Indian Legal History Museum, Th for the Arts Quarter of the 20 Century Focusing on Noble Courts

Timing: The Museum is open on all days ex- Gujarat National Law University Gujarat National Law University (GNLU) is the statu- cept 2nd, 4th & 5th Saturdays, Sundays and tory university established by the Govt. of Gujarat public holidays from 9:00am to 5:00 p.m. under the Gujarat National Law University Act, 2003. The University is functioning as nodal agency to uplift Phone: +91-79-23276611/23276613 the legal education in the State of Gujarat. GNLU has Fax: +91-79-7878186624/23276613 come with the unique and noble idea to have a Muse- um on Legal History in its campus. The Museum is E-mail: [email protected], aiming to represent the development of civilization in India by exhibiting artifacts of legal heritage. Each [email protected] change or diversion in history has been recorded in Curated by: Website: www.gnlu.ac.in each categories given above and ultimately resulted in growth judiciary and administration of Justice it is Dr. Kenneth X. Robbins a M.D. in Psychiatrist, Art For further details contact: aimed to timeline and represent this growth. Historian, Collector of South Asian Art and author, Curator assembled a collection of various types of materials Indira Gandhi National Centre documenting Indian society particularly in the second Indian Legal History Museum, th for the Arts quarter of the 20 century focusing on noble courts. Gujarat National Law University, Dr. Robbins countries of specialization is India, and Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts his research Interest on the Jews of India, the Indian Princ- Attalika Avenue, Knowledge Corridor, (IGNCA) is an autonomous trust of Ministry of es, the Nawab of Junagadh , the Jewish Community in Kolka- Koba, Gandhinagar-382007 Culture, Government of India, which was estab- ta , Stamp money and cash coupons of the Indian Princely Gujarat [INDIA] lished in the memory of Late Prime Minister of States and African Elites in India and many more. The An exhibition jointly organized by India, Smt. Indira Gandhi, in 1987, is visualised as Africans in India: A Rediscovery exhibition is curated by Dr. Robbins. a centre encompassing the study and experience of all the arts -- each form with its own integrity, Dr. Sylviane A. Diouf is an award-winning historian Gujarat National Law University, yet within a dimension of mutual inter- of the African Diaspora. She is the author of Slavery’s dependence, inter relatedness with Nature, the Exiles: The Story of the American Maroons and Servants of Allah: African Muslims Enslaved in the Americas. Dr. social structure and cosmology. Gandhinagar Diouf's book Dreams of Africa in Alabama: The Slave & Ship Clotilda and the Story of the Last Africans Brought to The Schomburg Center for Research in America (Oxford University Press) received the 2007 Indira Gandhi National Centre Black Culture Wesley-Logan Prize of the American Historical Asso- ciation. She is the editor of Fighting the Slave Trade: for the Arts, New Delhi The Schomburg Center for Research in Black West African Strategies (Ohio University Press) and the Indian Legal Culture located in Harlem, New York, is a re- co-editor of In Motion: The African-American Migration Experience (National Geographic). Dr. Diouf is the History Museum search unit of The New York Public Library sys- recipient of the Rosa Parks Award, the Dr. Betty From 10th August, 2015 tem. The Center consists of three connected Shabazz Achievement Award, and the Pen and Brush Gujarat National Law University, buildings: The Schomburg Building, the Langston Achievement Award. Dr. Diouf is the Director of the to Lapidus Center for the Historical Analysis of Transat- “Attalika Avenue”, Hughes Building, and the Landmark Building. It Knowledge Corridor, Koba, 10 September, 2015 lantic Slavery and a Curator at the Schomburg Center Gandhinagar, Gujarat, is recognized as one of the leading institutions for Research in Black Culture of The New York Pub- India - 382007 focusing exclusively on African-American, Afri- lic Library. She has curated digital and on site exhibi- tions on Africans in India, African American migra- can Diaspora, and African experiences. Phone: +91-79-23276611 at tions, the abolition of the slave trade, the African Fax: +91-79-23276613, 7878186624 Diaspora in the Indian Ocean world, and the black E-mail: [email protected] Indian Legal History Museum world in the 20th century. African by Origin, Indian by Nationality: Ethiopian town, peopled by merchants from East Africa. Shah (1448-1511 A.D.) These minars are world famous for sidiasooappa, served as caretaker of a shrine in Mumbai. Her The Siddis of Gujarat Oral history recounted by Afro-Gujaratis mentions how their shaking property known as Shaking Minaret grandfather had been recruited from East Africa into the their ancestors also served as bodyguards in the palaces of (jultaminar), just behind the present Kalupur railway station, army of the Nizam of Hyderabad, and her father, Abdul Hindu kings. Among their functions: to taste the Mahara- Ahmedabad which is entirely due to impressive vibrations Rasak Sidi Bilal, was a singer of qawwali(songs of Muslim jah's food to protect against attempted poisoning. conducted through the perfect plan of the plinth. devotional praise). The Mughals, a Muslim imperial power in Northern India The African became the patron saint of the agate While in the Arabian Peninsula and Gulf Coast region from the early 16th century through the early 19thcentury , bead industry, having been credited for augmenting the African musical and dance traditions have continued in the relied on African soldiers and sailors. In 1572, when the trade in the quartz stone between East Africa, the Persian form of spirit possession performances (zar and tanburah), Mughal Emperor Akbar entered Gujarat, he was reportedly Gulf, and India. Before arriving in India, bavagor spent time in South Asia African traditions largely revolve around the protected by 700 armed habshi on horseback. African sol- in Mecca and the area of Basra in lower Iraq, where he stud- veneration of Sufi pirs, such as bavagor in Gujarat or Shaikh diers and sailors also received annual payment for defending ied with Sufis of the Rifa'i order, who gave him the honorif- Najib in the Maldives. In both areas, references to the ocean Mughal subjects from piracy at sea and attacks on land. Be- ic title BavaGor meaning "master of deep meditation" in Arabic. and seafaring figure prominently with lyrics from East Afri- tween the 16th and 18th centuries a habshi naval force was To one oral tradition, bavagor's sister, Mai Misra, who devel- ca. In the Gujarati port city of Diu—where in 1838 a chron- based in Surat, the principal port in Gujarat, and African oped her own Sufi following, came to India to vanquish a icler estimated that up to 6 percent of the population was sailors accompanied pilgrims to Mecca, offering protection demoness; meanwhile, her brother vanquished the demon siddi—many Swahili words are found in the languages spo- The Siddi are an African ethnic group inhabiting India on the high seas. Such habshi naval protection even predated Rakshisha of Hindu mythology. This legend speaks to the ken today by the men and women of African descent. and Pakistan. They were brought to the Indian subcon- Mughal rule. Ibn Battuta noted in the mid-14th century the historic tensions involving the coming of Islam to the Indi- tinents as slaves by Arab and Portuguese merchants. legendary bravery of habshi soldiers and sailors. Ibn Battuta an subcontinent and the transformation of Hindu society. Surat and Sachin: Siddis are primarily Sufi Muslims although some are traveled with 50 Abyssinians on a ship to protect against Misra, whose name is derived from misr (Arabic for north- Surat is a port city situated on the banks of the Hindus and others are Roman Catholic Christians. pirate attacks; he called them "the guarantors of safety on the east Africa), is particularly venerated for her powers of fer- Tapti river. A chief port of the Mughals but it was gradually Siddis are descended from Bantu peoples from South- Indian Ocean." While boarding a Chinese junk at Calicut in tility. Respect for her may be seen in the coconut rattles supplanted by colonial period ports to the south of it. To east Africa The term siddi is derived from the title south India, he observed Abyssinians carrying javelins and used by the siddis that bear her name. In Gujarat, as well as the South was the Portuguese fort of Daman. Just a bit of borne by the captains of the Arab vessel that first swords and others with drums and bugles, indicating the use other parts of India, siddis play the malunga, a single-stringed south of Bombay was the Siddis island fort of Janjira, which brought siddi settlers to India. These captains were of Africans on ships traveling to the Far East. braced musical bow, found in many East African communi- lived on piracy and never conquered by any Indian or colo- known as Sayyid. Similarly another term for siddis is Gujarati siddis distinguish themselves from others in ties (and as far away as Brazil, where it is called berimbau). nial power. Siddi Mansud of Surat collected a fleet and habshi (Abyssinia) that the ships delivered siddi slaves to India by their strong Sufi practices, mostly centering on the The hand that holds the malunga will also hold seized several ships at the mouth of the Tapti. In Janjira and the subcontinents, they also referred as Afro-Indians African pir bava gor, the most revered Sufi among people of the maimisra rattle below, which is attached to a gourd reso- Sachin kingdoms the siddis rose from King makers to Em- and Zanzi by the Arabs.

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