These discussions serve as a point of pause and reflection and lead to more pointed questions surrounding the political agency of the Siddis today. They received education and training, served as merchants and sailors, and were provided military training.Ī great deal of scholarship focusing on Africans in India highlights the historical, cultural, social, and religious dynamics. 4 These men, and others like them, were afforded opportunities not provided to those arriving in the Americas. Individuals such as Malik Andil, Malik Sarwar, and Malik Ambar served as influential leaders. Those that arrived in India were not relegated only to positions of slavery, but several Africans arriving on the sub-continent rose to positions of prominence. 3 Additionally, many that arrived in the Indian Ocean region pre-date the Trans-Atlantic Slave trade to the Americas. This movement across the Indian Ocean continued for approximately 2,000 years. 2Īccording to the scholar, Purnima Mehta Bhatt, Africans began arriving in India as early as the first century CE. The Siddi population has long held a place and space on the Indian subcontinent. 1 Populations with a direct lineage to Africa, for example, reside in Gujarat and Karnataka, India. The most prominent group of Africans that occupy India are the Siddis, who number somewhere between 40,000-50,000. The Development of Political Economic Agency: An Examination of the Siddis of IndiaĮditors: Alecia D.
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