Much is known about Indian overseas communities in East Africa, but few people know about an ethnic African group living in India, known as the Sidis. Their ancestors were African slaves brought over, primarily by the British, but also some by the Arabs.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/pict...ties/html/1.stm

There is already a thread about them.

http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/index.php?...c=89952&hl=

yeah, but is over half year old. it is okay to start a new thread about the similar topic as long as a certain span of time has passed. i doubt people will remember or go searching back that far to find this topic.

Thanks for making this new topic, never heard of them before. Seems like Africans have been slaves for all their lives. Well not all, but widespread.

Africa, America, South America, the Carribean Western Europe, Middle East and now South Asia... wow.

If I'm not mistake East African Slave trade was big business as well.

That was only for the last couple of centuries with the European-American slave trade, and to a lesser extent, the earlier Arabian slave trade.

Actually Arab slave traders used to take slaves from mainly East Africa. And sell them to indian kings as body guards or as slaves. They were not brought by the british. Today very few siddis are left in India, their population is only few thousands, it is neglegible as compared to other ethnic groups in India. Many Siddis and Habsis had intermarriages with other indian muslims and got mixed.

Historically right now I can recall of the Habsi rulers of the fort of Jazira in the Arabian sea and the Habsi lover (his name was Yaqut) of Razia Sultan (she was the empress of the Sultnate of Delhi).

From Slavery to Monarchy -- The Rise of African Elites In India

Washington
31 January 2007

Listen to interview (MP3) audio clip

Sub-Saharan Africans have had a longstanding presence in India. They were originally taken there as slaves by Indian merchants; as the years went by, some of those Africans in India became top military leaders and monarchs. John McLeod is the chair of the History Department at the University of Louisville in Kentucky. McLeod is a specialist in the history of India and the author of a new book entitled “African Elites in India.”

He explained how the African presence in India first came to his attention. “My co-editor, who is an art collector, started noticing in medieval Indian paintings that there were distinctly African figures standing around and then remembered in Indian history books isolated mentions of Africans rising to positions of power….”

So they documented this aspect of Indian history, which they said nobody had ever fully looked into. McLeod said he thinks that was because the role of Africans “is not seen as part of the mainstream Indian history.”

As a matter of fact, it was only in recent years that scholars began examining the issue. McLeod said even today there are communities of Africans in India and most Indians don’t know about them. He said some African descendants can still be identified by their physical features. “There are non-elite Indians of African origin who are very, very African in appearance.”

McLeod said the Africans in India lost their African names. “When they were brought as slaves, they were converted to Islam and given Islamic names.” But he adds there are some names that are distinctively associated with Africans families, such as Sidi or Seddi: “That’s often the clue that people are of African origin.”

McLeod said last year he attended a conference that brought together African Indians, Africans and scholars. “They were very eager to compare notes and to make these kind of connections,” he said, adding that Indian activists and their friends in Africa and the West are working on establishing ties on a firmer basis. “In a couple of years, there’s going to be a conference in Mozambique that will bring together African Indians with people interested in this study.”

http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2007-01/2007-01-31-voa25.cfm?CFID=62380199&CFTOKEN=43726183

It wasnt the British it was the Arabs who sold them to Indian king's There is a 50000 strong Siddhi population across India they dont even make up to 1% of india's population

africans travelled further east than indians.

What?

There are Africans in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands although these werent slaves. They are several tribal groups that migrated to India thousands of years ago and settled on those Islands.

As for former African slaves living in India I havnt heard about. Its interesting to know. I could imagine the British sending African slaves to India. Didnt know it was the Arabs who did it (although I know they were involved in the slave trade).

Even south east asia! 'Belanda Hitam' (Black Dutch) they came from Ghana and were brought to Sumatra, Indonesia by the dutch folks. They were soldiers of the Royal Dutch East Indies Army.

But it's far more interesting about the africans in asia who settled in asia without force (from the europeans / arabs)

Are there lots of Africans in India nowadays? Do they still have their african traditions or have they become 'indian' instead?

these dutch brought the indonesians to south africa too /

the britsh brought tamils to malaysia to work the mines.

all so people like jagger can have a high blood pressure thinkig about the permutations of racial intermixxing between the immigrants and the natives. huhu