(Pradip Siddi and his neighbour Nagesh saw wood and chat about politics. Pic: Yogesh Pawar)
"You should've seen their faces," 32-year-old Pradip Siddi
chortles, trying to hold back the paan juice that has stained his mouth a
fiery red. Both he and his 40-year-old cousin and neighbour, Nagesh and
their families, who reside in a remote settlement inside the dense
tropical rainforests off Muski village in the Sirsi tehsil of Uttara
Kannada (UK) district in Karnataka, have just told off political
activists sent by local BJP MLA Vishweshwar Hegde of the Sirsi
constituency. "They were offering to take us to Udupi and back for a May
2 rally by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. We declined just as we'd
refused being taken for a Rahul Gandhi rally at Ankola, Karwar, by some
Congress activists," he says as they work on sawing a large wooden
pillar in half.
Back from the last of several sorties carrying three pots of water
from the mountain brook in the ravine below their house, Pradip's wife
Mangala scoffs, "If we talk about water, power supply, perennial road
access or healthcare, they ask us to wait for the next term. But during
election season they remember us."
She recounts an election rally that the whole family went for in
2013. "A truck went around picking us all up. We were given idli-chutney
in the morning and driven through the treacherously winding Devimane
Ghat to Kumta, 62km away. There, we were told that we'll get food after
the rally. Around 4pm they gave us parcels of pulao. Maybe due to the
heat or because it was packed a while ago, it had gone bad and inedible.
My youngest Prajwal was only six. We somehow managed to buy a packet of
biscuits for him. After we returned, all of us took ill. It meant no
work and no money for nearly a week," she recalls, still bitter.
Origin Story
Though Karnataka is home to
most of the 50,000 odd Siddis in India, they are widely spread across UK
(Yellapur, Haliyal, Ankola, Joida, Mundgod and Sirsi tehsils), Belgaum
(Khanapur tehsil) and Dharwad (Kalaghatagi tehsil) districts. And yet in
a tightly-fought election, where the stakes are high and every vote
counts, politicians across parties are out to woo them.
Kumta-based tribal anthropologist Dr Snehalata Shetty explains that
all Siddis in Karnataka are descendants of seafarers from the Bantu
people of the African Great Lakes region (Burundi, the Democratic
Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda), brought to
India as slaves by the Dutch and Portuguese between the 16th and 19th
century. One of the earliest references to the tribe can be found in
correspondence traced back to a steamer that set sail from England to
former Ceylon and onwards to the Western coast of India in 1832. This
account describes a crew comprising seven English quartermasters, 43
lascars, six English engineers and 15 Siddimen or negroes as coal
shifters.
The tribe has, in the past, shunned contact with the outside world
because of the intense racism they encounter for their African features –
dark skin and curly hair. They are still targets of racist slurs by
locals and largely limit themselves to selling forest produce like
natural gum, honey, mushroom, bamboo shoots and lumber for sustenance,
points out Uttara Kannada District Social Welfare Officer S Purshottam.
"Apart from settling in remote locations, they had developed a
collective defensiveness due to generations of being made to feel like
outsiders. Earlier, they even reacted aggressively if outsiders
approached them," he says adding, "Only in the last ten years have they
begun to be open about sending their children to school and take baby
steps to integrate themselves into mainstream society."
Dr Shetty (who undertook a study on the Siddis in India two years
ago) says there are several theories about how they crossed over from
Goa to Karnataka's forests. "Some Siddi oral histories claim they helped
Hindus flee Christian persecution during the Goan Inquisition and
escaped themselves. Others claim they fled exploitative labour extracted
with torture by the Portuguese."
Ancestor worship
Though originally
animists and worshippers of the feminine principle and their
forefathers' spirits in Karnataka, the tribe is now either Muslim,
Christian or Hindu. Ankola resident, community elder and spokesperson
for Siddis in Karnataka, Yogendra Siddi says, "We needed patrons to sell
the forest produce to and protect us. So we agreed to be part of the
religion of whoever gave us work and food in return." According to him,
this is why Siddis, who settled around areca nut plantations in Sirsi,
Yellapura and Ankola, owned by Havyaka Brahmins, have become Hindus. "In
Haliyal, they first became Muslims after the local lumbering community
influenced them to convert. The Roman Catholic conversions only began in
the 80s," he explains.
In fact, in Mundgod tehsil – home to the large Doeguling Tibetan
settlement (since 1966) – it is not uncommon to find Buddhist prayer
beads, pictures of the Buddha and the Dalai Lama in Siddi homes.
Despite these changes, the Siddis have held onto their Hiriyaru
(elders who've passed on) worship, points out Yogendra. "We Siddis
believe our Hiriyaru watch over us. We invoke them not only at
marriages, births, naming ceremonies and deaths, but also during natural
calamities or being cut off due to floods or a sickness or injury that
doesn't heal." Hiriyaru worship, explains the Siddi elder, is what ties
the community together irrespective of their adopted religion or region
(Karnataka, Gujarat and Hyderabad in India or Makran and Karachi in
Pakistan.) "It is this practice that makes it possible for us to easily
marry inter-religiously."
Proof of this is Mangala Siddi of Muski, who was Jabeeda in her
maternal home in Amankope village, Haliyal. "The shaman communicated
that the departed elders had blessed the union and I was married to
Pradip," she smiles. Pradip offers a more rational explanation – he
liked Jabeeda soon after he saw her, while she was on a timber unloading
job in her village.
Theories suggest that the first batch of Siddis arrived with Arab
traders in 628AD at the Bharuch port, Gujarat, and few others claim they
came here in 712AD as part of Muhammad bin Qasim's Arab army that laid
siege to the Indian subcontinent. However, Dr Shetty insists these are
only apocryphal. "Records show that the Portuguese sold off some Siddi
slaves to the Nawab of Junagadh. The current settlements you see around
the Gir forest are all descendants of that lot."
Unlike the Siddis of Karnataka who speak Konkani, the ones in
Gujarat speak Gujarati and have not only a strong Sufi tradition, but
also worship both their ancestors and the feminine principle like their
Karnataka counterparts.
Coinciding with Navratri, the Siddis pray to the Goddess of
Fertility, points out Dr Shetty. "In Gujarat, this amounts to their own
version of a more animist version of Ambe Mata, while across the border
in Makran and Karachi in what is now Pakistan's Balochistan region, they
worship the Hinglaj Mata." She laments how this syncretism is under
attack in today's polarised times. "Extremists are asking them to give
up their own version of Sufi Islam for a more Wahabi version frowning on
their age-old tradition and practices."
Epochs of glory
Further south, off the
Alibaug coast in Maharashtra's Janjira, is evidence of the Siddis
reaching their epoch. Here, not only did they break away from slavery,
but also went on to create a formidable naval armada, which could hold
its own against the Mughals, Marathas, Portuguese and British, from the
Goan border to Surat. "In fact, they established the kingdom of Sachin
10km from Surat that made them quite a force to reckon with. So much so
that Aurangazeb drew up a treaty, promising them a sum of `400 per year
to ensure protection for Mughal ships that travelled this route."
Yogendra also points out how this martial race made a name for
themselves in the employ of the Nizam of Hyderabaderabad, where they
rose to become chieftains in the infantry and cavalry. "Some
descendants, who reside in the walled city, are also some of its
wealthiest," he exclaims and gives the example of the close confidante
of Razia Sultana, the first female monarch of the Delhi Sultanate
(1205-40). "Jamal ud-Din Yaqut, the Siddi slave-turned-nobleman, was
also her lover, though this is often disputed. Most Indians, just like
her own Turkish clansmen of that time, could not accept a Siddi man
having a relationship with a reigning monarch of her order. "
Reality bites
All talk of
past grandeur must make little sense to Anuradha Nagesh Siddi of Muski
village. She is worried that there is no food left in the anganwadi to
feed the children. "Once the rains set in, they don't let up for days at
a stretch in the Malenad (literally, 'land of the rain') region. The
dirt track, our only connection to the outside world, then doubles as
the path for jungle streams to come together as a muddy river. Walking
across the slippery terrain can be dangerous," she says and adds, "I
hope they send ration and rice supplies for us to tide over the monsoon,
which will set in soon after the new government is sworn in."
She hopes the Siddis are not forgotten as the fringe once again after elections are over.
Seeking Siddi
- Over 48,000 Siddis
reside in India. Tribal welfare ministry records show that nearly 16,000
live in Karnataka alone. The second largest concentration is in Gujarat
with 12,000 living around the Junagadh district while another 10,000
are based in Hyderabad, Telangana. The remaining are found in Goa and
Maharashtra
- Most of the 25,000 odd Siddis in Pakistan are
Baloch or Sindhi. Many with dreams of making it big in football are
settled in Lyari town off Karachi
- There are over 1,000 Siddis in Sri Lanka, who live in the coastal pockets of Negambo, Trincomalee and Batticaloa
Olympic dream
"It
has repeatedly been brought to fore that the Siddis are not only very
fit but also great at athletics. The Sports Authority of India runs a
sports programme at Sambrani to nurture such talent," says S Purshottam,
Uttara Kannada Social Welfare Officer. He cites names of Kamala Mingel
Siddi, Rupal Siddi and Alex Siddi, who have got honours in athletics
events such as running, 100m dash, javelin throw, shot put, etc. both
nationally and internationally, to underline his point.
http://www.dnaindia.com/just-before-monday/report-the-siddis-of-fringe-india-2614352
Handwritten notes inside post-mortem register.
The official death count at the zoo in 2017-18 was 91 from an opening stock of 1,202 animals.
The Shingoda dam in Gir National Park and Sanctuary
