Religion and Empire: Belief and Identity among African Indians of Karnataka, South India

Abstract

The article examines the identity formation and religious, cultural, and political contributions of African Indians (Habshis/Siddis) in the Indian subcontinent. It begins by providing a historical background of the shifting roles and alliances African Indians have forged as political and military players from the 14th century to the present. The article focuses on the fourteen thousant present-day African Indians in Karnataka, South India, and explores their social location, religions and cultural contributions. African Indians' changing status, identity, and contributions are mediated throught their political action within the framework of their historic displacement from Africa, and experience they share with other diasporic Africans on a global level. The article further addresses how today's Karnataka African Indians living in Yellapur, Hubli, and Mundgod subdistricts (taluks), though no longer key players in the political, cultural, and religious scene, do marshal both African and Indian resources to foster and articulate their own agency.