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      "body": "I returned from Lisbon in December 2017 after completing my MSc in International Studies with the honours of best Masters Dissertation. My dissertation was titled \"Ambiguous Citizenship: The Siddis of Uttara Kannada\".\n\n\n\nUpon returning, I took some time out to consider my options in Goa. I soon took up a teaching job at Instituto Camões-Centro de Língua Portuguesa, Goa, which was my first experience of teaching Portuguese to a group. Almost immediately I began giving Portuguese language tuitions (from home) to school students.  These two activities kept me busy as well as afforded me ample free time to pursue my hobbies, during my process of resettling in Goa.\n\n\n\nIn March, 2018, I came across a Bangalore based NGO, Bridges of Sports (BoS). I learned from their webpage and blog that the objective of the NGO was to train backward communities in India (like adivasis, Gawlis, Siddis etc) in sports as a form of empowering these communities. I immediately liked the idea of this project as it was similar to the SAI Special Area Games project which aimed at training Siddis (African-Indians) in athletics, to eventually produce athletes that would represent India at International meets. Unfortunately, the SAI project was short-lived. The BoS project seemed like a fresh attempt, not just with the Siddis but with other backward communities in India. I thought to myself, I've just completed a dissertation on the Siddis of Uttara Kannada, where I conducted a successful field research. Incidentally, this had been the first field research that I conducted and I had gained sufficient confidence from this initial forage into field research. So why not go back into the field and develop on my initial study? Also, this was one way to keep working with the Siddis.\n\n\n\nI subsequently wrote to the NGO, introducing myself and offering my services of collaboration, should they require it. Their response was prompt and they were very enthusiastic in securing my collaboration. I soon had a meeting with Mr Nitish Chiniwar, the founder of BoS, a strongly driven individual, who upon first meeting proved to be very resourceful. Soon, more calls with Nitish and Sourav Mukherji, Dean of IIM Bangalore, that was supporting the project, had me convinced that I could contribute in some way. We decided to get this project underway.\n\n\n\nOn the 9th of June, I boarded I bus from Panaji and headed to Haliyal,, back to Siddi territory.",
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      "body": "Mark! so glad to see you made it here and sorry i missed this amazing post earlier! i love reading about what you are doing - its so inspiring! \n\nkeep coming to steemit and participating and posting - the rewards will come :) also a great tip is to make an introduction post so people here can connect with you and get to know you and what youll post about! here's a link to read on the best way to do it: \n\nhttps://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@hopehuggs/how-to-write-an-epic-introduce-yourself-post\n\nmake a good intro post and it can reel in the best awards and really jumpstart you in the community. hope to see more of your posts here!:)",
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      "title": "Education: The way forward for the Siddis of Uttara Kannada, India",
      "body": "In my previous blog post on the Siddis, I introduced the community of  the Siddis of Uttara Kannada and described the community, its origin, history, language and settlements. In this post, which is part of the series on the Siddis, I speak about education for the Siddis and how this is an important tool for emancipation of the community.\n\nThe  educational system of the state of Karnataka consists of the following sectors:  pre-primary education (balwadi), primary education, secondary education, pre-university, college education, medical education, technical education, legal education, teachers' training and graduate teachers' training (Obeng 2008:44).\n\nAccording to the  2011 Census, there are 232 villages in Uttara Kannada that do not have primary schools withing the village, but these are available within the radius of 10km, and 615 villages do not have a middle school.\n\nIn an extensive and in-depth study on the Siddis of Uttara Kannada, Pashington Obeng concedes:\n\n\"Most of the African Indian villages (perhaps 60 percent or more) do not have lower primary schools in their locality. Lack of transport facilities and bad roads to the villages have added hurdles to their access to education\".\n\nEducation is the means by which the Siddis can overcome the obstacles they face in society ad improve their economic livelihoods. This opinion is held by many Siddis, both literate and illiterate. The younger, literate and educated Siddis were convinced that it was the way forward for the Siddi community as is evident from the below statements:\n\n\"Education for Siddis is more important than monetary benefits and it is only through education that Siddis can progress as a community and be more independent\". (Ramita Prakash Christian, Siddi, Gadgera School Teacher, personal communication, January 2017)\n\n\"The problem that Siddis are facing is the lack of education. Until very recently, there were very few educated Siddis and hence there were none with the necessary qualifications to engage in jobs other than farming or menial jobs.\" (Premnath Androj Christian, Siddi, Gadgera School Caretaker, personal communication, January 2017)\n\nThe Gadgera School for Siddis\n\nThe Gadgera School, built in 2006, was the brainchild of Bosco Kaweesi, a Ugandan scholar, residing in Haliyal for the past twenty years. The school was taken over by the organisation Springs of Hope, operating from Austria and Norway, which is basically a Seventh Day Adventist organisation. I was told that there were some Siddi youth who went to study at Spicer Memorial School in Pune, a Seventh Day Adventist School.\n\nAlthough the school admits a small quota of non-Siddis, priority is given to Siddi students. The students can study up till the 4th grade, after which they continue in public and private schools. Plans are underway to extend studies at the Gadgera School till the 5th grade.\n\nThe school is located away from the Gadgera Siddi village in a clearing and is about 500 metres away from the main road. The access is a bumpy mud road through the forest. It has two buildings: the school building and the cafetaria. Students reside at the school itself. The Siddi students come from across villages across talukas in Uttara Kannada; Haliyal, Mundgod and Yellapur. They only go home for the holidays or for special family functions, occasions on which parents come to pick up their children.\n\nThe teachers are both Siddis and non-Siddis. the caretaker of the school is a Siddi, Premnath Androj Christian, who incidentally belongs to the Seventh Day Adventist Church. Two female Siddi teachers that I interviewed at the school also belong to the Seventh Day Adventist Church, although they were formerly Roman Catholic.\n\nIt is not surprising that the Gadgera school is a resident one, where students stay for an entire duration of the term. If it hadn't been that way, it would have been a long arduous task for students to walk to the school every day. Such are the obstacles that the Siddis face in access to education.\n\nThe Siddi teachers, Ramita Prakash Christian and Jacinta Naik, as well as the caretaker Premnath were from different Siddi villages in Uttara Kannada and none of them were from Gadgera. This serves as an indicator for the reach of the Siddi Gadgera school in attracting students and teachers from across talukas despite its isolated location and difficult access.\n\nSiddis from various villages came to Gadgera to help in building the foundation of the school during the initial phase when Bosco Kaweesi was in charge. However, due to interference from other organisations, Bosco was side-lined in the project and eventually quit the committee. According to him, the school was destined for great things and he intended it to be a grand project. Now however, I could see a certain disenchantment on his face when we visited the school. Students were sitting on the floor and studying, no different to other backward schools and this was not what Bosco had planned.\n\nEducational patterns\n\nAt the village level, the government and religious organizations run most of the schools that go up only to the fifth and seventh standard, while the headquarters of the talukas house the schools that go up to the twelfth standard. Therefore, the majority of the people in the rural areas have limited levels of  education (Obeng 2008:45). In addition, the quality of educational facilities and teaching that the African children in these villages receive, cannot be compared to what other children receive, as former live in economically and socially depressed areas. In Bailandur for instance, school closes down during the ploughing and planting seasons (Obeng, 2008:45).\n\nA rotation system for seating was introduced in government schools in Uttara Kannada wherein  each student eventually gets a chance to sit in the front desks. However, as Bosco Kaweesi narrated to me, the Siddis are made to sit at the back at all times. In addition, absenteeism from Siddi students goes unnoticed and they receive the least of the teachers' attention. This lack of attention from teachers contributes to the lack of motivation and high drop-out rates of Siddi students. Pashington Obeng speaks of the high dropout rate and adds that \"while parents need motivation to send their children to schools, the children too need support from the teachers in the process of making education an attractive activity\" (Obeng, 1984:44).\n\nSuch is the desire to educate their children, that most Siddi adults, though themselves not educated, choose to send their children to school. Yet, they worry about the distance to the schools and the high cost of fees. In addition to the lack of transport facilities and bad roads in the villages, which have only added hurdles to education, the parents have difficulty helping children with problems in schoolwork (Obeng 1984:44).\n\nIn a survey conducted by the Siddi Jana Vikas Sangh, a society with members of a Siddi Community, registered under the Karnataka Societies Registration Act since December 2010, it is stated that :\n\n\"of the 58 youth identified in the survey expressed that they are still interested in continuing studies if opportunities are provided. It is disheartening to note that these youth, after completion of their education, remain in their villages and work as coolies in agriculture fields, construction workers, forest nursery and bamboo cutting, loading and unloading, processing of areca nut, road formation under contractors and in case they do not have any work they go to the forest to collect forest produce. Because of the non-availability of jobs, the parents are discouraging their children from pursuing education\".\n\nSiddis and English\n\nThere is a positive trend however among the Siddi youth that have received some education. Most of the Siddi children who go to school or have received some education are able to speak English fairly well. In fact, this made my task of conducting interviews with young Siddis much easier. During a visit to Yellapur with Bosco Kaweesi, while we were at the Yellapur Bus Depot, a few youngsters going to school who recognized Bosco, came up to him to wish him and speak to him. Their conversation was in English.\n\nIt is interesting that a few years ago,a survey conducted by Siddi Jana Vikas Sangh found that the Siddis were very weak in English themes and many students failed in English. The society intervened and organized a spoken English class with the help of the Holy Cross Church, Mainalli. The finding of this survey is in stark contrast to what I observed when I visited the Siddi villages in 2016 and early 2017. This suggests a marked improvement in the performance of the Siddis in English. All Siddi youth that I interviewed spoke English. The elders didn't speak any English, therefore suggesting that education has had a positive impact on the Siddis.\n\nThis trend of learning English and being able to speak it fairly well is a powerful tool for the Siddis in their struggle for fitting into the mainstream society and achieving success. Knowledge of English will go a along way in helping Siddis get jobs in a wide variety of industries and will make their mobility easier. The tourism industry will become accessible to the Siddis in the bigger cities and might give them a distinct advantage over their non-English speaking non-Siddi counterparts.\n\nI would conclude by saying that education is the tool that is required to help Siddis rise from their obscurity. However, this alone will not help the Siddis. The larger non-Siddi society also requires to be educated about the history and diversity of the country and taught to practice proper citizenship as proper citizenship shuns stereotyping and abuse of rights and promotes a more inclusive community and helps progress as a whole.\n![IMG-20170625-WA0003.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmfGtrjPbbQC8esZDpDRRjDLxUpQ7XNqXMxqFrdZXUbkKC/IMG-20170625-WA0003.jpg)",
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      "title": "Who are the Siddis?",
      "body": "I recently completed my Msc in International Studies from ISCTE-IUL in Lisbon, with a Masters thesis titled \"Ambiguous Citizenship: The Siddis of Uttara Kannada, India\". I wasn't expecting the Portuguese youth and academics to know anything about this community in focus, however, I was rather surprised that on coming back to India, that most people I spoke to were completely unaware of the existence of this community in India. On mentioning the topic of my dissertation I often was met with the response \"Siddis? Who are they?\" \"You wrote a thesis on who?\"  I proceeded to explain who the Siddis were and what I was actually talking about.\n\n\n\nThe Siddis are a people of African descent settled in India for nearly five centuries. The Siddis or African-Indians as they are also referred to, that live in Uttara Kannada, were brought as slaves by the Portuguese in the 16th century. Most were brought from Moçambique and Sofala in Eastern Africa.\n\n\n\nDuring the course of my research, I traveled to Uttara Kannada and visited three talukas with a substantial Siddi population: Haliyal, Mundgod and Yellapur. While I was able to get a reasonable perception of the three talukas, I could focus much of my fieldwork in Haliyal, where I could interact with Siddis in various villages scattered in remote parts of this region. On my first visit to Uttara Kannada in December 2016, I was able to briefly visit the villages of Wada, Ghardoli, Gadgera, Hosur, Bopin Kopp, Dodkop, Mavinkop, Dandeli, Kerwad, Nagashetikop and Tatigeri in the Haliyal district, Mainalli, Kegdal, Bilki and Gunjavatti among others in the Mundgod and Yellapur districts. Most of the villages, with the exception of a few, were located in isolated forested areas. These villages were accessible only by mud paths that cut off from the main road and were often a fair distance into the jungle. The villages were scattered all over and only a few were in close proximity to each other.\n\n\n\nThe African slaves brought to India go by various names. the most common of them is Siddi, taken to to be a corruption of Syed (Prasad 1984, supra note 15). They are also called Habshis. The term habshis is derived from the Arabic El-Habish, suggesting that the Siddis or the Habshis were brought from Abyssinia (present-day Ethiopia). However, one is led to believe that the Habshis from this part of Africa were not the same Africans that are found in Uttara Kannada. In fact, the Siddis with whom I have carried  out my research are believed to have been brought to Goa, Daman and Diu by the Portuguese. In Goa, they were also called mulattos or Kaphris, a Portuguese term denoting the descendants of Negroes and non-Negroes (Prasad 1984, supra note 30).\n\n\n\nThe slave trade carried on by the European natives in coastal India was a fraction compared to the slave trade they carried on between the West Coast of Africa and their colonies in the West Indies and the Americas. The reason was that in India, the slaves were mainly required for domestic work whereas in the American and West Indian colonies, they were required to supply labour for the plantations (Prasad 1984:76).\n\n\n\nA number of the Siddis that I met in Haliyal, had names of Portuguese origin like Caitan (Caetano), Santan (Santana), Juje (José), Agnel (Agnelo), Rosa, Minguel (Miguel). It was common practice for the Portuguese slave traders to baptise the slaves before they boarded the ships to be carried to India. These names are common in Goa, although spelled a bit differently, suggesting the Goan connection to the Siddis of Uttara Kannada.\n\n\n\nSlavery was eventually abolished throughout the Portuguese Empire on 25th February 1869 (Prasad, 1984, supra note 72, p 83). The slaves that were freed after the abolition of slavery must have either continued in Goa or sought shelter in the forested regions of Uttara Kannada where they now form a fairly large community. There is a community of Siddis that live in Goa till today, some of whom I have met personally. Many Siddis from Uttara Kannada still seek work in Goa, where they work as domestic labour or in construction. On the bus back to Goa from Haliyal, I noticed a number of  Siddi youth also travelling to Goa.\n\n\n\nThe original language of the Siddis is said to be Swahili or another language spoken on the eastern coast of Africa. But nowadays, they speak exclusively local languages.\n\n\n\nThe Siddis of Haliyal speak a mixture of Konkani and Marathi, with a few Kannada and Urdu words thrown in. However, they refer to this language as Konkani. All Siddi settlements, irrespective of taluka, use the same language to communicate and  understand each other perfectly.\n\n\n\nThe Christian and the Hindu Siddis speak the same version or dialect of Konkani. Most of the Muslim Siddis speak Urdu (Prasad 1984:15). The Konkani spoken by the Siddis, as pointed out by Kiran Kamal Prasad is different from the Konkani of other local Christians of Mundgod, Haliyal and Yellapur. The main language spoken by the mainstream society in Uttara Kannada is Kannada. Why then do the Siddis speak Konkani and this variant of the language?\n\n\n\nKonkani is the language of Goa and therefore this points firmly in the direction that the Siddis of Karnataka were original inhabitants of Goa under Portuguese rule, as slaves. Their eventual migration to Uttara Kannada brought with it, several local influences into the Konkani spoken  in Goa, leading to the contemporary variant spoken in Uttara Kannada.\n\n\n\nThe Hindu and Christian Siddis speak the same variant of Konkani, which suggests that both groups were together in the past or must have had a common past (Prasad, 1984:16). The Hindu Siddis may have been Christian at one point in time and later converted to Hinduism under the Havyak Brahmins for whom they worked. the Muslim Siddis are assumed to have picked up the Urdu language from their co-religionists (idem:17). Besides Konkani, all Siddis, especially the men folk, are very familiar with Kannada, the regional language (idem 1984:18)\n\n\n\nDuring the time I was in Uttara Kannada, I was able to visit several Siddi settlements in the three talukas of Haliyal, Mundgod and Yellapur..\n\n\n\nThe Siddis settlements were all similar in nature. The settlements were often deep in the jungle and were made up of houses on either side of a newly constructed concrete road, in an isolated area.The houses were of concrete, with tiled roofs and faced the road. There were about 10-15 houses in each settlement. Most of the settlements that I visited were Siddi Christian. Each house had a crucifix constructed into the front wall,  and hence it was clear to the visitor that this was a Christian household. Inside there were often other holy pictures of the sacred heart and the virgin Mary. Some of the houses were recently renovated inside and were very modern looking, even though they were rather small. Other houses were of a simpler nature.\n\n\n\nThe Siddis of Uttara Kannada are an endogamous community. This is largely how the community has survived the centuries and maintained their physical features. In fact, a Siddi is clearly discernible from a non-Siddi by his physical features- although I am not taking all phenotypical criteria to distinguish them from other social groups. However, it is interesting to observe that their dress code follows the Indian one at large. They speak the local languages and follow the local religions. Therefore, we may note a nexus of identities with regard to the Siddis of Uttara Kannada.\n\n\n\nThe Siddis of Uttara Kannada have been living in obscurity and poverty and much needs to be done for their upliftment. Education is a powerful tool, one that needs to be made available to the Siddis so that they can emerge from their difficult predicament. Thankfully, in recent years, this has been recognized by local authorities and NGOs, many who have come forward to assist the Siddis.\n\n\n\nThe existence of the Siddi community in India is testament to the rich historical, ethnic and cultural diversity of India. Hopefully, more Indians realize this and take pride in this rich diversity and shun unwanted attitudes like racism and stereotyping, which the Siddis have had to face for a couple of centuries at least.\n\n\n\n\n\n![siddi_2.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmZNyoSDVvFgU5obh8unPJJNEp3sDZAniHiF5Uq2jByoVE/siddi_2.jpg)",
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      "title": "The Uncomfortable Questions",
      "body": "Posing uncomfortable questions using social media is never easy. Many a time while doing so, I have noticed that I am often misunderstood as being confrontational and sweeping judgments are made on what my views on a certain subjects are. Many times the reactions are aggressive in nature and there exists an underlying tone of contempt. This I’m sure is true, not just in my case, but in others’ as well. In my defense, in posing these questions, I try to ascertain public opinion and then try to analyse further what gives rise to such an opinion. The aim may not always be to take certain sides but rather to better understand public opinion. Often the questions would be rhetoric and is meant to provoke a response much like a moderator in a debate competition. This involves the risk of being classified as a non-conformist to public opinion or a rebel. However, this is far from the reality. Yes, I do at times, hold a strong opinion on a subject and refuse to waver on it. However, this is only if I am completely convinced and can answer the “uncomfortable questions” not just with emotion but with logic and reason more importantly. That being said, no matter how convinced I am about my opinion, I am still open to hearing other’s opinions with an open mind before jumping to label that person as rebel, as we need to accept that not everything can be put in black and white. I may have been guilty of that in the past but I am more conscious of it now. Very often it is a grey area.\n\n\n\nWhat I wish to say is that it is possible for one to ask questions without bias, evoking and provoking a response in defense of a certain view. Playing devil’s advocate is an excellent way to ascertain how well founded people’s opinions are and help in finding certain answers. I recall once, in trying to analyse a very radical view of a certain public figure (since it was in the news and all over social media), evoking angry responses as well as sympathetic ones. I was accused of using a wrong and stupid starting point to try and understand a subject. I, of course did not mind it, as understanding of a subject needn’t always have the most obvious starting point. And that’s the beauty of being able to ascertain for yourself how you choose to approach a subject. Modern thinking involves completely unconventional approaches.\n\n\n\n\nTo elaborate on what I have written above, I would like to take the current refugee crisis in Europe as an example. It is clear that there exists two different camps; the “pro-immigrant” and the “anti-immigrant”. I have been spending considerable time in understanding more about this subject and as I have suggested above, in ascertaining public opinion and what leads to its formation. In doing so, I have encountered extreme animosity between the two camps, often leading to name calling and sweeping judgements being made. An example of this is the “pro-immigrant” camp labelling the “anti-immigrant” camp as racists and inhuman.\n\n\n\n\nRacism is a very strong word and I would think a million times before deciding to use it. Every community, society and country is guilty of some form of racial discrimination and while “racism” exists in very strong and obvious forms in certain parts of the world, it is exhibited in much lesser forms but in no less obvious and patronising ways in other parts. Hence I would be largely reluctant to quickly dismiss someone as racist. However, let us accept that it exists.\n\n\n\nSo getting back to the example- I think it is very fallacious to immediately label the “anti-immigrant” camp as being racist even though there may be some unapologetic racists within. It is not racism but a “fear”, the fear of being overrun and inundated with immigrants from another land and the risks that it involves, in all aspects; social, economic, cultural and security. These fears are founded on past occurrences that have influenced them to think this way and hence they make a sweeping judgement labeling the immigrants as a threat to the host population and Europe. While this is not true in my humble opinion (and you need not agree with me) and that it is a gross over-reaction I would still respect their opinion and welcome it to the discussion table. The best way to combat this “xenophobia” would be not with shouting expletives or name calling but rather with providing accurate information that would help quell their fears. The insecurity comes with the lack of the understanding of the subject, the history, the reality and the statistics to back it. If they are still not convinced, so be it. It is but human nature to look out for oneself and fears can take decades to wash away. In a debate, there are always two sides just like in the parliament there is always an opposition.\n\n \n\nAs we can see above, there can be an approach where you consider both sides without being militant. There are those who are still looking for certain answers they haven’t yet got, who wish to research more on the subject before jumping to conclusions or simply persons who respect that there will be opposing opinions and ask the uncomfortable questions to both sides or maybe even still those who play their part through their deeds, based on their best judgement, rather than only be involved in the debate, until they have formed an opinion. For me, these are the persons who suffer the most as they are looked upon with contempt and accused of fence sitting by the two warring sides each believing that there can exist no other opinion other than their own. In the defense of these people, it is important this group exists, asking the uncomfortable questions and being open minded in accepting that there can be various solutions and approaches to a single problem. And unless they can answer these uncomfortable questions themselves, they “may” refuse to take certain sides.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n(I am absolutely open to opposing views on what I have discussed above. If there is any ambiguity or error in my analysis above, you are more than welcome to let me know)",
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