Konkani Muslims Explained

Konkani Muslims (or Kokani Muslims) are an ethnoreligious subgroup of the Konkani people of the Konkani region along the west coast of India, who practice Islam.[1] Nawayath and "Nakhuda" Muslims from the North Canara district of Karnataka have similar origin as Konkani Muslims, but show a distinct ethnolinguistic identity due to geographical isolation of the Canara coast from the Konkan coast.[2]

Geography

The Konkani Muslim community forms a part of the larger Konkani-speaking demographic and are predominantly located in the Konkan division of the Indian state of Maharashtra.[3] This includes the administrative districts of Mumbai, Mumbai Suburban, Palghar, Thane, Raigad, Ratnagiri, and Sindhudurg.

There is a diaspora Konkani Muslim community based in Persian Gulf states,[4] [5] the United Kingdom,[6] [7] and South Africa.[8] [9] Some Konkani Muslims migrated to Pakistan during the Partition of India in 1947, and are presently settled in Karachi,[10] as part of the larger Muhajir community.

History

Since antiquity, the Konkan coast has had mercantile relations with major ports on the Red Sea and Persian Gulf. Konkani Muslims can trace their ancestry to traders from Hadhramaut (in Yemen or South Arabia),[11] the North of Indian (Haryana/Punjab) and other parts of Arabia and the Middle East, who visited the Konkan coast between the seventh and eighth centuries AD and fled persecution in North India, during the rule of the Chalukya and Rashtrakuta dynasties. In the later eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Konkani Muslims became influential sailors, merchants, and government employees as the port city of Bombay (present Mumbai) began developing.[12]

Demography

Ancestry formed the basis for social stratification: Konkani people are direct descendants of Arab traders formed an elite class over those who had indirect descent through intermarriages with local women converts to Islam. The Konkani people have a varied ethnic background as most Muslims within the region[13] [14] [15] are descendants of people who migrated from the Delhi region, Hadhramaut (in Yemen or South Arabia),[11] Iran and other parts of Arabia and the Middle East.[16]

Religion

Konkani Muslims follow the Shafi’i Islamic jurisprudence This is in contrast to the Deccan regions, where Muslims adhere to the Hanafi school.[17] [18]

Language

Konkanis speak a variety of dialects of Konkani collectively called Maharashtrian Konkani.[17]

Cuisine

The cuisine of Konkani Muslims is meat and seafood. Its staple food is rice and bread made of rice (preferred at dinners) with meat/fish and lentils or vegetables. It is mainly influenced by Kashmiri people who settled in the late 1800s fleeing tensions in the North of India.[19]

Notable Konkani Muslims

External links

Notes and References

  1. Book: Green, Nile . Bombay Islam: the religious economy of the West Indian Ocean, 1840–1915 . Cambridge University Press . 2011.
  2. Web site: Connecting Konkan with Arabia via Iran: The history of Nawayathi, the language of Bhatkali Muslims. 24 June 2017.
  3. The People Of Bombay 1850-1914 (An approach paper) . Cynthia . Deshmukh . Proceedings of the Indian History Congress . 40 . 1979 . 836–840 . 44142034.
  4. Web site: Kokani Organisations . 16 July 2017 . 11 March 2018 . https://web.archive.org/web/20180311021341/http://kokancouncil.org/category/kokani-oraganizations/ . dead .
  5. Encyclopedia: Impact of migration to the middle east on Ratnagiri . Sudha . Gogate . M. S. A. . Rao . Chandrashekar . Bhat . Laxmi Narayan . Kadekar . A Reader in Urban Sociology . Orient Longman . New Delhi . 1991 . 371–388 . 978-0-8631-1151-8.
  6. Web site: Kokni Community Luton . 16 July 2017 . 6 October 2018 . https://web.archive.org/web/20181006154604/http://www.kokniluton.co.uk/history.htm . dead .
  7. Web site: Kokni Muslim Association Birmingham . 16 July 2017 . https://web.archive.org/web/20170703105629/http://kmab.org.uk/About.php . 3 July 2017 . dead.
  8. News: Kokanis in Cape Town, South Africa . 3 . 1 . 22–24 . Nujmoonnisa . Parker . Kokan News . 16 July 2017 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160504174250/http://www.kokannews.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/2011-Vol-3-No-1-Kokan-News.pdf#page=22 . 4 May 2016 . dead.
  9. Islam for the Indentured Indian: A Muslim Missionary in Colonial South Africa . Nile . Green . Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London . 71 . 3 . 2008 . 529–553 . 40378804 . 10.1017/s0041977x08000876. free.
  10. Web site: Kokani Muslim Jamat Societies, Karachi . 16 July 2017 . 10 July 2018 . https://web.archive.org/web/20180710185235/http://www.tungekar.com/karachikokaniz.html . dead .
  11. Book: Khalidi, Omar . Omar Khalidi . https://books.google.com/books?id=O_WNqSH4ByQC&pg=PA52 . The Arabs of Hadramawt in Hyderabad . Mediaeval Deccan History . Kulkarni . Naeem . De Souza . Popular Prakashan . . 1996 . 978-8-1715-4579-7.
  12. Book: Dobbin, Christine E. . Urban leadership in Western India: politics and communities in Bombay city, 1840-1885 . 7 . 1972 . 978-0-19-821841-8 . 8 February 2022.
  13. Web site: Thane District Gazetteer, Government of Maharashtra . 17 July 2017.
  14. Web site: Colaba District Gazetteer, Government of Maharashtra . 17 July 2017.
  15. Web site: Ratnagiri District Gazetteer, Government of Maharashtra . 17 July 2017.
  16. Book: Wink, André . Al-hind: The Making of the Indo-islamic World . 1991 . . 978-9-0040-9249-5 . 68 . en.
  17. Ph.D. . Md. Jalis Akhtar . Nasiri . 2010 . Indian Muslims: Their Customs and Traditions during Last Fifty Years . Jawaharlal Nehru University . New Delhi.
  18. Book: Dandekar, Deepra . Margins or Center? Konkani Sufis, India and "Arabastan" . 141–156 . Area Studies at the Crossroads: Knowledge Production after the Mobility Turn . Katja . Mielke . Anna-Katharina . Hornidge . 2017 . Palgrave Macmillan.
  19. Web site: Mumbai Food: Konkani-Muslim pop-up celebrates all things seafood and coconut . www.mid-day.com . . 2017-02-10 . 17 July 2017.
  20. http://164.100.24.209/newls/Biography.aspx?mpsno=3236 A. R. Antulay - Official biographical sketch in Parliament of India website
  21. News: Remembering Hamid Dalwai, and an age of questioning . Dilip . Chitre . Dilip Chitre . 2002-05-03 . Indian Express . 17 July 2017.

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