Siddi People

The prophet Mohammad, near the end of his life, entrusted the Abyssinian military commander Bava Gor with a mission to slay a female demon in Hindustan. Accompanied by his brother, sister, and his best soldiers Bava Gor defeated the demon, and introduced agate beadwork to India. His descendants are now the Siddi people of India. About 100,000 Siddi people live in India today. Most live in Gujarat, with smaller communities in Hyderabad. Before the Islamic invasions, slavery played a minor role in Indian society. However, tens of thousands of slaves came to India with the Muslim armies. All myths aside, the Siddi people are mostly the descendants of slaves brought to India by the Muslim conquerors.

It is important to remember that slavery in the Islamic world is fundementally different from slavery in the western world. The majority of the slaves in most places were female. However, India never lacked for cheap domestic servants and India had similar numbers of male and female slaves. The major problem the Muslim armies faced was finding loyal soldiers. Any soldiers recruited from India would have split loyalties to those they served and their homeland. As a result, many armies brought slave soldiers, trained from a young age to be loyal soldiers. Military slaves had tremendous opportunities to advance in these armies and many Siddi rose to prominence.

The middle ages were something of a golden age for the Sidi soldiers. Like the Turkish military slaves, many rose to positions of power and founded their own dynasties. The great main mosque (the building really is a work of art) of Ahmedabad was engineered by Bilal Jhajar Khan, and Abyssinian general of the last Shah of the Gujarat Sultanate. The fort at Janjira, ruled by a Sidi Nawab, was the only coastal fort never to fall to European powers on the western coast of India. Jamal Ud-Din Yaqut was said to be the lover of Razia Sultana, the first female monarch of India. During the Mamluk dynasty, a Siddi became the ruler of most of India, though for only a few weeks before he was assasinated. Habshi kings ruled bengal for over a decade during the 15th century and African military commanders served as Jagirdars (feudal lords) throughout all of India.

The feudal elite always made up a small percentage of the African population. Most were soldiers. Many turned swords into ploughs, or became succresful in trade. Although most people of African descent in India are slves, there was a substantial number of merchants, traders, mercenaries and adventurers as well who immigrated to India.

Today, Siddis are famous for their spiritual and healing powers. Many of the Dargahs, shrines of Sufi saints, are maintained by Sufi families in Mumbai. These Shrines are visited by peoples of all religions, hoping to be cured of disease, win the lottery, fix a marriage or become succesful in business. Healing, is said to be the Jammat of many Sidi. However, most Siddi live more modestly. After Indian independence, the community saw a decline in its relative status. Soldiers of the princely states were laid off, and jagirdars fobbed off with small pensions. The aristocracy has retains middle class status, but many lower level soldiers had no careers to look forward to. Many became servants, watchmen and laborers.

The Siddi people, like all those who have come, have been incorporated into Indian society. Their own origin myths remind me quite a bit of the stories I have heard from other communities. The African language have been completely been forgotten, and most speak Gujarati or some other vernacular. While the Siddi people have mostly been absorbed into Indian culture, tey retain a few cultural elements brought back from Africa. In the Dhamal dance, (also called Goma, from the Swahili word Ngoma), dancers are said to be possesed by the spirits of Siddi saints.

The Siddi people almost certainly face discrimination. Indian society sees light skin as beautiful and dark skin as ugly. Moreover, as muslims they suffer double discrimination. However, to the best of my knowledge, they have never explicitly been the targets of violence. While they struggle in the education sector, and face discrimination by government officials, I am of the understanding that this is little different than the tribulations of the Muslim community as a whole. The Siddi people suffer from the institutional barriers that keep so many poor Indians from rising up in society.

Jains are Normal

I just finished reading American Pastoral, by Phillip Roth and though I enjoyed the book, one think annoyed me about it. In the book, Merry converts to Jainism. Roth portrays Jainism in the most ridiculous way possible. We are not a cult. Yes, we take non-violence seriously. However, most of us live in houses and eat food. Only monks attempt to avoid all violence, and abandon all material posessions. The mohapati ( a face covering) is only worn symbolically during specific religious ceremonies. Jains generally consider living in filth sinful, since it makes it easier to inadvertently cause violence. Sanlakhana , taking one's life by ceasing all eating, is only taken with the permission of a monk, and permission is only given when one has terminal disease. Although Jains often undergo strenuous pennance, we avoid any actions that will cause long lasting harm. Although all life is sacred, human life is held especially sacred since one can only make spiritual progress as a human. Jainism is a normal religion and most Jains are normal people.

financial reform

There have been many excellent posts from other blogs the on the future of financial regulation for the future, I think one simple thing I haven't seen people talk about is remove the corporate and household debt deduction. One of the major causes for the financial crisis is the systemic risk caused by the massive amount of leverage. The deductions essentially subsidize systemic risk and are stupid and firms already rely excessively on debt because of transactions. The deductions may not have caused the crisis, but removing them would be an easy way to reduce systematic risk

Madagascar

I've been following the conflict in Madagascar for some time, but I'm completely confused as to what's going on. In 2007, Andry Rajoelina, former DJ and 34 year old mayor of Antananarivo, was removed from power, and has since been removed from power. Since then, he has been leading protests to remove President Ravalomanana. Madagascar had been a dirt poor, but fairly calm and growing rapidly (around 6%) thanks to economic reform, growth of tourism, and a boom in prices for agricultural commodities. However, just two days ago Ravalamanana was overthrown by Rajoelina in a military coup.

I've tried to find out more about the conflict but the new reports conrain little. Some of the grievances of the opposition include the governments plan to lease a massive tract the size of Rhode Island to Daewoo, a South Korean conglomerate, to grow food crops. Also, Ravalomanana was accused of extravagance (although I've heard any details that are exceptionally bad). Only recently, Ravalomanana defeated long serving dictator Didier Ratsiraka lost a deeply flawed election to Ravalomanana. After fighting, Ravalomanana cemented his position in 2003 elections and I assumed he was fairly popular. Since late 2008, protests have rocked Madagascar and hundreds have died. At first, it seemed Ravalomanana had the upper hand, but eventually elements from the military overthrew Ravalomana, though its not clear whether high ranking or junior officers lead the coup. The fact the military stepped in is surprising since Madagascar has a long history of civilian dominance in politics.

One of the strange elements of the violence in Madagascar is that there doesn't appear to be any clear lines. Although Rajoelina has played the role of the populist, he hasn't enunciated a particularly pro-poor message. In general there seems to be a belief that inequality has increased in Madagascar in recent years. However, I suspect this isn't the case. Most agricultural commodities in Madagascar (Vanilla, coffe, fish) are in smallholder hands, and these smallholders have benefitted greatly in recent years. Although Ravalamanana pursued neo-liberal policies, third world governments are often regressive. Selling state-corporations, ending subsidies and reducing tariffs should benefit rich and poor equally. I don't know what side the unions, domestic business, armed forces, foreign capital has taken. Ravalamanana, once selling yogurt out of the back of a truck, constructed the largest business empire in Madagascar, Tiko. Businesses competing Tiko are anecdotally important to the new govenrment.

Also, one of the most important cleavages is between highland Merina (the descendents of Indonesians who settled about a thousand years ago) and lowland Cotiers, mostly the descendents of later African immigrants. Although Merina have historically, dominated Madagascar, the Cotiers ruled Madagascar between independence and 2002. However, both Ravalomanana and Rajoelina are Merina. Ethnicity is not nearly as important as it once was, and is barely mentioned in this latest controversy In general, reporters make 'tribal conflict' in Africa much more 'tribal' than it really is. That said, almost all of the violence is in Antananarivo, a Merina stronghold. I don't know how the conflict is playing out in the periphery of Madagascar.


The conflict has already had severe implications on the country. Daewoo, and many other corporations are pulling out. Tourism was a booming industry, but hotels are practically empty today. Moreover, Madagascar has gained a reputation for riskiness that will linger for years. Finally, the US and other nations have cut aid. Combined with the financial crisis and the resulting decline in commodity prices, Madagascar may grow short on foreign exchange. Madagascar's budget deficit was a massive 23.1% in 2008. Madagascar may face a currency crisis if investors lose confidence in Madagascar's economy.

Unfortunately, investors have reason to fear. Madagascar in many ways represents Africa's new found economic strength, and the fragility of these economies. Although Rajoelina appears to be in control, he relies on the armies goodwill. If the officers backing Rajoelina withdraw their support, or if supporters of Ravalomanana fight back the country could face civil war. Ethnic harmony can be destroyed by irresponsible politicians. Now that the military has a taste of power, it may not want to give to much authority to civilians government. Rajoelina has essentially launched a coup against the current government. If he genuinely is popular, he has nothing to lose from holding prompt elections. Creating a new dictatorship would be a blow to Madagascar's fragile democracy, Madagascar has come a long way since the 27- year Ratsiraka dictatorship. In 2009, Freedom house considered Madagascar an electoral democracy, and only one point away from being considered being free. If Rajoelina holds elections quickly, and allows real dissent, he could diminish imperfections in the current system. If not, he will be remembered as little better than another tin-pot dictatorship.

Rajoelina may be tempted to take populist measures like land seizures, and expand the state sector. Although populism may be an effective way of gaining popular support, it makes a poor philosophy for government. Rajoelina should countinue free-market policies and strengthen the welfare system so the poorest do not get left behind. Madagascar is sailing into troubled waters. Hopefully the new captain knows what he is doing.

bracketology

NCAA tournament time!!!!

I've made my bracket, and so far so good. I had BYU and Butler winning (they lost) and but I called the Maryland upset. We'll see how my other picks for today turnout (I've got Minnesota and Michigan pulling upsets)

In general, I think teams whose per game output is more volatile are more likely to both win and lose upsets. For instance, teams with one single superstar are more likely to pull upsets. As a result, I think teams that rely on 3-point shooting, and single incredible players are more likely to be involved in upsets.

I've got Pitt, Louisville, UConn and Syracuse in the final 4 with Pitt beating Louisville losing to Pitt in the final.

hi

hi