![]() Purnima Mehta Bhatt is Professor (Emerita) of History, Anthropology and Interdisciplinary Studies at Hood College, USA, where she has taught since 1977. The book will interest those working in the fieldsof history, sociology and social anthropology, cultural studies, international relations, and migration and diaspora studies. The author examines how the Sidi communities strived to construct a distinct identity in a new homeland in a polyglot Indian society, their present status, as well as theirfuture prospects. ![]() ![]() By employing an interdisciplinary approach across fields of history, art, anthropology, religion, literature and oral history, it provides an analysis of their negotiations with cultural resistance, survivals and collective memory. The work draws from extant scholarly research and documentary sources to provide a comprehensive study of people of African descent in India and sheds new light on their experiences. The Sidis comprise scattered communities of people of African descent who travelled and settled along the western coast of India, mainly in Gujarat, but also in Goa, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Sri Lanka and in Sindh (Pakistan) as a result of the Indian Ocean trade from thethirteenth tonineteenth centuries. It focuses on the so-called Sidis, Siddis or Habshis who occupy a unique place in Indian history. This book explores the understudied and often overlooked subject of African presence in India. ![]()
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