Africans in India: From Slaves to Reformers and Rulers

Image caption,
This painting shows a reservoir built by an Abyssinian eunuch in the 17th Century

By Vikas Pandey
BBC Monitoring
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.
An exhibition, organized by the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture of The New
York Public Library, in Delhi recently showcased such "forgotten" stories of Africa's role in
India's history.
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 specialized jobs, as soldiers, palace guards, or
bodyguards; they were able to rise through the ranks becoming generals, admirals, and
administrators," she says.

IMAGE SOURCE,CHHATRAPATI SHIVAJI MAHARAJ VASTU SANGRAHALAYA

Kenneth Robbins, co-curator of the exhibition, says 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.
"Early evidence suggests that Africans came to India as early as the 4th Century. But they
really flourished as traders, artists, rulers, architects and reformers between the 14th
Century and 17th Century," he says.
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.
 IMAGE SOURCE,SANSKRIT DARSHAN MUSEUM, BHUJ

Apart from the Deccan sultanates in southern India, Africans also rose to prominence on the
western coast of India. Some of them brought their traditional music and Sufi Islam with
them.
Mr. Robbins says Deccan sultans relied on African soldiers because Mughal rulers of
northern India did not allow them to recruit men from Afghanistan and other central Asian
countries.
This 1887 painting from Kutch portrays the Sidi Damal, a religious, ecstatic dance form of
the Muslim Sidis who were brought to India from East Africa.
 IMAGE SOURCE,KLAUS ROTZER

Dr Diouf says Indian rulers trusted Africans and their skills. "It was true, especially in areas
where hereditary authority was weak and there was ongoing instability due to struggles
between factions like in the Deccan," she says.
"Africans sometimes did seize power for their group like they did in Bengal - where they
were known as the Abyssinian Party - in the 1480s; or in Janjira and Sachin (on the western
coast of India) where they established African dynasties. They also took power on an
individual basis, as Sidi Masud did in Adoni (in southern India) or Malik Ambar in
Ahmadnagar (in western India)," she adds.
The funerary complex shown in the photograph above was also designed by eunuch Malik
Sandal after 1597 in Bijapur (in present-day southern Karnataka state).
 IMAGE SOURCE,MUSEUM RIETBERG ZURICH
This painting from 1590 shows an Indian prince eating in the land of Ethiopians (Habshi)
or East Africans (Zangis).
 IMAGE SOURCE,THE CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART
Africans also brought their music to India. This artwork dated 1640-1660 shows a player of
the African lyre.
 IMAGE SOURCE,RAJA DEEN DAYAL
In this 1904 photo taken in Hyderabad in the Deccan region, Africans guards are seen
escorting a royal procession.
 IMAGE SOURCE,KLAUS ROTZER

The most celebrated of the powerful Ethiopian leaders in India was Malik Ambar (1548-
1626). His mausoleum still exists in Khuldabad, near Aurangabad district in western India.
 IMAGE SOURCE,KENNETH AND JOYCE ROBBINS COLLECTION

This painting shows Nawab Sidi Haidar Khan of Sachin. The African-ruled state of Sachin was
established in 1791 in Gujarat. It had its own cavalry and a state band that included Africans,
its own coats of arms, currency, and stamped paper. In 1948, when the princely states were
incorporated into independent India and ceased to exist, Sachin had a population of 26,000
- 85% Hindu and 13% Muslim - explains Dr. Diouf.

The main African figures of the past have not been forgotten but their ethnicity has been
erased, consciously or not, she adds.
"The people who have heard of Malik Ambar, for example, generally do not know he was
Ethiopian. Does it mean that these men's origin was so irrelevant that it was useless to
mention it, or is this historical erasure the product of a conscious denial of the African
contribution?" she asks.

Africans in India: Then and Now

by Sylviane DioufOctober 17, 2014

Chief Minister Ikhlas Khan - ca. 1650- San Diego Museum of Art

The Schomburg Center's exhibition Africans in India: A Rediscovery recently opened in New
Delhi, India's capital, against a backdrop of racist attacks against Africans. The contrast
between the African experience of yesterday and that of today could not have been greater
and the exhibition could not have come at a more appropriate time.

September 28, Rajiv Chowk metro station. In a violent, ugly scene that went viral on YouTube,
three African students are beaten with iron bars, sticks, and glass shards by a mob. “We were
travelling in metro, and a few guys started clicking our pictures," the students from Gabon
and Burkina Faso recounted, "on asking them about why they were doing that, they started
misbehaving and that ultimately led the metro staff to take us and those guys to the police
officer’s cabin. Even there, they kept passing racist comments which made us furious too.
From there, the heat kept building upon and ultimately led to a fight. We were beaten up
badly by a majority of people around us at that time.” A few feet away from the large crowd
that can be seen laughing, snapping pictures, and yelling "Bharat Mata ki Jai," "Victory to
Mother India," two policemen are looking on.

Opening at UNESCO, Paris

Writing in The Times of India, Siddarth Varadarajan noted, "The flash mob that appeared and
disappeared at the metro station that day was summoned to the spot by the triumphalism
and crassness that India's rise on the world stage is generating amongst the urban middle
class. As the middle class prospers, it is becoming more insular, more intolerant, more
anxious. No one ever told them that as we strive for—and insist on—a bigger share of global
power for ourselves, we need to learn how to accommodate the world, to grow less small."

October 8, Indira Gandhi National Center for the Arts, a five minute drive from Rajiv Chowk.
As the sun sets, I light a wick to open the exhibition Africans in India. Just a few weeks earlier,
I was in Paris at the headquarters of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO) inaugurating the French/English version of the exhibition.
Government ministers, ambassadors, and celebrities had gathered on the occasion of the
20th anniversary of the Slave Route Project, a worldwide initiative to break the silence about
the slave trade and slavery. The ambience was joyous, hopeful, celebratory.
 Opening at IGNCA, Delhi

In Delhi, the ceremony in the immense gardens of the IGNCA reflects a different mood as
everyone is acutely aware of the special significance of the event. The attack has generated
media coverage not only in India, but also in Africa, Europe, the U.S., and the Caribbean; and
as we celebrate the past, there is no escaping the distressing reality of the present.

Ikhlas Khan and Adil Shah, ca. 1670 - San Diego Museum of Art
In 50 abundantly illustrated panels, Africans in India shows African high-ranking officials,
generals, and rulers, who for centuries were an integral part of India's social, political,
cultural, and religious landscape. It was a time when being of a different origin, religion,
color, or ethnicity was no obstacle to reaching the highest positions. A time when slave
dynasties—like the Turkish slaves who founded the sultanate of Delhi—were established;
when Africans who had arrived enslaved could become Chief Ministers, de facto rulers, or
founders of princely states. A time when the word Habshi designated a person from
Abyssinia (Ethiopia) and was proudly worn by African notables. It was not a derogatory term
as it is today.

Journalists seized on the sad irony of the situation, and several articles focusing on
the exhibition referred to the anti-African racism that manifests itself in other parts of the
country, but seems to be more intense in Delhi. As Ms. Dipali Khanna, president of the
IGNCA, noted, "It's a mere coincidence that our exhibition has started off at a time when the
media is abuzz with stories of racial attacks on Africans in Delhi. But we do hope because of
it, people will understand that Indians and Africans have coexisted since time immemorial."

The exhibition, and the subsequent curatorial talk and conference, became important
teaching moments. A large number of schools are visiting Africans in India and young
students may thus grow up with an appreciation for the multicultural, multiracial
meritocracy-outside of the Hindu caste system—that open-minded India was for so long.
What happened there could, indeed, be a lesson to the world.

By bringing this unique page of history to life, the Schomburg Center will hopefully contribute
to helping people—in India (where the exhibition will travel to other cities) and elsewhere—
better negotiate the present and the future.

Africans. Detail of a 1590 Mughal painting. Museum Rietberg Zurich

 THE AFRICAN DIASPORA OF THE INDIAN OCEAN
Few need introducing to the Western movement of slaves from Africa across the Atlantic
Ocean. Much has been documented and studied about this horrific part of history. But this
wasn’t the only slave route that existed; a far older eastern movement of slaves was forcibly
taking people to the opposite side of the world. Between the first and 20th century, beginning
with Arabs and the Ottomans, and later continued by the Portuguese, the Dutch, French and
the British, an estimated 4 million African’s were taken from their homes, mostly in East
Africa, and across the Indian Ocean.
During this time there was also a voluntary migration of African’s as travellers and traders
to countries around the peripheries of the Indian Ocean and further east. India and Pakistan
were major destinations for African slaves who were favoured by the warring Maharajah’s,
admiring their physical strength and loyalty, and who, continuously feuding with each other,
needed protection. As well as soldiers or bodyguards African’s worked for the wealthy or
colonial powers of the time as domestic slaves, concubines, agricultural workers, wet nurses.
With the abolition of the slavery, came the end of this horrific mass forced movement of
people around the mid-nineteenth century.
At the time of abolition slaves were freed by their owners, or they had already earned their
own freedom, but were unable to return to their homeland. So, they stayed and formed their
own communities, becoming part of South Asia’s complex cobweb of cultures. Whilst many
aspects of their African ancestry have disappeared as they have become assimilated in to
their host countries society, some remain. Many retain their African appearance and all have
a passion for music and dance, which retains a truly African style and rhythm.
Generally known throughout South Asia as Habshi’s, a word that derives from the Arabic
word Habish, on a more local level they are known as Sheedi in Pakistan, Sidi in India and
Kaffir (with no racist connotations) in Sri Lanka. Numbers vary depending on whom you ask
and the lack of a recent and accurate census in either countries, has only led to the inaccurate
estimates. But generally it is accepted that Pakistan has the largest population upwards of
50,000, followed by India with a loosely estimated population of around 25,000. Sri Lanka
has the smallest with as few as 300 people remaining. Yet, what is particularly fascinating in
India about the history of Africans on the sub-continent, is the position of power that some
were able to attain becoming powerful rulers in their own right. The State of Bengal was
ruled by Ethiopians for three years before being defeated and two Princely State’s, Janjira
and Sachin in Western India controlled hundreds of miles of coastline for centuries.
Descendants of these dynasty’s still survive today.
Largely due to their scattered presence and their lack of a real unified social group, the
African Diaspora of South Asia have largely been over-looked by academics and researchers,
unlike those who crossed the Atlantic. Yet it is a trade route of much greater age and one of
equal importance that needs further study and documentation, so that the history of these
Afro-Asian communities will not be lost in future generations.
HISTORICAL FACTS
The Mughals, a Muslim imperial power in northern India from the early 16th century
through the early 19th, relied on African soldiers, with one Emperor reportedly protected by
700 armed Sidi on horseback.
In 1843 an African called Hosh Mohammed Sheedi commanded an army against the British
at Dabbo which, despite losing, delayed the annexation of the Province of Sindh to Imperial
Britain.
From an ocean fortress north of Mumbai, between the 17th and 20th century the Sidi
controlled a 300km stretch of coastline from Mumbai to Goa.
In 1490, an African guard, Sidi Badr, seized power in Bengal and ruled for three years before
being murdered. Five thousand of the 30,000 men in his army were Ethiopians.

THE SIDI OF INDIA

It is estimated today that there are around 25,000 people of African descent living in India
spread across several states but mostly concentrated in Karnataka and Gujarat. Known as
the Sidi they have fully integrated into modern day India yet managed to retain small aspects
of their African heritage especially in their appearance and their music. Despite Gujarat and
Karnataka having equally large populations that are un-connected and are separated more
through religion than their common African heritage. The Sidi of Gujarat are predominantly
Muslim with those in Karnataka mostly Christian or Hindu.
In contrast to the trans-Atlantic trade, those who were brought to India were sometimes able
to rise to positions of power through their position in the military. Some became so powerful
from their connection to Maharajah’s, where they initially worked as bodyguards or soldiers,
that they rose to become King’s in their own right controlling Kingdoms within India, the
direct descendants of which still survive today. Those not used as soldiers generally worked
as domestic helpers, concubines, ship-hands and in other industries such as agate mining.
Modern day research has focused largely on the Gujarat population who as Muslim’s
fervently worship the Sidi saint of Bava Gor, believed to be an Ethiopian wandering faqir and
trader, and every year is celebrated in a multi-day and night ceremony of music, dancing and
spirit possession called Urs. This has kept their music culture alive and strong with groups
regularly traveling within India and abroad to perform.
THE SHEEDI OF PAKISTAN
Both slaves and traders arrived in Pakistan from Africa through the ports of Baluchistan and
Sindh where their work ranged from dockworkers, miners, domestic servants, farm workers,
concubines to body guards. Known as the Sheedi, Pakistan has the largest people of African
descent in South Asia, living in mostly what is today the Province of Sindh and Baluchistan,
and numbering around 50,000.
In modern-day Pakistan streets names like Mombassa Street in Karachi show clues to its
African heritage of this region and the largest population of Sheedi live in an area of Karachi
called Lyari. But also throughout Sindh province, and particularly in remote villages in a
region bordering India many Sheedi villages can be found. Pakistan’s most famous Sheedi,
who’s story is actually taught to school children in history books, is that of Hosh Mohammed
Sheedi. In 1843 he commanded an army against the British during the Battle of Dabbo which,
despite losing, delayed the annexation of the Province of Sindh to Imperial Britain. Every
year the Sheedi mark the anniversary of Host Sheedi’s death with a special ceremony.
Today, the Sheedi live on the fringes of society, often poor with little access to good schools
and jobs. As a result they have formed various strong and active community organizations
that directly assist and help the development of their communities.
AFRO-SRI LANKANS
On September 24th 2017, the last remaining Afro-Sri Lankan’s commemorated what they
believe to be their 500-year anniversary of their presence and 200 years since the Abolition
of Slavery on the island. These hugely significant dates mark when they believe the first
African slaves arrived on the island and when they were eventually freed.
Held at their local Catholic church, almost one thousand local people gathered to watch as
the small, separated pockets of Afro-Sri Lankans came together for the first time in decades
and celebrated their culture, traditions and delicate existence.
Out of all communities of African diaspora communities surrounding the Indian Ocean those
of Sri Lanka are by far the smallest and most fragile. The first African slaves were first
brought by the Portuguese, followed by the Dutch and finally the British as the various
colonial powers battled for control of the country and its resources.
After the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act was passed in the British Parliament in 1807, the
process of putting an end to slavery began in British controlled territories. Once freed and
unable to return, they married and became part of Sri Lankan society. A century later the
Afro-Sri Lankan population was believed to be around 6000 strong. Today, that number has
dwindled to less than 300.
Inter-marriage with local Sri Lankan’s over generations has led to a dilution of their
population for once they marry a Sinhalese they are no longer classed as Afro-Sri Lankans
on their birth certificate. As a result, the population has gone past the point of recovery.
Their community now may be small but there are members of the Afro-Sri Lankan
community, particularly those living in and around the western coastal town of Puttalam,
who take extreme pride in their heritage and are trying to preserve their culture. In 2012,
they formed the Ceylon African Society and on September 24th 2017 they organised their
biggest event to date. It is likely this tiny population will disappear within the next few
generations but until it does Sri Lanka’s African community are making sure that their
presence is known.