30 September,2010 07:29 AM IST | | Shashank Shekhar
Group of African descendants to perform in opening ceremony of Commonwealth Games
Meet the Siddis from Gujarat. Imran Akbar Siddi and his 47-member Dhamaal Group are currently practising in Delhi, preparing to perform in the opening ceremony of CWG 2010 on October 3.
Ready to jive: Members of Dhamaal Group, from Gujarat, will perform traditional African dances at the Games opening ceremony. pic/Mid Day
"Our ancestors moved to India 750 years ago and although we look like Africans we are Indians," said Imran.
The Gujarati troop has performed at various platforms in the Capital and will showcase African folk dance for thirty minutes at the ceremony.
The 28-year-old group has travelled all the way from Ratanpur village in Bharuch district of Gujarat especially to perform at the Games. Another thing that is striking about them, apart from their looks and fluency in Hindi, is that they have a 52-year-old performer in Babu Y Siddi and a 17-year-old one in his nephew Noora Siddi.
There are about 87,000 Siddis in India, scattered in Gujarat, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. Gujarat has more than 22,000 Siddis living in 19 villages.
"Our ancestors moved to India but this folk dance is a part of our African heritage and we want to promote it. We have been practising it for long and we are very excited to exhibit our cultural dance at such a big platform like the Commonwealth Games," said Babu, speaking in fluent Hindi.
Babu also informed that the dance form, which includes animal dance, fire dance and zulu dance, is 800 years old and is performed by the Siddi community on occasions like marriages, childbirth. But since there is a lack of job opportunities in Ratanpur village, this also acts a source of livelihood.
The Dhamaal Group might earn a few thousands from the Commonwealth Games, but it wouldn't give them regular incomes. But lack of finance is not the only problem that the Siddi community in India faces. There's also racial abuse. "Whenever we perform out of our home state there are people passing racial comments on us," said Imran.
But if you test their loyalties by asking which country will win the most medals at the Games, the unanimous answer is, "India, of course".
| Historical perspective |
| The first Siddis are thought to have arrived in the Indian subcontinent in 628 AD at the Bharuch port. Several others followed with the first Arab Islamic invasions of the subcontinent in 712 AD. The latter group is believed to have been soldiers with Muhammad bin Qasim's Arab army, and were called Zanjis. Most Siddis, however, are believed to be the descendants of slaves, sailors, servants and merchants from the Bantu-speaking parts of East Africa who arrived and became resident in the subcontinent between 1200-1900 AD. A large influx of Siddis to the region occurred in the 17th century when Portuguese slave traders sold a number of them to local princes. |
