Latest revision as of 04:53, 27 October 2024

African and Indian soldiers fought together in World War II

India's largest trade partners in Africa (2014-15); Graphic courtesy: The Times of India, October 26, 2015

Africa’s oil exports to India, 2012-15; Graphic courtesy: The Times of India, January 22, 2016

[edit] History

[edit] Indian and African soldiers in WW II

Manimugdha Sharma| When black soldiers fought side by side with Indians } Apr 02 2017 : The Times of India (Delhi)

Back during WW2, African troops fought alongside us even though their efforts haven't got the same recognition

`La la la it's hard working for you, captain“ goes a song.

It's an African unit trying to keep up morale in the treacherous jungles of Burma in the Second World War.

Indians and Africans were fighting the war on the same side. Military historians say a unique and potent weapon in the form of the 14th Army was forged in India by unifying the fighting potential of different races and cultures.

The core of the 14th Army was Indian with troops from the subcontinent constituting 60-65% of the force. Only 13% of this army was ethnic British. But of the rest, 90,000 (some historians say up to 1,20,000) were black African troops. In the summer of 1943, troop carriers brought these Africans to India and Ceylon from Chad, Gold Coast, Gambia, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, South Africa and Nigeria. Of the 90,000 men coming from the Dark Continent to defend the Indian Empire from the Empire of Japan, over 50% were Nigerians.

Soldiers of the Japanese empire -one of the most racist regimes in history -also thought Africans were cannibals. A war veteran named Estos Hamiss was quoted by David Killingray and Martin Plaut in their book, Fighting For Britain: African Soldiers in the Second World War: “The Japanese were very much afraid of East African Division (black people). The Japanese do claim that the African eat human flesh.When the EA soldiers killed an enemy (Japanese), they set fire and roast him.“

The same book also quotes one Musa Kihwelo who had served in Burma with King's African Rifles (a highly decorated regiment in which former US president Barack Obama's grandfather, Hussein Onyango Obama, also served as a cook in Burma) about how men of the 6th battalion terrified captured Japanese soldiers by killing one or two and pretending to eat them. “While they started to pretend to eat the `meat' the other Japanese captives who survived would flee for their lives.This was intentional so that they would spread the news that they were fighting against the cannibals who particularly enjoyed eating Japanese flesh,“ Kihwelo says, adding that it was an “inhuman trick“ that none of the European officers knew about. However, it was the Japanese who were accused of cannibalism in the later stages of the war, and even tried for it.

The Second World War brought together distinct, often irreconciliable cultures. African troops fought shoulder to shoulder with Indians, British, Australians, Chinese and Americans. Thousands were killed or wounded. The dead are commemorated in various war cemeteries in India, Burma and elsewhere.At the Imphal War Cemetery maintained by Commonwealth War Graves Commission, 45 black Africans are commemorated. But unlike other Allied soldiers, there are no details of these soldiers in the casualty list. Even the details of Indian labourers are mentioned, but not of black troops. Why?

“Firstly, the British Army did not keep detailed records for many of the African servicemen that enlisted in their forces and, therefore, there was very little for us to add to our records when details of casualties were passed to us,“ says Peter Francis of CWGC. “The second reason is that much of the additional information in our records was supplied by families after the war. As part of that process, the CWGC wrote to families but this approach didn't work for many African families -particularly those that had oral traditions rather than written.“

Many historians and war veterans say this reflects how the black African contribution has been completely airbrushed in western records of WWII.

But many African veterans of the war have shared fond memories of India and Indians on various platforms. “Indians are wonderful people of a wonderful country. Their women particularly are very beautiful with long, flowing hair down to the waist,“ a veteran recalls in a documentary . Another says Indians, Africans and African-Americans were like brothers. Africans were particularly inspired by India's freedom movement that was under way at that time. One soldier recalled meeting Gandhi in Madras. He saluted Gandhi like a soldier and asked him what India would do for Africa. To that, Gandhi apparently replied that India would give Africans moral support provided they fought the British non-violently .

[edit] Rulers

Adrija Roychowdhury, May 27, 2016: The Indian Express

Jahangir Shooting Malik Ambar through the head, painting by Abul Hasan; Circa. 1616
From: Adrija Roychowdhury, May 27, 2016: The Indian Express

The elite status of the African slaves in India ensured that a number of them had access to political authority and secrets which they could make use of to become rulers in their own right, reigning over parts of India.

“When your family has been ruling for hundreds of years, people still call you by the title of Nawab,” says Nawab Reza Khan, tenth Nawab of Sachin as he traces his family’s regal history. Reza Khan currently works as a lawyer and lives in the city of Sachin in Gujarat. He says his ancestors came from Abyssinia (present day Ethiopia in East Africa) as part of the forces of Babur. Eventually, they conquered the fort at Janjira and later occupied Sachin and ruled over their own kingdoms.

The Nawab of Sachin is a personified remnant of a glorious African past in India. Africans have, for centuries been a part of Indian society. While the slave trade from Africa to America and Europe is well documented, the eastward movement of African slaves to India has been left unexplored.

The systematic transportation of African slaves to India started with the Arabs and Ottomans and later by the Portuguese and the Dutch in the sixteenth -seventeenth centuries. Concrete evidence of African slavery is available from the twelfth-thrirteenth centuries, when a significant portion of the Indian subcontinent was being ruled by Muslims.

There is, however, a major difference between African slavery in America and Europe and that in India. There was far greater social mobility for Africans in India. In India, they rose along the social ladder to become nobles, rulers or merchants in their own capacities. “In Europe and America, Africans were brought in as slaves for plantation and industry labour. In India on the other hand, African slaves were brought in to serve as military power,” says Dr Suresh Kumar, Professor of African studies in Delhi University.

These were elite military slaves, who served purely political tasks for their owners. They were expensive slaves, valued for their physical strength. The elite status of the African slaves in India ensured that a number of them had access to political authority and secrets which they could make use of to become rulers in their own right, reigning over parts of India. They came to be known by the name of Siddis or Habshis (Ethiopians or Abyssinians). The term ‘Siddi’ is derived from North Africa, where it was used as a term of respect.

The Nawab of Sachin and Janjira

The political power acquired by Africans in the Deccan, in particular in Janjira and Sachin, is best demonstrated in a painting by Abul Hasan, that depicts Emperor Jahangir taking aim at the head of the African slave Malik Ambar. The political career of Malik Ambar can be traced back to a time when he was known as ‘Chapu’. He was initially bought as a slave in Ethiopia by an Arab merchant. Later, after being resold a number of times, he somehow landed in the court of Ahmadnagar as one among the hundreds of Habshi military slaves there.

By the mid-sixteenth century, the Mughals had increased their appetite for the South and were aggressively trying to encroach upon the Nizam Shahi dynasty that ruled much of Deccan. In 1600 AD, the Ahmadnagar fort finally fell into the hands of the Mughals. However, the presence of the Mughals in the Deccan was still limited and Ahmadnagar’s surrounding countryside still lay with the troops deployed by the Nizam Shahi state of which Malik Ambar was a part.

It was during this period that the African slave grew to be a political game changer. Commanding a troop of 3000 cavalrymen, he proved to be a major obstacle to the Mughals’ appetite for the Deccan. The painting by Abul Hasan is testimony to what a nuisance the Ethiopian soldier had become to the Mughals.

Malik Ambar constructed a fort at Janzira, located in the Konkan coast, by the end of the sixteenth century. It still stands intact, currently under protection of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). At Janjira, the Africans developed their own kingdom (with their own cavalry, coat of arms and currency) which the Mughals and Marathas failed to occupy despite repeated attacks. Later, the African rulers of Janjira went on to occupy another fort at Sachin in modern day Gujarat. The present Nawab of Sachin, Reza Khan says “the title of Nawab was given to our ancestors by Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, since they had not allowed his competitor Shiva ji to occupy the Janjira fort.”

The Habshi Sultans of Bengal

A large number of royal coins found in Bengal tells the story of a time when the region was ruled by Africans who had been originally brought as slaves. Much of Bengal, in the thirteenth century was being ruled by the Muslim Sultans of Delhi. The Bengal Sultanate was established by Shams al-Din Ilyas Shah in 1352. Historian Stan Gordon has recorded that during this period a large number of Abyssinian (inhabitants of Ethiopia in East Africa) slaves had been recruited in the army of the Bengal Sultans. They did not just work in the army, but also rose to get involved in major administrative tasks such as act as court magistrates, collecting tolls and taxes and involved in services of law enforcement.

Eventually, the Abyssinians in the army managed to seize power from the Sultans under the leadership of Barbak Shahzada, and conquered the throne of the Bengal Sultanate. Barbak Shahzada laid the foundation stone of the Habshi dynasty in Bengal in 1487, and became its first ruler under the name of Ghiyath-al-Din Firuz Shah.

Ghiyath-al-Din was followed by three other Abyssinian rulers. His successor, Saif al-Din Firuz is considered the best of the Habshi rulers. “He is said to have been a brave and just king, benevolent to the poor and needy, and a patron of art and architecture,” says Stan Gordon. Firuz is believed to have patronised the building of a number of religious and secular structures. Most well known among these is the Firuz Minar at Gaur which still stands tall, in a good state of preservation. The Firuz Minar is often compared to the Qutub Minar in Delhi, both in appearance and also in its significance of a victory tower.

The Habshi rule of Bengal was very brief and came to an end in 1493 AD, when Sayyid Husain Sharif Makki seized the throne and founded the Husaini dynasty.

Sidi Masood of Adoni

Adoni is situated in Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh. In the fifteenth century it was part of the Vijayanagar empire. With the decline of the Vijayanagar empire, the city came in the hands of the Bijapur Sultanate. As part of the Bijapur Sultanate, Adoni got one of its most important governors by the name of Siddi Masood Khan. Masood was a wealthy merchant from Abyssinia.

Siddi Masood was the vizier of Bijapur and was virtually the ruler of Adoni. He improved upon the Adoni fort and also built the Shahi Jamia Masjid. Apart from architectural constructions, he is known to have patronised a sizeable number of paintings under his reign. It is possible that he also founded the school of painting at Adoni, which is a variant of the Bijapuri style.

The Abyssinian ruler’s reign at Adoni came to an end when Aurangzeb captured Bijapur in 1686. Records suggest that a dramatic fight took place on the banks of the mosque built by Siddi Masood, following which he surrendered since the mosque was very dear to him. Aurangzeb appointed Ghazi ud-din Khan as governor of Adoni, replacing Siddi Masood.

Apart from the above rulers, historians are still trying to recover more about African elites in the past. It is possible that the first ruler of the Sharqui dynasty in Jaunpur in the fourteenth century was an Abyssinian. African rulership was perhaps also a part of Sind’s history. However, not enough documentary evidence has been unearthed to make these claims.

Presence of Siddis in Contemporary India

Today, approximately 20,000 to 50,000 Siddis are residing in India and Pakistan, with the majority concentrated in Karnataka, Gujarat, Hyderabad, Makaran and Karachi. In contrast to their part of royal privileges, most of them live in conditions of abject poverty.

Anthropologist Kiran Kamal has been working on the Siddi presence in India for the past couple of decades. He lived amongst a group of them in Mundgod Taluk (Karnataka) for a year. “They live in dense forest areas, literally cut off from everyone.” says Kamal. He observed the way Siddis interacted with people in a market place and says that “they would always maintain a distance. There is a strong fear of Non-African Indians. Indians also have a very disrespectful attitude towards them, despite using them for all the hard labour.”

Poverty, lack of access to education and racism are some of the reasons why the Siddis live in solitude today. “They did not even know they originated from Africa,” says Kamal. On being asked about how an awareness of their history might help them, Kiran Kamal says that, “it does help in spurring a motivation from within. But substantially it does not have much value. What is mainly required is that all the Siddis come up socioeconomically and are well integrated into the larger society.”

Dr. Kenneth Robbins, author of “African elites in India”, is of the opinion that it is necessary to shed light on the ruling status of Africans in India. “The purpose is to see India in a different light, to understand social mobility in India. It is important for Indians to take note of the place that Africans had at one point secured in the country.”

“A major difference in the history of African presence in the rest of the world and that in India is that racial discrimination was not a feature. Nowhere else in the world had they ruled. However, I do not know why, this part of their history has been ignored,” says Dr. Suresh Kumar. He goes on to explain that the elite history of Africans in India is particularly significant in today’s times considering that instances of racial prejudices keep occurring in various parts of the country.

[edit] Army

[edit] Second World War

Manimugdha S Sharma, When black soldiers fought side by side with Indians, April 2, 2017: The Times of India

HIGHLIGHTS

The core of the 14th Army was Indian with troops from the subcontinent constituting 60-65% of the force.

Only 13% of this army was ethnic British.

But of the rest, 90,000 were black African troops.

"La la la it's hard working for you, captain" goes a song. No, it's not a Congress worker singing to say how difficult it was to run a successful campaign for Captain Amarinder Singh; it's an African unit trying to keep up morale in the treacherous jungles of Burma in the Second World War.

Long before vigilante mobs went on a rampage in Greater Noida, Indians and Africans were fighting the war on the same side. Military historians say a unique and potent weapon in the form of the 14th Army was forged in India by unifying the fighting potential of different races and cultures.

The core of the 14th Army was Indian with troops from the subcontinent constituting 60-65% of the force. Only 13% of this army was ethnic British. But of the rest, 90,000 (some historians say up to 1,20,000) were black African troops. In the summer of 1943, troop carriers brought these Africans to India and Ceylon from Chad, Gold Coast, Gambia, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, South Africa and Nigeria. Of the 90,000 men coming from the Dark Continent to defend the Indian Empire from the Empire of Japan, over 50% were Nigerians.

Seventy years hence, the country that these men defended is seeing uninhibited displays of racism. Greater Noida is the latest example, where mobs have attacked black Africans, calling them 'habshi', drug peddlers, even cannibals. Soldiers of the Japanese empire — one of the most racist regimes in history — also thought Africans were cannibals.

A war veteran named Estos Hamiss was quoted by David Killingray and Martin Plaut in their book, Fighting For Britain: African Soldiers in the Second World War: "The Japanese were very much afraid of East African Division (black people). The Japanese do claim that the African eat human flesh. When the EA soldiers killed an enemy (Japanese), they set fire and roast him." The same book also quotes one Musa Kihwelo who had served in Burma with King's African Rifles (a highly decorated regiment in which former US president Barack Obama's grandfather, Hussein Onyango Obama, also served as a cook in Burma) about how men of the 6th battalion terrified captured Japanese soldiers by killing one or two and pretending to eat them. "While they started to pretend to eat the 'meat' the other Japanese captives who survived would flee for their lives. This was intentional so that they would spread the news that they were fighting against the cannibals who particularly enjoyed eating Japanese flesh," Kihwelo says, adding that it was an "inhuman trick" that none of the European officers knew about. However, it was the Japanese who were accused of cannibalism in the later stages of the war, and even tried for it.

The Second World War brought together distinct, often irreconciliable cultures. African troops fought shoulder to shoulder with Indians, British, Australians, Chinese and Americans. Thousands were killed or wounded. The dead are commemorated in various war cemeteries in India, Burma and elsewhere. At the Imphal War Cemetery maintained by Commonwealth War Graves Commission, 45 black Africans are commemorated. But unlike other Allied soldiers, there are no details of these soldiers in the casualty list. Even the details of Indian labourers are mentioned, but not of black troops. Why?

"Firstly, the British Army did not keep detailed records for many of the African servicemen that enlisted in their forces and, therefore, there was very little for us to add to our records when details of casualties were passed to us," says Peter Francis of CWGC. "The second reason is that much of the additional information in our records was supplied by families after the war. As part of that process, the CWGC wrote to families but this approach didn't work for many African families — particularly those that had oral traditions rather than written." Many historians and war veterans say this reflects how the black African contribution has been completely airbrushed in western records of WWII. But many African veterans of the war have shared fond memories of India and Indians on various platforms. "Indians are wonderful people of a wonderful country. Their women particularly are very beautiful with long, flowing hair down to the waist," a veteran recalls in a documentary. Another says Indians, Africans and African-Americans were like brothers.

Africans were particularly inspired by India's freedom movement that was under way at that time. One soldier recalled meeting Gandhi in Madras. He saluted Gandhi like a soldier and asked him what India would do for Africa. To that, Gandhi apparently replied that India would give Africans moral support provided they fought the British non-violently.

[edit] Economic relations

[edit] 2018: India pledges $400m to Rwanda, Uganda

India pledges $400m aid to Rwanda, Uganda, July 25, 2018: The Times of India

India has extended over $400 million lines of credit (LOC) for Rwanda and Uganda during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the two countries on his way to South Africa for the upcoming Brics summit. Significantly, India also signed agreements for cooperation in the defence sector with the two east African nations.

After the $200 million LOC for Rwanda, India on Tuesday extended two lines of credit worth nearly $200 million to Uganda in energy infrastructure, agriculture and dairy sectors as the PM held wide-ranging talks with President Yoweri Museveni and discussed ways to strengthen the bilateral ties.

Modi, who arrived in Kampala on a two-day visit to Uganda — the first bilateral tour by an Indian PM since 1997, held one-on-one meeting with President Museveni followed by a delegationlevel talks to review all aspects of bilateral relations.

[edit] Trade

[edit] Africa’s trade and China and India

The Times of India, Nov 03 2015

The top ten African economies’ trade with China and India, 2014; Graphic courtesy: The Times of India, November 3, 2015

With its young population and resources, Africa is poised to play an important economic role in future and hence its markets and resources are being eyed by major countries including China and India. When compared to China, India has a long way to go in its trade with the continent.In 2014, China's total trade in goods with the continent was $222 billion, about three times the figure for India. South Africa, Angola, Nigeria and Egypt (not necessarily in that order) are the largest trading partners for both India and China and constitute more than half of both countries trade with the continent

[edit] YEAR-WISE DEVELOPMENTS

[edit] 2020: India 5th largest investor in Africa

February 13, 2020: The Times of India

India is opening 18 new embassies in Africa, to take the total number of Indian missions to 47 out of a total of 54 countries in Africa, foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said on Wednesday. Nine of the 18 new missions have already opened. In terms of India’s development cooperation, over two-thirds of its LOCs (lines of credit) in the past decade have been offered to African nations.

“Currently 189 projects in 42 African countries, valued at US$ 11.4 billion, are being implemented under Indian LoCs. These projects range from drinking water schemes to irrigation, solar electrification, power plants, transmission lines, cement plants, technology parks, and railway infrastructure,” said Shringla, addressing a conference titled Understanding Africa: Continuity and Change.

The picture on trade and investment is encouraging, he said. “India-Africa trade in the previous year was valued at $69 billion, a 12% annual increase. The Duty Free Tariff Preference (DFTP) Scheme announced by India has benefited African nations by extending duty free access to 98.2% of India’s total tariff lines. Thirty-eight African nations benefit from the DFTP Scheme. India has become the fifth largest investor in Africa with cumulative investments of $54 billion. Indian investment has created thousands of jobs for local citizens,” he said.

[edit] See also

Petroleum, diesel, natural gas, India: I

Petroleum, diesel, natural gas, India, II (ministry data)