The Role of Africans as Soldiers and Slaves - Anish Toppo

The role of African as soldier and Slave in India for various rulers and as ruler.

Anish Toppo

The relation between Indian and Africa has been since old time. Africans came to India around the 4th century as slaves during the slave trade, but they flourished as traders, rulers, artists so on. They are known by different names in different eras such as Habshi, Zangis, Abyssinians, and Siddi but all belonged to Ethiopia, which is situated in East Africa.They played a crucial role in India to reform it. It mostly happened around between the 14th century and 17th century. They were usually
appointed as soldiers for Indian rulers. Some flourished as rulers as well. Read more here.

African as a soldier for Indian rulers from 14th to 18th century.

The reason for Africans (Siddi) coming to India is that some of them had been sold as slaves to Indian rulers by Arabian traders and some came to India in connection with trade. After coming here, they settled down here and did not go to return. In 14th to 18th century, they Were also known as powerful warriors and loyal servants such as Siddi Masud prominent general of Bijapur Sultanate. Leaders could have trusted in them; that’s why they were mostly appointed at court. Some of them played an important role, in armies, in political warfare. For instance, the Military commander Mahabat Khan, during the reign of Emperor Akbar. 

Former, Muslim rulers engaged them as slave bodyguards, the Portuguese followed the same policy (16th to 17th century), and later Hindu rulers were initiated appointing Africans as their armed and naval force as well. Some slave Siddi became rulers and others escaped away into the jungle, leaving political and army life and doing servants, to find shelter. There they created independent communities. 

Mainly we know about some highlighted rulers like Malik Ambar (1548-1626) he was also a military strategist and his state was Ahmednagar. Another African ruler was Nawab Sidi Haidar Khan, he established his state Sachin in 1791 which is situated in Gujrat state in Republic India. Nawab Sidi Haidar khan had his own cavalry, army and state band that consisted of African. Even at that time it had its own currency and its own arms. They were descendants of migrated Africans and traveled up to becoming a ruler of India.

Jamal ud- Din Yaqut: Army General of Razia Sultan 

Africans who were Muslim, known as Habshis.The name Siddi had started to be used later in British rule instead of Habshi. They were mostly employed in India as soldiers and guards of palaces of the Indian rulers. Their position was high, they were appointed as administrators, generals of the army.

During the reign of Iltutmish, sultan of Delhi sultanate, many slaves were employed as military in his kingdom. At that time Jamal ud- din Yaqut was one of them as well. He had gained the trust of the Iltutmish, and he was appointed as governor. When emperor Iltutmish was alive then he declared his daughter Razia as heir of the sultanate. 

Sultana Razia (1236-1240) was the first woman Sultan in India of Delhi Sultanate. At that time Siddi or Habshi was Raziya’s closest advisor and general of the army. Later Razia lost her throne because of some circumstance. Batuta( the great traveler) claims that here the circumstance was Jamal ud-din. She had appointed him as “Master of the stables” (Mengesha 93). Some historians claim that there was a relationship between Razia and Yaquat. Sultana Raziya had fallen in love of black skinned Habshi, Jamal ud-din. Their love story was very tragic. Jamal ud-din probably had been the first African slave leader, but the rage and jealousy of Turkish overlords rebelled against her and killed Jamal ud -din and Raziya had to lose her throne as well as her life. This way the first success of slave leader declined.

Habshi Dynasty: - 

African not only enhanced their kingdom in Deccan sultanates but in Bengal as well. This Dynasty was established by the African Indian. In Habshi Dynasty had been mainly four rulers: The first ruler of the Habshi dynasty was Ghiyas ud-din Barbak Shah (1486-1493), who established Habshi Dynasty kingdom in 1486, Saif ud- din Firuz Shah (1487-1489), other rulers were Qutb ud-din Mahmud Shah (1490), ( Czekalska, Kuczkiewicz-Fras 198). They ruled for around six years.

Habshis in Hyderabad as soldier and their situations

During the war between the Mughals and the Deccanies the king of Wanaparthy, whose state was situated far away from Hyderabad, brought 200 strong habshis from Ethiopia for war and later he handed them over to six Nizam. After that many regiments were made by Nizams of Habshis such as artillery regiment, infantry battalions, African guards. Later African Bodyguards, it was made in 1857 with 80 African soldiers but later the number of soldiers was increasing. The Nizam was influenced by military skill and their incredibility. He appointed them as palace guards’ and bodyguards’ posts. He was very happy with their services. So, he had sent some of them to Africa to bring men. He wanted to add more soldiers, hence the number of Habshis started to increase rapidly. 

Decline of African- Indian soldier: 

During the ruling time of Nizams from 1605 to 1964, Habshis were very happy because they had different identities, they were treated well. But after the end of Nizams rule Habshis had to face a very critical situation because even the rule of Nizam ended as well as they had lost their services. The Indian government passed the Police Action to remove the Nizam’s legitimacy. Some of them sold their property and moved towards the other city. After this frightening situation they had to do many other jobs to survive in India such as small business, driving cycle rickshaws, selling fruits and sweets and so on. Most of Habshis were Muslims but later few converted their religion and became Christianity and got married with native Indians.

Eventually this essay explores the journey of migrated people (Habshi, Siddi) from Africa to India. Firstly, they came to India as slaves and some came for trade, but most of them had been brought by Arab merchants and sold to Indian rulers. Initially, they had to serve as slave soldiers. In history, migrated Africans were mostly used as soldiers and guards of palace. Later with time some Habshis flourished as rulers apart from soldiers like Malik Ambar, Nawab Sidi Haidar Khan and so on. There are other Africans in history who made their own Dynasty like the Habshis Dynasty in Bengal and Siddi Dynasty in Gujarat. But most of the Africans in India were soldiers. So, After Independence, their lives became worse because of losing jobs. Nowadays, the migrated African people live in Karnataka, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh. Migrated African’s lives are not much better, they are living poor lives.

References

1. Africans in India: From slaves to reformers and rulers. (2014, December 19).

BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-30391686

2. Czekalska, R., & Kuczkiewicz-Fraś, A. (2016). From africans in india to

african indians. Politeja, 42, 189–212. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24920254

3. Mengesha, A. G. (2003). The habshis. International Journal of Ethiopian

Studies, 1(1), 91–102. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27828821

4. Y, D. (2014, December 22). Siddi masud. African Heritage.

https://afrolegends.com/tag/siddi-masud/