggery, besides porcelain and glassware.Trade was assisted by favourable sea winds
and the development of a suitable marine technology. India’s skills in harnessing winds and
currents of Indian Ocean are traced by scholars in several historical sources. It includes
references in Vedas where mention is made of growth of trade and shipping during the Maurayan
period, in the dialogue of Budhha during the fifth century BC and in ancient Tamil writings in
the context of West Asia and Africa.2
India’s pre-colonial ties with Africa have received little attention. It links with Pharaonic, Greek-
ruled, Roman-ruled and Islamic Egypt, from the tenth to fourteenth century, extended to
neighbouring African lands along the Red Sea. Modern history lays testimony to the fact that
enterprising Indian merchants were looking for trade routes across the ocean and they set sail
across the Arabian sea to the West in the quest to find lucrative markets and to explore new
frontiers. In the process they played an influential role in the history of the African countries
with whom they came in touch. People from both sides became part of the Indian Ocean ‘circuit.

2.Chapter 2 India–Africa Relations: Historical Goodwill and a Vision for the Future Ajay Kumar
Dubey https://www.loyolacollege.edu/e-document/history/Nancy/India%20Africa%20Relations
%20Dubey.pdf
African Mercenaries in India: The Siddi (pronounced [sɪd̪d̪iː]), also known as Sidi, Siddhi,
Sheedi, or Habshi, are an ethnic group inhabiting India and Pakistan. Some were merchants,
sailors, indentured servants, slaves and mercenaries. The Habshi or Siddis are thought to have
arrived in India in 628 AD at the Bharuch port. Several others followed with the first Arab
Islamic conquest of the subcontinent in 712 AD. The latter group are believed to have been
soldiers with Muhammad bin Qasim's Arab army, and were called Zanjis.
Some Siddis escaped slavery to establish communities in forested areas, and some also
established the small Siddi principalities of Janjira State on Janjira Island and Jafarabad State in
Kathiawar as early as the twelfth century. A former alternative name of Janjira was Habshan
(i.e., land of the Habshis). In the Delhi Sultanate period prior to the rise of the Mughals in India,
Jamal-ud-Din Yaqut was a prominent Siddi slave-turned-nobleman who was a close confidant of

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Razia Sultana (1205–1240 CE). Although this is disputed, he may also have been her lover, but
contemporary sources do not indicate that this was necessarily the case.
Siddis were also brought as slaves by the Deccan Sultanates. Several former slaves rose to high
ranks in the military and administration, the most prominent of which was Malik Ambar.
Researchers Yatin Pandya, Trupti Rawal (2002), in the paper The Ahmedabad Chronicle:
Imprints of a Millennium, Vastu Shilpa Foundation for Studies and Research in Environmental
Design, state that the first Muslims in Gujarat to have arrived are the Siddis via the Bharuch port
in 628 AD ... The major group, though, arrived in 712 AD via Sindh and the north. With the
founding of Ahmedabad in 1411 AD it became the concentrated base of the community..Josef
W. Meri, Jere L. Bacharach (2006), Medieval Islamic Civilization: An Encyclopedia, Taylor &
Francis, ISBN 978-0-415-96692-4, Claim that Jala ad-Din Yaqut, an Abyssinian slave, was
appointed to the post of master of the stables, a position traditionally reserved for a distinguished
Turk.

The Sultanate of Bengal was established in the 14th century and a large number of African-
origin soldiers were recruited in the army here. Many rose to perform administrative duties and
some became magistrates, were involved in law-enforcement and even collected tolls and taxes.
But there was one Abyssinian who went even further. The commander of the palace guards of
the then ruler, Jalaluddin Fateh Shah, he seized the throne in a palace coup. The Sultanate of
Bengal thus got an African king, Barbak Shahzada, who established the Habshi Dynasty in 1487.
However, this was a short-lived endeavour and the rule of the dynasty he founded ended in 1493.
Despite their brief reign, the Habshis of Bengal were brave and just kings. They were also
patrons of art and architecture, and built many secular and religious structures like the Firoze
Minar in Gaur, Malda in West Bengal.

The valour and loyalty of the Siddis is the subject of legend. According to one story, Goddess
Lakshmi was wandering the walled city of Ahmedabad one night and was trying to leave through
one of its gates, when she was stopped by a Siddi soldier who recognised her and asked her to
wait while he took the king’s permission to let her leave at that hour. The Siddi soldier rushed to
the king and asked him to behead him so that Goddess Lakshmi would stay and keep the city
prosperous. According to the legend, Lakshmi is still waiting for the soldier to return and let her
out, to which the prosperity of the city of Ahmedabad is attributed.

Arguably the most famous African in India is Malik Ambar. Born in the mid-16th century in
Ethiopia, he was enslaved as a young man. After an arduous journey to the Middle East, to

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Baghdad and then to India, he finally reached the Deccan and rose through the ranks to become
Prime Minister in the Ahmadnagar Sultanate.

Known as one of the greatest leaders of the Deccan, Malik Ambar was a master of guerrilla
warfare and more than once subdued the armies of the Mughals in their quest to conquer the
Deccan. Before he died, Malik Ambar got his daughters married into the Sultan’s family, a mark
of just how respected he was.

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Such was the military prowess of the Africans that the kingdom of Janjira was the one holdout to
both the Mughals and the Marathas. The island of Janjira, on the west coast of Maharashtra, had
been captured by Malik Ambar who built a fort on the island. The Siddis of Janjira continued to
rule the kingdom till Independence and even went on to establish a minor kingdom in Sachin, in
Gujarat.

The last major movement of Africans to India took place in the 19th century. It is believed that
the Nizam of Hyderabad saw some African soldiers in the army of another princely state and,
impressed by them, asked for a troop for the state of Hyderabad as well. Thus soldiers were hired
in Africa for the Nizam’s army and continued to serve the Nizam till the erstwhile princely state
was integrated into the Republic of India.

It is ironic that unlike the liberal and meritocratic West, the rigid and class-based structure of
Indian society gave Africans the opportunity for social mobility. Today, the African community
in India is well assimilated into the local population and small communities of Siddis live in
parts of Gujarat, Karnataka, Hyderabad, Maharashtra and Goa.

The descendants of these African rulers inter-married with other Indian communities and thus
slowly lost their African identity. Today, there are around 50,000 people of African descent in
India, most of them descendants of the Africans who came here centuries ago. They speak the
local languages, wear traditional Indian clothes and follow local dietary practices. The only way
to recognise them is through their physical appearance. One of the few remnants of their African
past is their music and dance. Much about the history of Africans in India is still unknown and
there is a need for further research on this lesser known aspect of Indian history.
https://www.livehistoryindia.com/history-daily/2019/01/01/indias-african-kings

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The journey of Africans to India was itself fascinating: captured by Arab slave traders, they
were packed into hell ships that came to India via the Indian Ocean and its surrounding seas.
They were bought by kings, princes, rich merchants and aristocrats and were referred to as
habshis or sides. But not all remained slaves. Some like Yakut did make their own destiny. But
while Yakut’s was perhaps a story that didn’t end too well, others set examples worth emulating.
Take Malik Kafur for instance. This transgender slave was bought by Sultan Alauddin Khilji’s
general Nusrat Khan for a thousand dinars. Kafur caught the fancy of the sultan and rose through
the ranks, becoming his deputy and entering the history books as Nawab Hazar Dinari. In his last
days, an enfeebled Khilji was at the mercy of Kafur who effectively ruled Delhi and also played
kingmaker after the sultan’s death.

Elsewhere in the Deccan, Africans were making an impact on the political landscape. The
splinter states of the Bahmani kingdom resisted the expansion of the Mughal Empire to the
south. One of the architects of this resistance was Malik Ambar, the prime minister and general
of Ahmadnagar state who was an African. Ambar is believed to be the father of guerrilla warfare
in India since he used his Maratha cavalry to harass the Mughals with great effect. This had
enraged Emperor Jahangir so much that he never missed an opportunity to heap his vitriol on
Ambar. The exhibition has a painting showing Jahangir firing arrows at the severed head of
Ambar—an unfulfilled dream of the emperor realized only on canvas.

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The Nizam's African troops walk beside him in a parade(Left)

Emperor Jahangir takes a shot at Malik Ambar's severed head, but only on canvas.

The Bijapur state had a clique of habshi nobles led by Ikhlas Khan, a powerful general. The fact
that he got the title ‘Khan ’ (reserved only for people of high birth at that time) itself speaks
volumes for the glass ceiling he and others of his ilk broke.

Some Africans also managed to set up independent kingdoms, like the Siddis of Janjira. The
Siddis commanded Mughal navies and were respected by both Marathas and the European
powers. The Janjira state and its successor state of Sachin survived until Independence.

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An African begum of  Nawab Wajid Ali Shah of Avadh seen with other begums.

India has been a long time meritocracy. Whatever your background, one could move up the
ranks. Nowhere else in the world have Africans been able to rule outside Africa except India.

Painting shows a reservoir built by an Abyssinian eunuch in the 17th Century

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India and Africa have a shared history in trade, music, religion, arts and architecture, but
the historical link between these two diverse regions is rarely discussed.Many Africans
travelled to India as slaves and traders, but eventually settled down here to play an important role
in India's history of kingdoms, conquests and wars.Some of them, like Malik Ambar in
Ahmadnagar (in western India), went on to become important rulers and military strategists.
Ambar was known for taking on the powerful Mughal rulers of northern India.

Exhibition ‘Africans in India: From Slaves to Generals and Rulers’ Opens at United Nations
Headquarters on 17 February
A formal opening ceremony for the exhibition “Africans in India:  From Slaves to Generals and
Rulers” will be held at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, 17 February, in the Visitors’ Lobby at United
Nations Headquarters in New York.
The event is organized by the Department of Public Information’s Remember Slavery
Programme and presented in partnership with the Permanent Mission of India to the United
Nations.  The exhibition, which will be on display at the United Nations until 30 March, is
created by the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture of the New York Public Library.
Curated by Sylviane A. Diouf, Director of the Lapidus Center for the Historical Analysis of
Transatlantic Slavery at the Schomburg Center, and Kenneth X. Robbins, collector and expert in
Indian art, the exhibition tells the history of enslaved East Africans in India, known as Sidis and
Habshis, who rose to positions of military and political authority.
Through colourful photographs and texts, the show conveys that their success was also a
testimony to the open-mindedness of Indian society, in which they were a small religious and
ethnic minority, originally of low status.  The exhibition also sheds light on the slave trade in the
Indian Ocean and the history of Africa and its diaspora in India.
The exhibition was mounted at the Paris headquarters of the United Nations Educational
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in September 2014 and travelled to several
cities in India.  It was also displayed at the third Africa-India Forum Summit in New Delhi in
October 2015.
Cristina Gallach, Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information, will
welcome guests to the opening ceremony, which will include remarks by Syed Akbaruddin,
Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations and Ms. Diouf.
The exhibition is part of the observance of the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims
of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, which is commemorated every year on 25 March. 
The theme for this year’s observance is “Remember Slavery:  Celebrating the Heritage and
Culture of the African Diaspora and its Roots.”
The United Nations Remember Slavery Programme was established by the General Assembly in
2007 to honour the memory of the victims of slavery and the transatlantic slave trade.  It aims to

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provide an understanding of the causes, consequences and lessons of the slave trade, as well as
raise awareness of the dangers of racism and prejudice today.
Abyssinians, also known as Habshis in India, mostly came from the Horn of Africa to the
subcontinent. Dr Sylviane A Diouf of the Schomburg Center says Africans were successful in
India because of their military prowess and administrative skills. African men were employed in
very specialised jobs, as soldiers, palace guards, or bodyguards; they were able to rise through
the ranks becoming generals, admirals, and administrators.

This 17th-Century cloth painting depicts a procession of Deccani sultan Abdullah Qutb Shah.
African guards are seen here as part of the sultan's army.

It is very important for Indians to know that Africans were an integral part of several Indian
sultanates and some of them even started their own dynasties.
An African-origin ethnic tribe of about 20,000 people has been living in near total
obscurity in India for centuries.By Neelima Vallangi
The past few months in India have been mired in controversy due to a string of racist and
fatal incidents targeting African immigrants living in the country. But what few Indians
know is that Africans and Indians are no strangers to each other: there are at least 20,000 of
an African-origin ethnic tribe who have been living in near total obscurity in India for
centuries.
Isolated and reclusive, Siddis are mostly confined to small pockets of villages in the Indian
states of Karnataka, Maharashtra and Gujarat, and the city of Hyderabad (there’s also a
sizable population in Pakistan). Descendants of Bantu people of East Africa, Siddi ancestors
were largely brought to India as slaves by Arabs as early as the 7th Century, followed by the

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Portuguese and the British later on. Others were free people who came to India as merchants,
sailors and mercenaries before the Portuguese slave trade went into overdrive. When slavery
was abolished in the 18th and 19th Centuries, Siddis fled into the country’s thick jungles,
fearing recapture and torture.
These African slaves were originally known as Habshis, which is Persian for Abyssinian (the
former name of Ethiopia was Abyssinia). But those who rose through the ranks of royal
retinue were honoured with the title Siddi, a possible etymon from the Arabic word for
master, sayed/sayyid. It is not entirely clear when the use of the term Habshi declined and
Siddi replaced it, but today, Siddi describes all people of African descent in India.
As I journeyed deep into the belt of lush jungles that are part of the Western Ghats, a
Unesco world heritage site that runs along India’s western coast, I was excited to delve into
an obscure legacy lost in the pages of Indian history. Deeper and deeper we drove on the
desolate roads in the remarkable wilderness of the Uttara Kannada district, which is home to
hornbills and black panthers, swirling up a trail of dust in our wake. Finally, we arrived at the
spartan agricultural village of Gadgera, part of the cluster of Siddi settlements in the state of
Karnataka.  
From a distance, nothing seemed African about the village or its dwellers. Enthusiastic
greetings were exchanged between Pascal, our Siddi guide, and the villagers in Konkani, a
local language that’s spoken in a few areas along the west coast. Women were draped in
colourful saris and the men looked like farmers from any Indian village. It was a little girl’s
braided cornrows that first gave things away. And then, we couldn’t miss the curly hair and
facial features that were markedly different from the South Indian people.
We were invited to an impromptu dance performance. Annie, a slender woman with a bindi
on her forehead, and Manjula, a vivacious lady with beaming smile, busted out energetic
African moves. The ladies stamped, whirled and twisted their arms to the rhythmic sound of
a frenetic drumbeat while the rest of the villagers belted out Konkani folk songs. The
excitement was palpable inside the cramped room with a packed audience. In that moment,
the ocean between Africa and India had vanished.
Enthusiastic as she was, Manjula then dragged us to a corner to be photographed. Not only
did she have the brightest smile, but she also had the most Indian name of all the Siddis we
met. The others had exotic and atypical first names like Natal, Celestia, Shobina and
Romanchana – quite possibly handed down as a legacy from the Portuguese from whom they
fled. Their last names, on the other hand, such as Harnodkar and Kamrekar, are typical of the
Konkan region they are now part of.
Although they still look African, Siddis have completely and wonderfully assimilated Indian
culture, traditions and language. They are Indian citizens but often the rest of India has a hard
time believing they are so.
Years before I met or even heard of Siddis, I had marvelled at the ornate intricacies of tree-
of-life latticework carved into the stone windows in Ahmedabad’s iconic Sidi Sayed
Mosque built in 1573. The sublime artistry remained etched in my mind – yet I failed to
notice the mosque’s name itself: a reference to the Abyssinian Sidi Saiyyed who constructed
it.
Regional Influence
The majority of Siddis in India are Sufi Muslims, possibly influenced by the Mughals who were
their ancestors’ biggest employers. But Siddis in Karnataka are primarily Catholics, possibly
influenced by their Portuguese and Goan masters.

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Another time, I was taken by the legend of Murud-Janjira, a unique and unconquered sea
fort on an island in the Arabian Sea near Mumbai. I heard all of its glories – except for the
fact that it was an Abyssinian minister, Malik Ambar, who constructed it in the 15th Century.
Despite such glaring vestiges, Siddi history has been startlingly erased throughout India.
Today, stymied by government indifference and ridicule at the hands of fellow citizens,
Siddis lead marginalized lives, while aspiring for a fighting chance at better prospects.
Largely working as farmers and manual labourers, Siddis lack sustainable work
opportunities. And due to their poverty, education cannot be a top priority either. Sport is one
of the few options that can offer them an escape.
In the 1980s, spearheaded by the then sports minister Margaret Alva, the Sports Authority of
India started an athletic program for the Africans, whom they saw as medal-winning
hopefuls. However, bogged down in administrative failures and secrecy, the ambitious plan
crumbled before it could soar high. The collateral, however, was that for the first time ever,
Siddis from across the country met, learnt of each other’s existence and their shared ancestry.
While we were there, young boys and girls were playing soccer under the guidance of
trainers, part of a joint initiative to uplift Siddi youth through sport by the Oscar
Foundation and Skillshare International.
During the game, a very tall man with dreadlocks walked towards us. One of the few Siddis
to have  broken out of the cycle of poverty, Juje Jackie Harnodkar spoke in a slight drawl and
a gentle tone that was a complete mismatch to his athletic build. It was this build and
nimbleness that snagged him a spot as an athlete competing for the 400m hurdles in the
Sports Authority of India’s doomed scheme. When the programme was shut down in 1993,
leaving the Siddi players high and dry, Harnodkar pursued a job with the government.
 
Today, Harnodkar is working with a small team of 14 young and promising Siddi athletes, to
help them get a chance to compete in the 2024 Olympics as part of the shelved plan that
seems to have taken new wings nearly three decades later. It’s a promising step in the right
direction. Winning a medal could be the revived program’s zenith, coinciding with the
culmination of United Nations’ International Decade for People of African Descent
(2015-2024). If executed with diligence this time, it could uplift the Siddi community, revive
its forgotten history and bring much-awaited acceptance to the Siddi people.
75,000 Africans assimilate completely into Gujarati culture,Ankur Tewari | TNN |
Updated: Apr 13, 2015, 20:34 IST

AHMEDABAD: For 75,000 Sidi migrants from Africa who have lived along the Gujarat coast
for centuries, assimilation into Gujarati culture is now complete. This is claimed in a study
conducted across Gujarat by Farida al-Mubrik, an African banker, who worked with Abdul Aziz
Lodhi, a professor of Swahili language at Uppsala University in Sweden.
Lodhi is currently in India to start a program on Swahili language at Jawaharlal Nehru University
in Delhi and will conduct a workshop for African Gujaratis in Ahmedabad on Sunday. He also
plans to document the falling numbers of Siddis in the state who still recite zikr (remembrance)
prayers.
To given an example, Hamida Abu-Miyavan is of African origin but there is little of Africa left
in her. She has been easily absorbed in Gujarat’s diverse culture. She has found in Gujarat's
social structure the ability to establish much deeper bond with the state.
The study has found that around 75,000 Africans who settled in Gujarat over the centuries have

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become almost indistinguishable from members of their adopted homeland. Interestingly, they
have no physical signs indicating their country of origin except their fuzzy hair and relatively
darker skin.
Such has been Gujarat's cultural influence that today not a single African can speak Swahili, a
Bantu language spoken in much of east Africa. In fact, all of them were married in Gujarati style.
They relish local delicacies such as khaman, chana dal samosa, Gujarati kadhi and mung dal
vada. Almost none of them relish African delicacies such as Baba ghanoush and Amala. (Amala
is yam porridge and Baba ghanoush is mashed eggplant with virgin olive oil and various
seasonings.)

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