THE ECONOMIC WEEKLY ANNUAL 'January, 1959 Slavery and Indo-Arab Relations In 19th Century David Pocock This is the second in a series, the first of which "Indians in East ".- up pea red in the Special Number of July, 1958. Early commercial links between Arabs and Indians, bused on their mutual interest in the slave trade, were severed when the British hampered this trade and encouraged Indians to invest elsewhere. Later, prosperous and successful in commerce, the Indians were hated not only by the Arabs, but also by the British.

IN trying to note some of the his­ to the following six categories: The Indian traders who were al­ torical factors which continue to Hindu; Brahmin: Kshatrya; Vaish- ready established in the 'Persian play a role in modern East African ya; Sanatan Dharamist; Arya Gulf moved south with Seyyid Said. multi-racial society, I turn now to Samajist! Bartle Frere writing in 1875 of this the 19th century not merely because early period says: 'Trade was every­ material is available but also be­ Seyyid Said in Zanzibar where fostered, and wherever the cause it seems to me that the roots Seyyid's red Hag was hoisted the The modern period of East Afri­ of much modern suspicion, anta­ Indian traders of four or five prin­ ca's trade begins with the accession gonism, and ignorance lie there. cipal castes (who had been) driven of Seyyid Said to the Imamate of away by Portuguese exactions, would The material for a history of Muscat in 1806. Seyyid Said, in flock back.' The ships of the Imam Indian settlement in East Africa is order to establish himself in an (or Sultan) navigated the Red Sea, relatively rich for the 19th century otherwise insecure position, made the coasts of Sind. Gujerat, Malabar, when we compare it with that forth­ treaties with the British and sup­ and Bombay, Arab ships sailed coming for the 18th and 20th cen­ ported them in their expeditions annually to Malabar for rice and turies. The 19th century was cer­ against the pirates of the Persian timber and brought back annually tainly the period of expansion and Gulf in 1810 and again in 1819. The two or three hundred small girls consolidation of family links, but in effect of this, apart from securing from the Malabar toast, Cutch and addition British officers in the Per­ to himself a powerful ally, was to Bombay. From Africa they brought sian Gulf and on the East African render conditions in the Persian annually 1,500 to 2,500 African coast were much more acquainted Gulf more favourable for trade than slaves. We are told at this time of with Indians and with Indian they had been for a century. affairs than they were to be later. merchants, of their thrift Zanzibar together with the other In 1826 Seyyid Said asserted his and influence. They were brokers territories lay under the jurisdiction overlordship of the Arabs on the to most of the Arab merchants and of the Bombay Government and, as coast of East Africa who had, fol­ Seyyid Said found it greatly to his I have shown in my previous article, lowing the lead of the Arabs of interest and the benefit of his reve­ the British Consuls in Zanzibar Mombassa, revolted from him. nues, to give them every encourage­ were drawn for the most part from After ten years of fighting he fin­ ment. Large quantities of ghee and the Indian Civil Service. As a ally subdued Mombassa but live cloth came in from Cutch, rice and, mark of this change the sociologist years earlier had felt himself suffi- in the words of another authority, concerned with Indian matters can­ ciently secure to remove the centre 'immense quantities of timber, pep­ not but note with a mixture of of his government from Oman to per, cardamoms, and Mysore coffee sorrow and amusement the differ­ Zanzibar where he continued to via the / To give ence between the quality of census live for the rest of his life. some idea of the trade, he tells us that 'the Banian (Hindu trader) information as between the 19th and The movement to Zanzibar was who farmed the customs from the 20th centuries, as between the move of a trader and Seyyid Sultan in 1827 paid 188,000 German and Africa. Whatever now may be Said put into immediate action his crowns for the privilege/ advanced against the old censuses plans for exploiting the fertility of in India, nobody who studies their an island which he had noted seve­ In Sheik Mansur's history of evolution can deny that finally they ral years before he felt in a posi­ Seyyid we are told that the Hindu became masterpieces of social docu­ tion to take advantage of it. A religion was tolerated by the Imam mentation. It might have been ex­ British naval captain writing in the who allowed the to have a pected that the accumulated experi­ year 1827 tells us that the Imam temple, to keep and protect a cer­ ence of census making would pro­ had built up 'a respectable naval tain number of cows, to burn their fitably have been applied to Africa force which is, with the island of dead and in general to enjoy the and thus facilitated the task of Zanzibar, his principal care and practice of their religion The government. But Indian readers study.' He had schemes for sugar, Hindus are described as monopo­ will share my possibly prejudiced coffee, and indigo plantations and lizing the pearl trade and as con­ surprise when they hear that the the big clove industry of modern stituting the body of the principal Hindu population of modern East Zanzibar owes its inception to his merchants of Muscat. We might Africa is requested to sort itself in­ foresight. emphasize that these Hindus were 165 THE ECONOMIC WEEKLY ANNUAL January, 1959

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unusually fortunate in finding so not only on the island of Zanzibar and transporting them in ves­ enlightened a protector as Seyyid but also along the coast wherever sels, is plunder and piracy, and Said. A naval officer, Alexander the Sultan's dominion extended. the friendly Arabs shall do nothing Burnes, has left a record of the A considerable sum of money was of this nature.' Later in 1839 difficulties and sufferings of Hindu paid in return for this 'gift' by the British vessels were given a right traders from Cutch trading on the Shivji family who inherited and to search suspected ships and it Somali coast. In 1834 he found maintained it until the I880's. The was well known that African slaves that they were not allowed by the transaction was usually a secret were finding a ready market in Somalis to wear a turban, they one and apparently made in the Diu, Mandvi and in various Sindhi were forced to pay protection mo­ form of a contract for a limited ports. The Majority of the slaves ney, they were not allowed to burn number of years. were African but to a certain ex­ their dead nor to bury them in the tent Indian boys and girls were Muslim manner but pay to have The Slave Trade exported to the Persian Gulf by them buried in an upright position. As we have seen large numbers way of part return, or slaves were imported into Zan­ They were forced to live on flesh No one, I suppose, expected that zibar both for work there and for like the Somalis and to drink these treaties with the friendly water brought in the skins of freshly transhipment to the Persian Gulf. Arabs would produce results over­ slaughtered goat a. The traveller Burton expressed his night. In 1841 the Government of shock much later in the century to Bombay, whose authority extended 'Banians' find that Indians were engaged in over the whole area, ordered strict It seems very likely that the this trade, but it would have been investigations into the charge that 'Banians' who enjoyed Seyyid Said's much more surprising if they had African slaves were being traded protection and confidence were not been. Their particular relation for Hindu women who were later predominantly members of the with the British authorities (who to be sold in Zanzibar. The British Bhattia caste, originally a fishing naturally had no powers over Resident replied that 'there was and maritime caste of Cutch. Their Arabs until 1800) was to be an too much reason to believe that descendants in Zanzibar today Important means of slowly bring­ the reports (were) not without preserve a story of their ancestors ing this trade to an end. foundation'. excellent relations with the Sultan We ought, initially, to distinguish and with his .successors. The lead­ between what we can call ancient In 1842 the British Consul in ing family of thus caste appear to and modern slavery. In the ancient Zanzibar. Atkins Hamerton, report­ be the descendants of a man called world slavery went on for centuries ed to the Bombay Government that Topan, who, although he never but it was for the most part sla­ 'the number of slaves imported sailed abroad, had a small fleet of very lor the domestic market and into Zanzibar.. .and for whom trading ships and was engaged in the slave, once he had entered a duty has regularly been paid ave­ petty coastal trade. His two sons, househo'd. had a definite position rages for the last four years about Shivji and Champsi, together with in that household and in the socie­ fifteen thousand yearly. They are a Bohora friend, enlarged the fleet ty of which it was a part. In this procured chiefly by the Banian and armed the vessels with brass sense slavery between India and brokers from the chiefs coming to guns and engaged in the Persian Africa had existed at least since the coast. The tribes from the Gulf trade. Family tradition main­ the opening of the Christian era interior who bring down the ivory tains that it was this fleet, which and Marco Polo mentions that and gum copal have it all carried Anally brought Seyyid Said to by the people they from time to girls from India were sent to Ara­ 1 Zanzibar but perhaps this is an bia to learn to dance and to act time take in war, and they a ways exaggeration. It is more likely as concubines. This kind of slavery barter the slaves along with the that these ships and their crews is very different from the distinc­ articles they have carried from were welcome additions to the tive and capitalistic transportation the interior to the coast. Money Seyyid's own fleet in his wars with of masses of free labour with all is not given either for the slaves the coastal Arabs. its attendant horror. Seyyid Said's or for the articles they bring. It The most famous personality of agricultural and commercial policy Is a barter trade and the business the family was Ebjee Shivji who seemed to call, if only on a rela­ is chiefly carried on by Banians was on such excellent terms with tively small scale, for slavery of and Indian Mahomedans.' Hamer­ the Sultan that he naturally attract­ the latter type and his Indian ton 'goes on to say that Jairam, ed considerable jealousy and en­ agents were inevitably involved the brother of Ebjee Shivjee, paid mity. So frequent were the attempts with him and with his successors. the Sultan annually one hundred to murder him that tradition tells and fifty thousand dollars for the that he never slept in the same The Slave-trade Attacked lucrative farm of the Zanzibar and place or in the same position for In the feeling against coastal customs. two nights running. He survived slavery was mounting as a new Actions by ships of the Royal to retire in his old age to India class rose into positions of influ­ Navy combined with the reluctant where the last that is heard of him ence if not as yet of power. In the cooperation of the Imam enabled is that to purify himself after his General Treaty with the Arab Hamerton to report in 1851 that long residence abroad he went on Tribes of the Persian Gulf which almost all the Banians had with­ a pilgrimage to Brindavan and was signed in 1820, it was insisted drawn from the slave trade but he died in the course of it. To Ebjee that 'the carrying off of slaves, goes on to suggest that only extra­ Shivji and to his brother Jairam men, women and children, from ordinary severity would prevent was given the customs monopoly the coasts of Africa and elsewhere, the Hindus of Cutch from continu- 167 January, 1959 THE ECONOMIC WEEKLY ANNUAL

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ing. They were, after all making mation committing to the care of land-owners had renounced their a profit of some three to five hun­ the British Government (and there­ British allegiance and for the dred per cent. fore under its jurisdiction) all those greater part the actual users of slaves remained the Arabs. The The disturbances in India of of his subjects who 'permanently Indians who were engaged in the 1857 had their effect upon British reside in or come and go to and trade were engaged as middle-men, prestige in Africa and many, both from the country of Zanzibar; advancing money to the relatively amongst the Indians and the Arabs, But only some extreme pressure big Arab enterprises that sailed believed that after Hamerton left from the government in could up and down the East African in that year no new Consul would have produced this effect for the be appointed. In fact the new Con­ government in Bombay, either less coast, establishing their depots sul, Lieutenant Colonel C P Rigby, humane or less enthusiastic than and raiding for slaves in the up- arrived some eighteen months later London, did not equal its abolition­ country. At the close of 1873 Kirk and immediately began to exercise ist zeal. In the words of Burton wrote with some satisfaction that his authority over the Indian po­ 'It lacked earnestness, judging sla­ the increased vigilance of the sea- pulation as British or British Pro­ very leniently and finding the prac­ patrols was making the Indians of tected Subjects, to eliminate the tice conducive to the well-being of Zanzibar far less ready to engage slave trade. By rigorous investi­ its subjects/ In 1872 it positively in the trade and the capital of gations, by tines and in some cases requested Dr (later Sir John) the most active trading part of by deportation he began to cut Kirk, the then British Consul in the Zanzibar community was thus down upon new purchases of slaves Zanzibar, to reduce the number of no longer available in the slave and to reduce the numbers of those British Protected Persons so that trading operations of the Arabs. already held. Seyyid Said had disputes with the native princes It was no longer prudent to invest issued a proclamation in 1843 might be avoided over the matter money fn enterprises which the warning his own subjects to have of slavery. operations of the Royal Navy no transactions with Indians who rendered financial disasters. Repudiation of British Citizenship were under British authority, in Indian Prosperity the matter of slavery and at Rig- But it was not only the Govern­ by's request, the new Sultan, Sey­ ment of Bombay that wished to The gradual abolition of the yid Majid, issued a similar avoid embarrassments over slavery. slave-trade ultimately was to the proclamation. The Indians of Zanzibar were advantage of the Indian merchants, beginning to see the advantages of however reluctant they may ini­ Indians and Arabs renouncing their status as British tially have been to see it go. The All this time the Indian popula­ Subjects and thus freeing them­ same cannot be said for the Arabs. tion by legal means and occasion­ selves from the jurisdiction of the Already they were beginning to ally by less legal means was in­ British Consul. Recent legislation feel the financial superiority of the creasing in prosperity and was in a by the House of Commons had Indian trading community which position to advance considerable made it possible for Indians resi­ they had originally patronized. mortgages on Arab plantations and dent in Zanzibar to declare them­ The cutting off of their supplies of in many cases these mortgages selves subjects of the Sultan and slave labour was the last blow to were taken up by mortgagee. Rigby, they proceeded to take full advan­ people who by all accounts, had realizing the implications of this, tage of this. Rigby. supplied, with gone far from that spirit of indus­ informed the Bombay government evidence by Kirk, testified before try and thrift which inspired the that wherever this had occurred the Select Committee on the East actions of Seyyid Said. he had ordered the new land owner African Slave Trade in 1871 and In 1881 Kirk visited England to bring all the slaves of the plan­ said that not only subjects of and received the following address tation to the British Consul for native states such as Cutch and from the leading merchants of the emancipation and registration. The Kathiawar but also native British Indian community with whom he increasing wealth and power of Subjects were renouncing British seems to have been genuinely the Indian community was in this allegiance and claiming to be sub­ popular: 'We the undersigned see way made to serve the interests of jects of the Sultan. This and other that your firmness in allowing no the anti-slavers. .Later the accumu­ evidence made It clear that the vestige of slave-holding to exist lation of Zanzibar land in Indian piecemeal^ approach to the problem among us has proved the means of hands was to be a source of con­ was no longer effective and if the turning capital into legitimate flict between them and the Arabs. status of slave could not be imme­ channels, by which so many new Two years after issuing this diately done away with (it was sources of wealth have been dis­ order Rigby was back in India and only abolished finally in 1897} at covered, that we confidently expect found that there also the importa­ least the traffic could be made so that, many branches of commerce tion of African slaves continued hazardous as to make it no longer will be materially extended.' An without abatement. In Kathiawad a profitable field for investment. honorific address is perhaps not the majority of the population The traffic by sea was made the the best testimony as to fact. seemed unaware that slave traffick­ first objective while the less vul­ Slavery was in fact not entirely at ing was crime and Baroda and nerable but, If anything, more in­ an end nor were Indians free of Hyderabad are mentioned by him humane traffic by land was left for any suspicion in the matter but it as important slave markets. It is later attention. Although by this was Kirk's deliberate policy to probably as a result of these en­ point in the century many Arab sever the Indian interest from that quiries that the Rao of Cutch was plantations had moved into Indian of the Arabs and to encourage, persuaded in 1869 to issue a procla­ hands, not all of these Indian like his predecessors in Zanzibar, 169 January, 1959 THE ECONOMIC WEEKLY ANNUAL

170 THE ECONOMIC WEEKLY ANNUAL January. 1959 their legitimate trade. The above article the declaration of Zanzibar the policy of some money lenders farewell address shows at least as a British Protectorate in 1890 is to dispose of, quickly and pro­ that his point had been taker. marked the beginning of a change in fitably, any properties that pass to Kirk's assistant, Mr Holmwood, the British attitude to their Indian their possession, that of others is had reported in 1880 from Kilwa subjects there and on the mainland. to retain and operate the larger on the mainland, that the Indian As the prosperity of the latter and more productive plantations, community there was evidently continued to increase and their and economic groups of small thriving since the reduction of the peaceful trade with Africans on properties/ slave-trade. Indian traders 'both the coast was extended, the Arabs Although the money lenders British and Arab subjects have at and British officers of the early were not praised for their scrupu­ last become convinced, through 20th century began to resent their lousness the report notes weaknes­ the all powerful logic of a full economic dominance As early as ses in Arab and African society pocket, that, after all. Great Bri­ 1871 we see this from a confiden­ which prepared agriculturists for tain was furthering their real in­ tial report made by Kirk upon the the usurer. "Some contributory terests in insisting on the total financial condition of Zanzibar just causes are failure to meet the si­ suppression of the slave trade. He after the death of the Sultan Sey- tuation created by the abolition of urged the more regular visits of yid Majid and the condition of the slavery; the town ward movement, steamships to assure the Hindu new Sultan Seyyid Barghash, Kirk inadequate transport, banking and writes: 'At Seyyid Majid's death traders of transport and protection. marketing facilities The desire Further south, in Lindi, the traders there was a debt to J a i ram Shivji to figure as substantial land-owners told Holmwood that if British pro­ (the family is to be understood leads all grades of proprietors into tection could be promised and ex­ here as Jairam himself died in economic indiscretion. They sacri­ tended they had every reason to 1886) of 423,000 dollars', with the fice the substance for the shadow expect continued prosperity and addition of further debts incurred by encumbering free property in every interest in supporting the by Ma j id's successor this came to order to acquire more property, British policy. The fear of Arab a total of 640,002 dollars and 83 % which is also encumbered in the depredations having been removed cents. Other members of the royal process. Total loss is a common and the peaceful colonization of family had estates both In Zanzibar result. Their genuine attachment areas where formerly slave cara­ and Muscat but these also were to the land is driving them from vans had moved had trebled the found to be heavily mortgaged to it. The proportion of debt incur­ export of grain and oilseed since the house of Shivji and to another red for development is negligible/' as follows:'In the steamer which Indian merchant. 1877. Holmwood concludes his report Apart from these high-power The implications of this report of leaves for Zanzibar tonight most transactions the ordinary Arab just over twenty-five years ago of the residing land-owner was becoming aware in seem to have established a general here are passengers and they in­ the last decades of the 19th cen­ pattern throughout East Africa where Indian wealth and initiative form me that they will be return­ tury that he was in danger of are regarded in some way as a ing in two months* with larger being completely replaced by purchases of European and Ame­ menace and where their possession Indians who already controlled rican goods than they have ever of land must be, if not. entirely the clove-market by which, for the before imported. They calculate banned, jealously watched. greater part, he lived. The question that if the coming rainy season of land-ownership became more proves a favourable one, the ex­ The Missionary Factor and more a matter for government port of grain and oil-seed alone Together with the assumption of concern until 1933 when a report win render them independent of a the Protectorate over Zanzibar was called for upon the indebted­ possible falling off in any other which made the Arabs protected ness of the agricultural classes. produce In more general terms persons no less than the Indians One of the conclusions was. as and returning to the fortunes of but more interesting to the govern­ might be expected, that 'almost all the Shivjee family, we may note ment, and the accumulation of landed the money lenders licensed and that a new contract between it property by the Indian merchants, unlicensed belong to one or other and the Sultan now fixed the price it would not be too rash to suggest of the Indian communities, but for the customs farm at a 100,000 that there was a third factor ope­ it is worthy of note that Arab dollars higher than the previous rating to effect that deterioration contract. money-lenders, though compara­ between the Indian and other com­ tively few in number, have had munities leading to what I have Hostility towards Indians attributed to them some of the called its isolation. The awakening harshest and most unconscionable As I pointed out in my previous of British political and commercial instances of usury revealed by the Interest in Africa, went with an * The natives up-country were, inquiry', The report goes on to evangelical Interest. The same he says, engaged in cultivation note a variety of causes for the newly empowered British middle- in that season and consequent­ fact that 'not less than half the class which had insisted upon at ly brought little produce to the agricultural property of these least the appearances of missionary coast. Even today the Indian islands (Zanzibar and Pemba) has zeal in India after 1832, and done so 'bush-trader' in Tanganyika passed into the hands of the money much to stir up the consciences of finds that this period from lending classes and at least half ministers who would not otherwise early December to May tends the remainder is encumbered to have concerned themselves with to be a dead season for trade. them, most of !t heavily While pushing forward the abolition of 171 January, 1959 THE ECONOMIC WEEKLY ANNUAL

slavery, now turned its attention to the conversion of the African. Their representatives in the mis­ sionary field were for some years unable to see the Indian trader as anything more than an obstacle to this end, David Livingstone wrote home that the Indian trader sold brandy and gun-powder to the Africans and was the major influ­ ence and power behind the slave trade. 'The Indians hate us English and rejoice more over our failures than success.' These righteous tirades in his correspond­ ence usually follow after his dis­ covery of the laws of supply and demand. Writing to Kirk in 1871 he complains bitterly: 'L palms off on me inferior calico at a fraudu­ lent price which only with a 'great deal of difficulty I can use and he knows that the cloth which he charges me 5.75 dollars sells (else­ where j at 5 dollars. K perpetrat­ ed the same fraud..,The bare­ faced spoliation of Government money by Banian British Subjects makes it entirely reasonable to complain.' Kirk's reply is not known but it is reasonable to assume that he was gratified by this early indi­ cation of the success of his policy for Indian traders.

China's Steel Output China's first modern iron and steel plant was founded in 1890 in Han­ yang (now part of the triple city of Wuhan) in the middle reaches of the Yantze River. In the 59 years from 1.S90 to 1949. the year of China's liberation from Kuomintang rule, the country pro­ duced a total of 7,6 million tons of steel. Its steel output was: 920.000 tons in 1943, the peak pre- liberation year; 158,000 tons in 1949, the year of liberation from Kuomintang rule;

1,249,000 tons in 1952, the year before the First Five Year Plan; 5,350.000 tons in 1957. last year of the First Five Year Plan; and 1.0,730,000 tons from January 1 to December 19, 1958. More than 80 per cent of the steel output was produced by the major Steel mills or China.) —.'China Today,' January 3, 1959 172