04-06-2005, 11:41 PM
Sidhis of Janjira
Tamils would have probably read a book by chandilyan , i think it is "jala deepam" , in which the power struggles of the maratha naval force headed by Kanoji Angre and the brits, portuguese and the Sidhis form the core story.
http://www.hinduismtoday.com/archives/2004...62_sidhis.shtml
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->SIDHIS
Behold these Asian Indians of African descent
By Anil Mehrotra
As the red sun sets and a silken darkness creeps in, twelve dark-skinned men with Negroid features and painted faces perform the "Jungle Dance " by the light of flickering torch fires in Zanzibar, Africa. Passing tourists might not consider this scene unusual, but it is. These performers don't just live down the street. They are Sidhi tribesmen from India who are of African descent, performing in their ancient homeland while on a world tour to honor and preserve their cultural heritage. Although their music and dance is authentic and their love of their legacy is true, they will admit that--although they respect this land of their ancestors--they are quite happy to be living in India.
As the evening stretches into night and the pounding drums cast a mesmerizing spell over the crowd, the aged among the audience become more and more attentive, straining their ears and narrowing their eyes as they attempt to recall strains of music they have almost forgotten. They have not seen or heard anything like the performance they are now witnessing since before their grandparents died. Yet, they feel it through their nerve system as if their ancestors were pounding the dust and drums themselves.
As the performance continues, the trancelike rhythms gradually charge the atmosphere with electrifying power. The crowd sways. The music intensifies. Finally, one dancer throws a freshly plucked, husked coconut high into the black cavernous sky. The crowd looks up. The coconut comes down, smashing on the head of one of the dancers with a thud, splitting and spraying the stage and the audience with its milk. The crowd is thrilled with this ecstatic climax. The show is over.
The Sidhis are a diffused community of people who came from Africa but now live throughout Southeast Asia. In India, about 30,000 Sidhis make their home in and around Junagadh, Gujarat.
These Africans first arrived in India during the twelfth century, mainly as soldiers, sailors and merchants. Some were warrior-slaves to Indian kings who valued them for their loyalty and fighting spirit.
Through the generations that followed, the Sidhis that remained in India adapted to the lifestyle , yet retained some ancient cultural practices and a few syncretic forms of worship. Today, their only link with Africa is through their music, dance and the few customs they have maintained. They speak no African languages and do not know the specific origin of their ancestors.
Sidhis of India are dedicated to a Muslim Sufi saint named "Sidi Mubarak Nobi, " who saint studied Sufism in Iraq but lived in India. Also a businessman who dealt in the sale of agates, he first visited Gujarat seeking these semiprecious stones for clients in Africa and the Middle East. Eventually he became famous for his power to heal the sick and settle disputes, and the Sidhis of India flocked to him. When he died, his body was entombed at Junagadh in Gujarat, which thereafter became an important pilgrimage destination for Indian Sidhis.
The Sidhis' stage performance consists of dancing and drumming. Eight performers dance while four play drums called mugarman and musical drone boxes called malunga. Their featured dance, called the zikr, is a riveting amalgamation of agility, strength and speed, characterized by a feverish, climatic ending.
"The general population in India thinks we are Africans, " says Yunus, a Sidhi from Jambur who speaks fluent Gujarati, but no Swahili. "We are Indians. Swahili is the language of our forefathers, and we should not forget it. Though we do use it in some of our songs, we do not know its true meaning. We enjoy going to Africa to perform the jungle dances, but we would never want to settle down there permanently."<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
http://www.indiansaga.info/architecture/..._arch.html
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Think of India and one thinks of the vast, seething interior, peoples of the plains, peoples of the hill country, great events, great cities, amid a mighty landscape. And yet the coastal forts of Maharashtra, land of the daring Maratha clans, played a significant role in the later history of India. Like forts everywhere, they were entrecotes for ideas and cultures but in additions there harbours were the natural object for the vessel for all the eastward-trading nations- the Sidhis and the Abyssinians were collectively called by that name. They came as slave traders to the Deccan and dealt with the Adil Shahis of Bijapur.
In return for these concessions they provided armed escort to the pilgrim ships bound for Mecca out of Janjira, Goa, Surat and Dhabod: corsairs- Dutch or English or from Malabar- were a constant danger to merchant shipping, looting, killing and raping on the high seas from the African coast to the East Indies. The Maratha chieftain, Shivaji, first attacked Janjira during his campaigns in the Konkan area in 1659. His son Shambhuji in 1682 attempted to tunnel to the island but with signal lack of success. Each time the Marathas assaulted the fort the Sidhi and the Mughal fleet from Surat combined to bombard them from the region. Though they tried hard, neither the Marathas, nor the Mughals, nor Portugese, nor British could ever capture Janjira by force.
Janjira lies some way offshore but it is possible to hire a square-rigged dhow to visit it. The dhows ply from the port of Murud, a tiny place that was hardly moved on from the 16th century. The island is uninhabited now. Jazire Meharuba, the Moon Fort, beckons, the more beguiling since one may be sure of approaching it in a manner unchanged down the centuries. Luxuriant in a palace garden grown wild, Janjira must have been an idyllic place.
Some of the great, rusting guns of Janjira still point from their embrasures: Chavari, its muzzle carved like the jaws of some fearsome monster; Kalal Bangadi; and Landa Kasam. This was the Sidhi Surul Khan's palace; one can still patrol and admire his ramparts of blue-black granite, jointed with lead to withstand the pounding of the Arabian Sea. At the steps by the main entrance is a memorial to six battle victories - the lion of Abyssinia holding six elephants captive. It is almost impossible, though, for today's visitor to harbour thoughts of bloody bombardment into dust or a burning death at sea. This is a quiet, seductive spot to leave, with day darkening into night and blue waters turning gold in the sinking sun, the soft slap of wave on wood the only sound. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/07/04/...l?oneclick=true
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Beat goes on in the fight for tradition
n a side street of the sleepy Indian city of Junagadh, men take off their T-shirts, tie fresh leaves to their foreheads and paint their faces and bodies orange, yellow and white for a night of jungle dancing.
Women shake rattles and drums are thumped, as the Sidhis, an African tribe uprooted to India, battle to preserve centuries-old traditions.
"We want to keep our ancestors' dance form alive," said one Sidhi drummer, Salem Alarakha.
However, grinding poverty, the lure of the big city and the overpowering beats of Bollywood have made the fight a difficult one.
About 25,000 Sidhis, the descendants of slaves, live on the north-western coast of India. Nyabuto Thomas Isaac, a geographer at Gujarat's Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, says most of the Sidhis were brought from modern-day Tanzania to India in the 16th century by Portuguese and Arab traders. Today, about 80 per cent of India's Sidhi population work as manual labourers, either in farms or in cities.
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"We have always been poor," said Alibhai Yakub, a Sidhi in the village of Zambur. "Our great-great grandfathers were slaves, and even though we are now free, it hasn't improved our condition. We still work as labourers, sometimes earning as little as 30 rupees ($1) for a whole day's work." But asked if he would like to return to his roots in Africa, Yakub emphatically shakes his head.
For the younger generation, even the jungle dance link with Africa is fading away. In Zambur, the sounds coming from Sidhi homes are of Hindi film music.
"I'd like to wear fashionable clothes and live like people in the city," said Tofique Shaikhiyan, 15.
"We don't want to live like this," she said pointing to the poverty around her. Alongside Indian pop culture, another growing influence is Islam. The Sidhis are Muslims, and have been increasingly polarised since Hindu-Muslim riots in Gujarat last year in which 2000 people died.
Maulana Mohabat Kasim, the cleric of the only mosque in Zambur, believes Sidhi women should be required to wear veils in accordance with the conservative belief that women should be modest. But while some Sidhi women wear veils, most have ignored this call.
"I don't want to wear a burqa. I want to be like other girls and speak English," says Yasmin Sidhi. "I want to watch Hindi films and wear clothes of the latest fashion." But after reflection she adds: "I'd also like to retain some of my ancestors' past in Africa."
Agence France-Presse
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<img src='http://www.smh.com.au/ffxImage/urlpicture_id_1057179155293_2003/07/04/wld_sidhis0507,0.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />
Tamils would have probably read a book by chandilyan , i think it is "jala deepam" , in which the power struggles of the maratha naval force headed by Kanoji Angre and the brits, portuguese and the Sidhis form the core story.
http://www.hinduismtoday.com/archives/2004...62_sidhis.shtml
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->SIDHIS
Behold these Asian Indians of African descent
By Anil Mehrotra
As the red sun sets and a silken darkness creeps in, twelve dark-skinned men with Negroid features and painted faces perform the "Jungle Dance " by the light of flickering torch fires in Zanzibar, Africa. Passing tourists might not consider this scene unusual, but it is. These performers don't just live down the street. They are Sidhi tribesmen from India who are of African descent, performing in their ancient homeland while on a world tour to honor and preserve their cultural heritage. Although their music and dance is authentic and their love of their legacy is true, they will admit that--although they respect this land of their ancestors--they are quite happy to be living in India.
As the evening stretches into night and the pounding drums cast a mesmerizing spell over the crowd, the aged among the audience become more and more attentive, straining their ears and narrowing their eyes as they attempt to recall strains of music they have almost forgotten. They have not seen or heard anything like the performance they are now witnessing since before their grandparents died. Yet, they feel it through their nerve system as if their ancestors were pounding the dust and drums themselves.
As the performance continues, the trancelike rhythms gradually charge the atmosphere with electrifying power. The crowd sways. The music intensifies. Finally, one dancer throws a freshly plucked, husked coconut high into the black cavernous sky. The crowd looks up. The coconut comes down, smashing on the head of one of the dancers with a thud, splitting and spraying the stage and the audience with its milk. The crowd is thrilled with this ecstatic climax. The show is over.
The Sidhis are a diffused community of people who came from Africa but now live throughout Southeast Asia. In India, about 30,000 Sidhis make their home in and around Junagadh, Gujarat.
These Africans first arrived in India during the twelfth century, mainly as soldiers, sailors and merchants. Some were warrior-slaves to Indian kings who valued them for their loyalty and fighting spirit.
Through the generations that followed, the Sidhis that remained in India adapted to the lifestyle , yet retained some ancient cultural practices and a few syncretic forms of worship. Today, their only link with Africa is through their music, dance and the few customs they have maintained. They speak no African languages and do not know the specific origin of their ancestors.
Sidhis of India are dedicated to a Muslim Sufi saint named "Sidi Mubarak Nobi, " who saint studied Sufism in Iraq but lived in India. Also a businessman who dealt in the sale of agates, he first visited Gujarat seeking these semiprecious stones for clients in Africa and the Middle East. Eventually he became famous for his power to heal the sick and settle disputes, and the Sidhis of India flocked to him. When he died, his body was entombed at Junagadh in Gujarat, which thereafter became an important pilgrimage destination for Indian Sidhis.
The Sidhis' stage performance consists of dancing and drumming. Eight performers dance while four play drums called mugarman and musical drone boxes called malunga. Their featured dance, called the zikr, is a riveting amalgamation of agility, strength and speed, characterized by a feverish, climatic ending.
"The general population in India thinks we are Africans, " says Yunus, a Sidhi from Jambur who speaks fluent Gujarati, but no Swahili. "We are Indians. Swahili is the language of our forefathers, and we should not forget it. Though we do use it in some of our songs, we do not know its true meaning. We enjoy going to Africa to perform the jungle dances, but we would never want to settle down there permanently."<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
http://www.indiansaga.info/architecture/..._arch.html
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Think of India and one thinks of the vast, seething interior, peoples of the plains, peoples of the hill country, great events, great cities, amid a mighty landscape. And yet the coastal forts of Maharashtra, land of the daring Maratha clans, played a significant role in the later history of India. Like forts everywhere, they were entrecotes for ideas and cultures but in additions there harbours were the natural object for the vessel for all the eastward-trading nations- the Sidhis and the Abyssinians were collectively called by that name. They came as slave traders to the Deccan and dealt with the Adil Shahis of Bijapur.
In return for these concessions they provided armed escort to the pilgrim ships bound for Mecca out of Janjira, Goa, Surat and Dhabod: corsairs- Dutch or English or from Malabar- were a constant danger to merchant shipping, looting, killing and raping on the high seas from the African coast to the East Indies. The Maratha chieftain, Shivaji, first attacked Janjira during his campaigns in the Konkan area in 1659. His son Shambhuji in 1682 attempted to tunnel to the island but with signal lack of success. Each time the Marathas assaulted the fort the Sidhi and the Mughal fleet from Surat combined to bombard them from the region. Though they tried hard, neither the Marathas, nor the Mughals, nor Portugese, nor British could ever capture Janjira by force.
Janjira lies some way offshore but it is possible to hire a square-rigged dhow to visit it. The dhows ply from the port of Murud, a tiny place that was hardly moved on from the 16th century. The island is uninhabited now. Jazire Meharuba, the Moon Fort, beckons, the more beguiling since one may be sure of approaching it in a manner unchanged down the centuries. Luxuriant in a palace garden grown wild, Janjira must have been an idyllic place.
Some of the great, rusting guns of Janjira still point from their embrasures: Chavari, its muzzle carved like the jaws of some fearsome monster; Kalal Bangadi; and Landa Kasam. This was the Sidhi Surul Khan's palace; one can still patrol and admire his ramparts of blue-black granite, jointed with lead to withstand the pounding of the Arabian Sea. At the steps by the main entrance is a memorial to six battle victories - the lion of Abyssinia holding six elephants captive. It is almost impossible, though, for today's visitor to harbour thoughts of bloody bombardment into dust or a burning death at sea. This is a quiet, seductive spot to leave, with day darkening into night and blue waters turning gold in the sinking sun, the soft slap of wave on wood the only sound. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/07/04/...l?oneclick=true
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Beat goes on in the fight for tradition
n a side street of the sleepy Indian city of Junagadh, men take off their T-shirts, tie fresh leaves to their foreheads and paint their faces and bodies orange, yellow and white for a night of jungle dancing.
Women shake rattles and drums are thumped, as the Sidhis, an African tribe uprooted to India, battle to preserve centuries-old traditions.
"We want to keep our ancestors' dance form alive," said one Sidhi drummer, Salem Alarakha.
However, grinding poverty, the lure of the big city and the overpowering beats of Bollywood have made the fight a difficult one.
About 25,000 Sidhis, the descendants of slaves, live on the north-western coast of India. Nyabuto Thomas Isaac, a geographer at Gujarat's Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, says most of the Sidhis were brought from modern-day Tanzania to India in the 16th century by Portuguese and Arab traders. Today, about 80 per cent of India's Sidhi population work as manual labourers, either in farms or in cities.
  advertisement
 Â
  advertisement
"We have always been poor," said Alibhai Yakub, a Sidhi in the village of Zambur. "Our great-great grandfathers were slaves, and even though we are now free, it hasn't improved our condition. We still work as labourers, sometimes earning as little as 30 rupees ($1) for a whole day's work." But asked if he would like to return to his roots in Africa, Yakub emphatically shakes his head.
For the younger generation, even the jungle dance link with Africa is fading away. In Zambur, the sounds coming from Sidhi homes are of Hindi film music.
"I'd like to wear fashionable clothes and live like people in the city," said Tofique Shaikhiyan, 15.
"We don't want to live like this," she said pointing to the poverty around her. Alongside Indian pop culture, another growing influence is Islam. The Sidhis are Muslims, and have been increasingly polarised since Hindu-Muslim riots in Gujarat last year in which 2000 people died.
Maulana Mohabat Kasim, the cleric of the only mosque in Zambur, believes Sidhi women should be required to wear veils in accordance with the conservative belief that women should be modest. But while some Sidhi women wear veils, most have ignored this call.
"I don't want to wear a burqa. I want to be like other girls and speak English," says Yasmin Sidhi. "I want to watch Hindi films and wear clothes of the latest fashion." But after reflection she adds: "I'd also like to retain some of my ancestors' past in Africa."
Agence France-Presse
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<img src='http://www.smh.com.au/ffxImage/urlpicture_id_1057179155293_2003/07/04/wld_sidhis0507,0.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />