The Siddis: India's Forgotten African Community!

Hello Nerds! Welcome back to my channel! Today we shall talk about the unique Siddi community of India.

The Siddis: India’s Lost African community

India, they say, is truly a melting pot of cultures & traditions. What makes India one of the most diverse countries in the world is its long history of migration which has been recorded since prehistoric times & the fact that the country is home to 1000s of ethnic groups!

One such group that is rarely talked about is the Siddi community. The Siddis are an ethnic group inhabiting both India & Pakistan, and are said to be descendants of the Bantu people in Central & South-East Africa. The current population of the Siddi community in India is said to be between 40-50000 and are spread across Karnataka, Gujarat & Maharashtra.

So how did the Siddis make their home in India?

As was the case back in the 7th century, the Siddis were brought to India for mainly slavery, first by the Arab rulers & later the European colonialists. Over the next 1000 years, the Siddis played an important role in the Arabs conquest of the Indian subcontinent & subsequently, under the Portuguese rule much later on, as sailors & military mercenaries.

When slavery was finally abolished, the Siddi people are believed to have fled into the western Indian jungles & established their communities there, where they’re still found today in small pockets.

At first glance, the Siddis stand out from the rest of the population due to their physical appearance. They’re commonly mistaken as African foreigners in India. Having lived in the Indian subcontinent for centuries together, the Siddis have managed to retain their roots in terms of their dance & music traditions. However, they have still managed to exhibit a remarkable level of assimilation with local culture by speaking their respective local languages, either Kannada or Gujarati, quite fluently. A vast majority of the Siddis also follow Hinduism & Islam as their religion.

In the present day, the Siddis continue to live quietly in the shadows, fearing racism & discrimination from the dominant sections of the society. They struggle to hold on to their unique identity & fight their way through poverty everyday, while putting a smile on their faces.

Let’s not forget, the enthusiastic Siddi community from Karnataka wanted to gift a bottle of honey to the then US president Barack Obama in 2010, as they believed that the president shared their gene pool. Unfortunately, this idea never say light of day, but that didn’t deter the Siddis from worshipping their hero when he was elected to office twice.

#HumanGeography #Siddis #AfricanCommunity #India