“EXPLORING HABSI”
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Indo-African Transmigration Belief.
Indo-African Transmigration Belief
“Habsi’s Do Exists”
EXPLORING HABSI- Indo-African Transmigration Belief.
Dedicated to the Habsis residing in Ratanpur village of Gujarat India
Documentation of the “EXPLORING HABSI”-Indo-African Transmigration Belief.
Krishna Patel B.Design Visual And Communication Design Batch 2018-2022
CONTENT
1. Acknowledgment 2. Rational 3. Object 4. Community Review 5. Abstract 6. Introduction 7. History and oringin of Sidi’s community in India 7.1 Sidi’s of Karnataka 7.2 Sidi’s of Andra Pradesh 7.3 Sidi’s of Maharastra 7.4 Sidi’s of Gujarat 8. History and origin of Ratanpur Sidi 8.1 Physical Characteristic 8.2 Culture of Sidi’s 8.3 Religion and Belief 8.4 Dance 8.5 Music 8.6 Language 8.7 Food 8.8 Attire 8.9 Festival 8.10 Existence of Species
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The focus of this documentation is surrounding the Sidi’s tribe of Ratanpur village rather than concentrating just on tribe.Meeting the villagers, studying the varied crafts, understanding the domestic and cultural context and how they fit within the traditions and customs of the village has been an enriching experience. I would like to express my gratitude to all those who are involved in this filed directly or indirectly as this document would not have been successful without their help and efforts.
First and foremost, I would like to thank the people of Ratanpur village and a heartfelt thanks to the head of the tribe Mr. Sabir Sidi who helped me and introduced me to the villagers also kind enough to endure with me amidst their busy schedule. They patiently guided me while I collected all the information without which I would have been possible to understand the tribe.
A special thanks to Mr vanrajsinh Chhasatiya and Mr. Dharmendra Chhasatiya who made me feel comfortable and arranged the necessary meetings with the village.I am also grateful to my family especially my father Mr Praful Patel who accompanied me during the field visits and my brother Manav Patel for helping me to manage this activity. A special vote of thanks to my friends Purvesh Parmar and Monarch Pastagia for helping me drafting the document.
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RATIONAL I recently came across this tribe nearby my hometown and at first sight I felt strange and had an eagerness and curiosity to know more about them. As its origin is near my home town, it gave me advantage to discover more about the tribe. Through some surfing I came into touch with the head of this community-Mr. Sabir Sidi. After communicating with him he really gave me a positive response and finally I got opportunity to meet the people of this tribe and their culture. And after knowing them and talking to various people of this community, I observed that society is overlooking them and that’s why I took responsibility to expand their culture by documenting it.
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OBJECTIVE To explore the beautiful culture of the Sidi community and to assist its existence in Indian culture.
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COMMUNITY REVIEW
Meeting with the Head Exploring, History and Origin of these Indo-Africans Visit to Dargah and understood the importance of worshipping their beliefs Interaction with the Local Community with Photography Conclusion.
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ABSTRACT 9
The Sidis of India are fragmented communities of mostly East African ancestry. They are descendants of Muslim African traders, sailors, mercenaries and slaves. They speak half a dozen different Indic languages (Gujarati dialects, or a mixture of Gujarati and Hindi, Sindhi and its dialect kutchi, Urdu, Dakhni (Central Hindi/Urdu of Hyderabad), Marathi, Malayalam, Konkani and Kannada, with some Bantu/Swahili words and phrases. Free Eastern Africans were recruited, or African slaves were randomly caught, from different tribal lands and settled into different parts of India and Pakistan. The present documentation surrounds around exploring the Sidi Community of Ratanpur, Gujarat, India.
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INTRODUCTIUON
The Sidi, who are also known as Habshi, are descendants of Africans originally coming from the hinterlands of the East African coast. The term “Sidi” is supposed to derive from Sayyid, “Habshi” from the Arabic term for Abyssinia, “Habash”. Siddis are also sometimes referred to as Afro-Indians. Siddis were referred to as Zanji by Arabs. In China various transcriptions of this Arabic word were used, including Xinji and Jinzhi. In the past, Black slaves stemming from the coastal strip from Ethiopia to Mozambique were carried by Arab slave traders to different parts of the Muslim world, Including India. Here, their presence is recorded since the early establishment of Muslim rule during the Sultanate of Delhi (thirteenth-sixteenth centuries). African slaves continued to be imported to the western states of India until the late nineteenth century, though never in large numbers. Today small groups of Sidi live in the west Indian coastal states of Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Gujarat as well as in Sindh in Pakistan. In Karnataka they belong to religious groups (Hindu, Muslim, and Christian). In Gujarat they presently form one of the lower Muslim castes of Domestic servants and religious mendicants or fakir.
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community in india HISTORY AND ORIGIN sidi’s 13
The first Sidis have arrived in the Indian subcontinent in 628 AD at the Bharuch port as a merchant. Several others followed with the first Arab Islamic invasions of the subcontinent in 712AD. The latter group is believed to have been soldiers with Muhammad bin Qasim’s Arab army and were called Zanjis. Most Siddis, however, are believed to be the descendants of slaves, sailors, servants and merchants from East Africa who arrived and became resident in the subcontinent during the 1200-1900 AD periods. A large influx of Sidis to the region occurred in the 17thcentury when Portuguese slave traders sold number of them to local princes. Some Indian Sidis are descended from Tanzanians and Mozambicans again they were brought by the Portuguese only. In India the Siddi gained a reputation for physical strength & loyalty and were sought out as mercenaries by local rulers and as domestic servants & farm labor. Some Sidis escaped slavery to establish communities in forested areas and some even established small Sidi principalities on Janjira Island and at Jaffrabad as early as the twelfth century, which later moved to Sachin near Surat. In the Delhi Sultanate period prior to the rise of the Mughals in India, Jamal-ud-Din Yaqut was a prominent Sidi slave-turned-nobleman who was a close confidant of Razia Sultana (1205-1240). As a power center, they were sometimes allied with the Mughal Empire and fight with the Maratha Confederacy. However, Malik Ambar, a prominent Siddi figure in Indian history at large is sometimes regarded as the “military guru of the Marathas”, and was deeply allied with them. The Marathas adapted Siddi guerrilla warfare tactics to grow their power and ultimately demolish the Mughal Empire
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SIDI’S OF KARNATAKA
Sidis of Karnataka or the Sidis of Karnataka Kannada are concentrated around Yellapur, Haliyal,Ankola, Joida, Mundgod and Sirsi taluks of Uttara Kannada and in Khanapur of Belgaum and Kalghatgi of Dharwad district. Many members of the Siddis community of Karnataka had migrated to Pakistan after independence and have settled in Karachi & Sindh. The majority of the Sidis in Karnataka are descendants of Sidi slaves who were brought from East Africa (mostly Mozambique) and Ethiopia to Goa by the Portuguese, British and the Arabs between the 16th and19th centuries. During the Goan Inquisition, some of these slaves were freed and some escaped into the forests of the neighboring Karnataka state. It has been reported that these Sidis believe that Barack Obama shares their generation and that they wanted to gift a bottle of honey to him on his visit to India in 2010.
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SIDI’S OF ANDHRA PRADESH 17
Sidis in Andhra Pradesh are also called as Chaush the term originated from Ottoman military nomenclature. In 18th century Sidi community was established in Hyderabad State by the Arab Sidi community Diasporas. The 6th Nizam, Mir Mahboob Ali Khan, recruited them impressed byt heir physical strength and horsemanship. Later on they used to serve as an African Cavalry Guardsof Asif Jahi Nizams irregular army. Asif Jahi Nizams had patronized them with rewards and their music called Marfa Music got popular which was performed during their official celebrations and ceremonies.
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SIDI’S OF MAHARASHTRA
Murud-Janjira is the local name for a fort situated on an island Janjira just off the coastal village of Murud in the Raigad district of Maharashtra, India. Originally the fort was a small wooden structure built by a Koli chief in the late 15th century. It was captured by Pir Khan, a general of Nizamshah. Of Ahmednagar. Later the fort was strengthened by Malik Ambar, the Abyssinian-origin Sidi regent of Ahmednagar kings. From then onward Siddis became independent, owing allegiance to Adil shah and the Mughals as dictated by the times. The fort was famous for being the only fort along India’s Western coast that remained undefeated despite Dutch, Maratha and English East India Company attacks. Despite their repeated attempts, the Portuguese, the British and the Marathas failed to subdue the power of the Sidi’s, which were themselves allied with the Mughal Empire. Major historical figures from Murud-Janjira include men such as Yahya Saleh and Sidi Yaqub.
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SIDI’S OF GUJARAT 21
Being presented as slaves by the Portuguese 300 years back to the Nawab of Junagadh, the Sidis live around Gir Forest in Junagadh, Rajkot, Jamnagar & Surendranagar. On the way to Deva-dungar is the quaint village of Sirvan, inhabited entirely by Sidis. It is also said that they were imported by the Nawab of Junagarh for the conservation and preservation of Asiatic Lions. Sidi also rose to power in Gujarat also Sidi ‘Abdu’l Karim, the son and heir of Sidi ‘Abdu’l Rahman, Ruler of Raja pore and Janjira has signed a treaty with the Peshwa of the Marathas in 1791, by which they resigned all his rights to Janjira and became Nawab of Sachin (Presently in Surat). Today, they follow very few of their original customs, with a few exceptions like the traditional Dhamal dance. These include the Goma music and dance form, which is sometimes called Dhamal. The term is believed to be derived from the goma drumming and dance forms of Bantu East Africa. The Goma also has a spiritual significance.
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HISTORY AND ORIGIN RATANPUR SIDI’S
The social life of the Sidi caste in Gujarat is closely related to the cult of Muslim saints. At the center of a cluster of related Sidi saints is the patron saint of the Sidi, Bava Gor, along with his younger brother, Bava Habash, and his sister, Mai Mishra. According to myth, the saint was originally an Abyssinian military commander who was sent by order of the Prophet to fight against a female demon in Hindustan; but it was his sister who eventually destroyed the female demon. The Sidi believe themselves to be descended from the Sidi soldiers and their wives who accompanied Bava Gor during his mission and who had become saints in the course of time. The shrines of these Sidi saints form a horizontal network connecting the geographically diffused Sidi caste in Gujarat. At the same time, the saints relate the Sidi to higher-ranking saints of the Sayyid and their representatives at the top of the regional hierarchy of Muslim castes. This ritual relation is further emphasized by one of the main functions of the shrine complex of Bava Gor, Bava Habash, and Mai Mishra, the exorcism of spirits, which connects it to similar regional.
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Physical Characterstics
The Siddis belong to Negroid stock and can easily found out by their racial traits. They have a good build and body color varies from black to brown. The Siddis have woolly or frizzly hairs. All theindividuals have medium to deep depression of nose and have flared alae. They have oval face with pronounced jaws. Their lips show a tendency toward thickness. Their eye-slits were straight and no person showed any tendency of the obliquity of eye or presence of epicanthic fold. Clans The Siddis have a number of exogamous clans, called surname. The following surnames were reported by the Siddhis of Taal mahal and Jambur in Junagadh district-Badrani, Chauvat., Bhaliya., Majgul, Makavana., Melan., Modi., Musangra., Nareja, Mori,Parmar ,Saili.,Sheikh.,Sirman,Sotyir.
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CULTURE OF SIDI’S
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1.Religion And Belief 2.Dance And Costume 3.Music 4.Language 5.Food 6.Attire 7.Festivals 8.Existence Of Species
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RELIGION AND BELIEF
Siddis are mainly Sufi Muslims, although some are Hindus and some are Roman Catholic Christians. Apart from inclination towards religions, this Siddi tribal community follows the age old practice of worshipping their ancestors. It is also called Hiriyaru. They worship Baba Gaur; an Abyssinian saint whose tomb is on a hill above Ratanpur carnelian mines in western Rajpipla Gujarat. However, the Siddis have got some reservations in case of marriages. Inter religion marriages are strictly prohibited in the Siddis.
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DANCE
It is not very well known that Africans arrived in Gujarat, India in the 13th century. Since then they have kept African traits and certain forms of syncretic forms of rites and rituals of worship. This also holds true in their dance and music as they use African derived steps, movements, and instruments. To lift themselves up, they inject playfulness, satire and a lot of irreverence into their music. Their performance is an exuberant and happy dance ritual, yet devotional as it is dedicated to their saint known as Sidi Mubarak Nobi. They start the performance with the simple and familiar call of the muezzin to prayer. It revolves around the danced prayer called the zikr. Virtuosic drumming accompanies their ecstatic dancing that is agile and energetic. The performance accelerates and crescendos with the music becoming more and more frenetic. Costume- They wear costumes made from peacock feathers rather than the ostrich ones that their ancestors would have used in Africa. Sometimes, the hurling and breaking of coconuts are also done during the performance.
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MUSIC
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They sing ritual songs like the qawwali, baithi, Dhamal and other kinds of devotional songs. They have integrated their African rhythms, melodic shapes and styles, and instruments with the local Gujarat influences. All Sidi drums are hit using only the hands. Their show is wholly acoustic and involves a lot of chanting. They also use coconut rattles and these are held sacred and no one outside of the Sidis is allowed to touch them
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I came across several new words which were particularly used by them, that words are originated from Africa some of the following words are
LANGUAGE
They speak half a dozen different Indic languages (Gujarati dialects, or a mixture of Gujarati and Hindi, Sindhi and Urdu, with some Bantu/Swahili words and phrases.
Mukati- roti Tea- maaji Chokra – a bhaana Chokri – vatoti Abari ghani – how are you Anjamo – hello
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FOOD
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The Sidis live in tune with Nature and depend on it for survival. They are both vegetarian and non-vegetarian.
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ATTIRE
There is hardly anything special in a Sidi’s dress as per modern style, the male Siddis put shirt, trouser and cap. The ritual habituated Siddis put on chorni, shirt and a piece of cloth on his head typical rural people dress. The women, now a day’s use to wear kurta pajama with a piece of cloth on her head. Siddi males have an ear ring, wrist watch and some wear golden butti. Women are not much fond of ornaments. They put nose pin (nathani) in her nose, zanzhar in her legs, a silver chain in neck and some bangles on hand. They make use of water-colours as art of their looking attire. These people are extremely poor and of them are still not included in main stream of the society. Continuous efforts can be seen by the government and pole themselves. Now we will discuss about the problems and suggestions to enhance their living condition, indeed help them to save culture.
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FESTIVALS
Baba ghor urs mela – the Sufi saint baba ghor (Mubarak nobbi) is regarded by many as the patron saint of the Siddis, and the annual Sidi Mela festival is the key event in the Sidi community’s cultural calendar Baba ghor chasma Mubarak urs mela - It is the celebration of vaav of the dargah with the gathering of people with full of joy, enjoyment, enthusiasm, achieving immense fun and pleasure throughout the day.
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Existence of Species
At present there are 25 families of the community, comprising around 200 peoples in the villages. The people are occupied with various fields like farming, auto drivers, jobs, small business etc., while few of them have stalls outside bawa ghor tomb.
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