Africans in India: From Slaves to Sultans

The recent spike in violence against African
students in India has left them in gloom and
fear. With this context of racist incidents against
these dark skinned guests, it is hard to imagine
that African migrants have had a long, robust,
and extraordinary history and legacy in India
stretching back about 1,000 years. Strangely,
very few Indians are aware of these Africans
who came as slaves centuries ago, rose in many
cases, to positions of power, created thriving
kingdoms… and whose descendants are now
living in contemporary India in isolated clusters.
They speak, dress, and think as Indians, yet are
islands within the country.

Most Indians nurture a core belief from ancient
Sanskrit texts: Atithi Devo Bhava (“A guest is as God”).
Yet in recent times, the world has watched in horror
as young African students living and studying in India
have been subjected to beatings and mass attacks
by violent mobs. “The recent attacks in Uttar Pradesh
show how black people in India—particularly African
students—continue to face racist discrimination and
violence,” said Makepeace Sitlhou of Amnesty International.
“Many of those injured were targeted merely because
of the color of their skin. These are hate crimes….”

Forgotten history
How ironic, considering that Africans have had a
long and rich history and legacy in India, one that is
hardly believable: brought to India almost a 1,000 years
ago as slaves, they rose to formidable heights of power—
a testament certainly to their strengths but also
to the Indian society of the times that was open and
welcoming enough of the dark skinned slaves. This
allowed the African migrants the meritocracy and equitable
footing needed for them to rise. Were Indians
more open-minded and big-hearted then, more open
to values that were beyond skin-deep?

Just as these modern day attacks were taking place
in New Delhi, I visited an eye-opening exhibition in
New York at Stony Brook University, titled Africans in
India: From Slaves to Generals and Rulers. This startling
exhibition helped me connect the dots from those
ancient—and clearly more enlightened—times to the
troubled present and showed me the twists and turns
that human history takes.

Paintings offering glimpses of Siddis in India, from recent centuries.

Walking through the exhibition was like entering
another dimension—here were images of African nawabs
in full royal regalia, atop elephants and standing
with their families dressed in typically elaborate Indian
finery. Some had intermarried with Indian women, and
from the portrayals, they are clearly among equals in
elite Indian society. Their contributions to the arts and
architecture were many.

I walked down history’s pathways with Dr. Sylviane
A. Diouf, a co-curator of this insightful exhibition.
Diouf, who is also the Director of the Center for the
Historical Analysis of Transatlantic Slavery at The New
York Public Library, guided me through the exhibition
and explained the history of Africans in India.

“Generals, commanders, admirals, prime ministers,
and rulers—East Africans, over the centuries, have
greatly distinguished themselves in India,” she said.
“They have written a story unparalleled in the rest of
the world, that of enslaved Africans attaining the pinnacle
of military and political authority not only in a
foreign country but also on another continent.”

Indeed, it is hard to believe that these Africans
came to India as captives in overcrowded dhows and
yet managed to rise to their full potential in this new
country, from Bengal in the northeast to Gujarat in the
west and Deccan in Central India.

Diouf points out that from humble beginnings,
some Africans carved out princely states complete with
their own armies, mints, and stamps. They fiercely defended
them from powerful enemies well into the 20th
century when, with another 600 princely states, they
were finally integrated into the Indian State.

They left behind a powerful legacy. The exhibition
text notes, “As rulers, city planners, and architects, the
Africans have left an impressive historical and architectural
legacy that attest to their determination, skills,
and intellectual, cultural, military, and political savvy.”
Indeed India still is home to the forts, mosques, and
mausoleums built by the Africans over 500 years ago.
They left their mark on the religious sphere, too: even
today Indians of all faiths visit the shrines of the 14th
century African Muslim Sufi saint Bava Gor and his sister
Mai Misra.

Early African migrants: Traders
Commerce between East Africa and India goes
back more than 2,000 years when the Kingdom of
Axum in Ethiopia had a flourishing trade with India.
Ivory, silver, gold, wine, olive
oil, incense, wheat, rice, cotton
cloth, silk, iron, copper, skins,
salt, and sesame oil were the
hot commodities of the day. In
fact, Axumite gold coins minted
around 320 BC found their way
to Mangalore in South India
where they were discovered in
the 20th century.

As Islam spread, so did trade
between India and East Africa.
NRI aspirations were already
thriving in those ancient days
when Indian Muslims from Gujarat
migrated to African trading
towns in Kenya, Zanzibar, and
the Comoros Islands where they
worked with African and Arab
merchants. While African traders
traveled to and from India, some
settled in the subcontinent. As
far back as the 1300s the Moroccan
traveler Ibn Battuta mentioned
the presence of Ethiopian
merchants in India.

The most famous African trader was Bava Gor (Siddi
Mubarak Nob). He came from East Africa during the
14th century and made Ratanpur in Gujarat his home.
He became the patron saint of the agate bead industry
and is credited with increasing the trade of quartz
stone between East Africa, the Persian Gulf, and India.

From slaves to generals
Besides trading in goods, Axum was also involved
in the slave trade. The African men and women who
were taken to India through the early years of the
slave trade were known as Habshi (Abyssinian) and
Siddi. They came mostly from Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia,
and adjoining areas. As Diouf explains, “Muslim,
Ethiopian Christian, and Indian traders preyed on
people they all considered ‘pagans.’ Trained as soldiers,
they were highly prized for their military skills. It is
among these men that the generals, commanders, and
rulers emerged.”

Since Indians already had locals as indentured
workers for hard labor, they hired these foreign slaves
for specialized jobs as domestics in affluent households
or in the royal courts and in the armed forces.
While the lives of slaves were hard, many rose through
the ranks to become ‘elite slaves’ with access to wealth
and power.

‘Elite slavery,’ the curators tell us, was often a frontier
phenomenon, more entrenched in areas that were
politically unstable due to struggles
between local factions and
where hereditary authority was
weak. There, rulers considered
African slaves reliable because
they were outsiders with no filial
connections to the indigenous
populations and did not possess
traditional authority. As a consequence,
they were made court
officials, administrators, and
army commanders. These elite
slaves were frequently at the
center of court disputes. On occasion,
when the opportunity presented
itself, they seized power
for themselves.

As Diouf notes, “Due to Islamic
laws and societal conventions,
East Africans and their
enslaved descendants in India
tended to have much greater social
mobility than West Africans
and their offspring did in the
Americas. One distinctive trait of slavery in India and
in the Islamic world was that, contrary to the reality in
the Western world, bondage and “race” was not linked.
Instead, factors such as religion, ethnicity, and caste
were often more influential than color.”

The military was often the entrée to power and
riches, and the Africans were regarded as great warriors
who fought in armies all over India. Slave soldiers,
guards, and bodyguards were routinely freed after a
few years of service, often married local women, and
were integrated into the larger society.

Warriors, city builders, princes,
and nawabs
One of the great African success stories is that of
Malik Ambar (1548-1626), born Chapu in Ethiopia. Converted
to Islam and renamed Ambar, he lived in Yemen,
Arabia, where he was educated, and later in Iraq, before
being sold in India in the 1570s. He became a slave to
Chengiz Khan, the prime minister of Ahmadnagar.

He went on to become a commander in Bijapur
where he was granted the title of Malik, which means
“The Great.” He later went back to Ahmadnagar, putting
his army in service of another Ethiopian, Abhang
Khan, and by the 17th century had gathered an army
of 10,000 African cavalry and infantrymen. In 1600,
he married his daughter to a 20-year-old prince, installed
him as sultan, and ruled in his place as regent
and prime minister.

The success story continued: Fateh Khan, Malik
Ambar’s son, inherited his father’s
position as prime minister and married
the daughter of another Ethiopian,
Yaqut Khan, one of the most
powerful nobles of Bijapur.

What many Indians today may
not be aware of are the contributions
of these Africans of the past to India.
Malik Ambar established the city of
Khadki, now known as Aurangabad,
and oversaw its irrigation system,
several forts, a palace, and religious
buildings including a church. The wall
text at the exhibition proclaims, “He
established a novel revenue system
and distinguished himself for his religious
tolerance. He granted land to
Hindus, patronized Hindu scholars,
and appointed Brahmins as officials
and tax collectors. He left one of the
most impressive legacies of any ruler
in the Deccan.”

Surprisingly, despite being Muslim,
Malik Ambar was fiercely opposed to the Mughals
who were invading India at that time and was one of
their main enemies. A famous Mughal painting shows
Jahangir shooting at the severed head of Malik Ambar,
obsessed as he was with this persistent foe.

Finally Jahangir’s son Shah Jahan defeated Malik
Ambar and forced him to pay tribute to the Mughals.
But the implacable Ambar somehow regained control
of the territory he had lost and continued to be an
opponent of the Mughals until he died in 1626 of
natural causes.

Here’s a resounding testament to the often unacknowledged
impact of African rulers on the Indian
history: both the grandfather and father of Shivaji, the
famed founder of the Maratha Empire, were part of Malik
Ambar’s army!

The exhibition shows the prowess and success of
many other Africans in India: by the early 1500s, African
soldiers formed a large part of the Gujarati army,
and in 1530, the African Saif-ul-Mulk Miftah was the
commanding officer of the Daman
fort whose defense force was made
up of 4,000 Africans.

Mandar Dilawar Khan, an enslaved
Ethiopian who was later ennobled,
became commander in the
1550s of a 12,000 strong troop of
foreign guards that included Arabs,
Ethiopians, Javanese, Portuguese,
and Turks. In the 1530s, African soldiers
numbered an estimated 5,000
in Ahmadabad and led the Gujarati
army against the Portuguese in the
mid-1500s.

(Left and below) Nawab Sidi Haidar Khan of the princely state of
Sachin, Gujarat. (Photo: The Kenneth and Joyce Robbins
Collection)

Gujarat counted hundreds of
princely states ruled by Muslims and
Hindus. Africans were prominent in
several of these states. In Kutch they
were bodyguards, soldiers, and courtiers
involved in resolving government
disputes and dynastic politics. And
then there was the princely state of
Sachin, that was ruled by Nawab Sidi Haidar Khan, of
an African dynasty.

The Siddis were admirals of the Muslim fleets of
the Bahmani Sultanate, then the Bijapur Sultanate,
and finally the Mughals. They ruled the strategic island
of Janjira in Maharashtra from 1618 to 1948. The nawabs
of Janjira also ruled over Jafarabad in Gujarat.

The state of Janjira covered an area of about
326 square miles of mountains and beaches by the
Arabian Sea. It consisted of two parts, the mainland
and the island of Janjira (from jazeera, island in Arabic).

The three-mile island of Janjira is entirely surrounded
by a formidable fortress of 22 rounded bastions
whose walls are 80 feet high. The fortress was
built between 1701 and 1728 (its construction was financed
by the African Nawab Siddi Surur II). The
first African to be posted at Janjira was Siddi Ambar
Sainak, appointed by Malik Ambar in 1617. He became
the first independent nawab of Janjira in 1621 and
reigned until his death in 1642.

Janjira the unconquerable
As the exhibition emphasizes, Janjira is considered
one of the best examples of naval fort architecture
and was never conquered in spite of being attacked
dozens of times. The Siddi dynasty ruled over the island
for 330 years.

(Left) Nawab Siddi Mohammad Khan III and
his mother, Kulsum Bibi. (Photo: The
Kenneth and Joyce Robbins Collection)

One photograph shows Mohammad Khan III, the
son of Nawab Siddi Ahmad Khan, with his mother
Kulsum Bibi. His wedding and coronation took place
in 1933 and a photograph of that occasion shows the
Siddis in all their royal power. In fact, as a state, Janjira
had its own coat of arms, currency, administrative
stamps, and military.

In a way, it was a microcosm of modern-day India
because by 1941, Janjira’s population was more
than 103,000, 82 percent of whom were Hindus and 17
percent Muslims. Several hundred Jews (Bene Israel)
also lived in the state. In 1948, Janjira ceased to exist
as an independent state, but the Siddi dynasty
continues. The present nawab, Siddi Shah Mahmood
Khan, assumed the role of the twenty-third Nawab of
Janjira in 1972.

African queens
Be it race or gender, India certainly seemed openminded
in those days. A few African women even went
on to become queens in India. An Ethiopian and a former
slave, Mehr Lekha Begum Sahiba was the third
wife of Sayyid Mansur Ali Khan, the Nawab of Bengal
from 1838 to 1880. Yasmin Mahal was one of the wives
of Wajid Ali Shah, the last king of Oudh in Uttar Pradesh
(1847-56) in northern India. Bamba Muller (1848-1887),
the daughter of an Ethiopian (who may have been enslaved)
and a German banker, became Maharani Bamba
Duleep Singh when she married the last ruler of the
Sikh Empire in northern India.

As Diouf observes about the ascendency of the Africans,
“The success was theirs, but it is also a strong
testimony to the open-mindedness of a society in
which they were a small religious and ethnic minority,
originally of low status. As foreigners and Muslims, Africans
ruled over indigenous Hindu, Muslim, and Jewish
populations.”

The Siddis in modern India—a far
cry from the past
Long after their forefathers have disappeared, and
after centuries of mixing with the local population, the
African descendants continue to identify themselves
as Siddi. No matter their current status, they proudly
claim their ancestral names like Siddi Said, Siddi
Mansur, Yakut Dabuli Habshi, or Habash Khan.

Today the Siddi population in India is estimated at
about 60,000 people, mostly in Karnataka, Gujarat, and
Maharashtra, as well as in Hyderabad and Lucknow.
They are a part of India, but not rightfully acknowledged,
neither as Indians nor given credit for their
past accomplishments.

Juje Sidi, a former footballer with the Indian national football team,
was one of the many recruits that came about as a result of a
special sports recruitment program by the Indian government that
sought out talent from the Siddi community, thanks to their reputation
for physical prowess. (Photo: Indian Diplomacy)

So what exactly happened to change this exalted
status of Africans in India? Have Indians become more
color and class conscious as the years have gone by?
Even the recent past bode well for Africans in India.
Shobana Shankar, a historian at Stony Brook University,
interviewed Africans who have studied in India in
decades past, when discrimination and violence were
nowhere near the levels seen today. One Senegalese
student at Annamalai University in the 1970s recalled
being “adopted” by an Indian family, and businesspeople
coming to his aid when he was threatened in public.

On a recent visit to India, Diouf visited the main
compound of the Siddi community. She observed, “Like
many Siddis in other areas of the country, they are part
of the lower working class: rickshaw and taxi drivers,
domestics, peddlers, and laborers. In addition, their
African looks often expose them to prejudice as does
their Islamic faith.”

Many Siddis are now making a tourist attraction of their culture and traditions. A traditional dance performance by Siddi men in Junagadh,
Gujarat. (Photo Aishwarya Uniyal)

India once had an open attitude to the people
of the world: it accepted the Africans and saw them
rise from slavery to positions of power; it welcomed
the Zoroastrians when they were fleeing religious
persecution in Persia; it allowed the Jews to make
India their home when they were being vilified in
other parts of the world. Today the Parsis and the
Indian Jews are a loved part of the Indian family.
It is time the same is done with the Africans, too,
the Siddis who have been here for centuries and are
indeed Indians.

Lavina Melwani is a New York-based journalist for international
publications and blogs at www.lassiwithlavina.com. Follow @lavinamelwani and www.facebook.com/LassiwithLavina/.
Our acknowledgments to curators
Dr. Sylviane A. Diouf and Dr. Kenneth X. Robbins for the
use of exhibition material which has been woven into the text
of this article.