I didnt know about the Sidi people on INdia, though I had to have realized such a group existed. From the sound of what else I read on the history, they seem to be largely segregated into a small area of India still today. Heres a paragraph from an Economist blog on their history, which balances the more idealistic view presented in the video which is also fascinating. economist/blogs/prospero/2013/04/sidi-india >....Relatively little is known about the Sidi, whose ancestors are African slaves, soldiers, traders and some Muslim pilgrims who wound up in India throughout the centuries. Historians believe the first wave arrived in the 9th century when Arab-led armies that used African slaves as soldiers took over the Sindh province, which is now in southern Pakistan. Central Asian armies carrying out invasions in the following centuries brought more. Some Sidi were accomplished soldiers who rose through the army ranks. A few even became the royal families of small principalities set aside for their community. A second, and generally less-skilled, influx followed in the 17th century when the Portuguese brought slaves from their trading posts in Africa to Goa, their colony in India. The Sidi today remains a tiny group of 35,000-70,000 people in a country of 1.2 billion, mostly concentrated in the rural areas of Gujarat and Karnataka in the west and south-west of the country.....>
Posted on: Mon, 15 Sep 2014 18:39:19 +0000
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