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Sidis in India:
Sidis are also known as Habsi, Sheedi, and Siddhi. This groups mainly inhabit in India and Pakistan. Members of this community are descended from Bantu People of the African Great Lakes. Sidis work as merchants, sailors, slaves and mercenaries. Main population center of Sidis are Karnataka, Gujarat, and Hyderabad. Siddis mainly are Sufi Muslims but some of them are Hindu and other belong to the Catholic Church.

First Sidis arrived in India at Bharuch Port in 628 AD. The group after that are believed to have been soldiers in the army of Muhammad bin Quasim. They were also known as Zanjis. Sidis are numerically a minority. Their presence in India for over 500 years, their self-perception, makes them Bantu/Indian.    

Sidis in Gujarat:
Once upon a time it was said that five hundred Habsis lived in Ahmedabad. This was the time when city would have been much smaller than it is now. According to their estimates, about 300-350 Sidis live in Ahmedabad. They are minority in excess of 4 million inhabitants. Most people in Ahmedabad identify Sidis as the people of Suarashtra. This people in Ahmedabad have a reputation for the occupation of ‘Painters’. They are in demand mostly before Diwali, when Hindus want to Paint their house. Sidis are also involved in other occupation, trade, income-generating activities i.e. drivers, computer trainer, security guard, mechanic, musician, boxer, dancer, street hawker, and meat shop owner. The sidis are the largest community in Ahmedabad which is a collection of some twenty households in locality of Patthar Kuwa near the SV College. Sidi household is situated in Kahunpur, slums next to Sabarmati River by Nehru Bridge. They are also scattered in Sarkhej, Gomtipur, Vatva and Sardarnagar.

The Sidis are known in Moslem localities, as visiting Fakir. The Sidi house in Patthar Kuwa encloses a peaceful courtyard, shaded by neem trees, imli tree and gorukh tree. They have performed dhamal music and dances in the courtyard. At the base of one of neem trees, there is another chilla, that of Sidi Muktah.

Culture
Siddi community migrated from the africa and settled to gujarat over centuries and now they are very well assimilated into gujarati culture and the study has found that around 75,000 Africans who settled in Gujarat over the centuries have become almost indistinguishable from members of africa. Interestingly, they also have no physical signs indicating their country of origin except their fuzzy hair and relatively darker skin.Not only they got matched to gujarati culture very well but also there is no single african who can speak swahili, a language spoken in east africa.In fact, the marriage style was also the same as gujarati style. The africans also relish on gujarati delicacies such as khaman,dhokla and fafda and none of relish on their delicacies which most of african eats like baba ghanoush and amala. Traders from Kutch and Kathiawad transformed the african’s barter society into a money economy in the 19th century. Maritime history shows that they were trade bridge between Gujarat and the African east coast dating back to ancient Babylon. It has been said that Sidi,were once nawabs of Surat,Khambad and Jafrabad.The sidis are founder of two landmark of ahmedabad i.e sidi saiyyed mosque and siddi bashir mosque. Folklore has it that sidi guard once sacrificed his life to prevent ahmedabad's 'Nagar Laxmi' from leaving the city during the rule of Ahmed Shah.

Monuments[edit]
Sidi Saiyyed mosque is one of the most famous mosque in Ahmedabad, It is popularly also known as Sidi Saiyyed Mosque. It was built by Sidi Saiyyed in the presence of Bilal Jhajar Khan (General in the last army of sultan Shams-Ud-Din Muzaffar Shah III) in 1572 AD. The whole mosque was built accurately and is also famous for its wonderful carved ten stones, latticework on windows on the side and rear arches. It is said that when the mosque was built, there were around 45 craftsmen having extraordinary talents and workmanship. After that the mosque become a popular tourist spot for its Architectural finesse and for its ornate Jali work. The two bays flanking the central aisle have richly carved stone slabs which shows a network designs of a palm motif, foliage and intertwined trees. The lattice window carved out of stone which is also a logo of Indian Institute of Management(IIM), an Indo-Islamic artwork was popularly known as Sidi Saiyyed Mosque. The central window arch of the mosque is also blocked with stone and not with intricate stone Jali and it is also known that the builder was not able to complete the construction according to the plans before the Mughals invaded Gujarat.


 * 1) Jump up^ "Siddi". Wikipedia. 2018-04-05.

Present Situation[edit]
Prior to the happening to the British manage in India, the Sidis were experiencing a procedure of osmosis, however the British separation and-govern arrangement regregated the Sidi bunches from each other and furthermore from the indigenous Indian people group in which they lived. Subsequently, the Sidis have been're-tribalised' and have turned out to be ruined in numerous regions.

Those Sidi settlements in Gujarat which are composed as discrete groups with an innate framework existing outside the primary political stream and ebbs and flows of financial advancement, have been ordered by the Central Government as Scheduled Tribes and they get Central Government bolster. Jambur Village close Madhapur with its own particular panchayat (Five Member Leadership Committee), an elementary school and a shop, was the principal Sidi walled in area to get such help (Census of India 1961). Most Sidis in Gujarat are agriculturists and incompetent specialists, however in different areas one discovers Sidi specialists, legal advisors, policemen, columnists, experts, educators, agents and land-proprietors. There is a between state development to arrange and join all the Sidi gatherings and enhance their financial conditions and raise their economic wellbeing. An expanding number of them are acknowledging financial change as performers in the developing visitor industry.

Problems Of Siddis[edit]
The schedule tribes siddis embrace short of one-fifth of the aggregate 1991 citizens of the six Saurashtran regions of Rajkot division, specifically Junagadh, Bhavnagar, Rajkot, Amreli, Surendranagar and Jamnagar. The acknowledgment of the schedule tribes or schedule caste is resolved under segment 341 and 342. Regardless of whether caste or race meet these criteria has been chosen utilizing information from the decennial statistics and from examines authorized by the national Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. The levels of saved positions for individuals from SCs and STs fluctuate for each state as per extents of SCs and STs in that state. For Gujarat in this way, 14.9% of positions are saved for STs and 7.4% for SCs; the typical age restrict for government work is 28 years however it might be expanded upto 5 years in the event of schedule caste or tribes as the case perhaps. Additionally, numerous different advantages are accessible alongside the activity if got, for example, different grants, stipends, awards, credits and sponsorships for instruction, apprenticeships, proficient and professional preparing, house development, helping the landless purchase land and business visionaries to purchase shop space, medicinal care to sufferers of genuine sickness, and remuneration to casualties of savagery. The Sidis education rate was assessed in the 1981 statistics as 23. In like manner this does not contrast that ominously and proficiency rates assessed in 1981 as 21% (30% male, 12% female) for every Scheduled Tribe taken together.49 At the time, the education rate was around 44% for Gujarat as entirety. Additionally the funds are apportioned for the advancement of the siddi tribe. Cash has been spent on different tasks identified with farming, creature cultivation, instruction, independent work, fishery, social welfare, lodging and water supply. The program just gives resources, for example, a bison, or an oil motor for instance, never money. The SC or ST status obviously characterizes qualification to benefits, most eminently to saved places in instructive foundations and government business, and these 'reservations' have since turned into a combative political issue in India. It is obvious that Sidis have consumed extensive time and cost in their endeavors to get the Government to agree to their request to be perceived as ST as well. To wind up qualified for such business, an individual innate needs to first get an authentication that bears witness to their ST status the District Collector, and after that present this alongside other documentation, for example, school-leaving declaration and proportion card34 to the Employment Exchange.

The Research Officer assessed that in the towns where they have concentrated their work, around 90% of Sidi families have gotten an advantage or something to that affect through the program. Likewise the way that the cash gets spent by targets was obviously considered to give adequate measure of the program's prosperity, couldn't be disregarded for the siddi group.

Stereotype and misconceptions
Siddis have now been in Ahmedabad from around centuries. With this big history there has been new generation adding them from many other parts of the globe. It is largely possible that many Guajarati’s might have not even heard about them. There are various reasons behind this such as in Ahmadabad they live or stay in the other part of the city also whenever they try to get out that area they are considered as Africans due to their color or maybe appearance also because of this the community has always been neglected and treated as slaves. On the other it might be used with inappropriate intentions i.e. making fun of their community, initially sidis were brought to India as slaves and from them they are still treated as the same thought they have considered themselves truly Indian from their heart and mind but still there is a differentiation between them and other maybe because of the stereotype mindset of the society we live in.

The problem with the expression is that it is taken to a racial aspect. Today if we ask anyone considering Indian that why is Africa not beautiful the only reason they might give is maybe the black color. In India or any part of the globe people with the fair completions are loved more than any other skin tone. However the belief that the lighter skin is more beautiful is no more or is now changing as the western culture n belief’s that Tan is more beautiful. Sidis or any parent should not have any problem with their child’s skin tone as no matter what whether he is literate, illiterate, educated, uneducated, white or black, able or unable they will love them with the same dedication no matter what.

Among those who have no problem with the sidis are the one who are well-educated, people who understand that color rarely matters and features are the most important things that matter.