THE SIDDISJAMBUR|ARCHITECTURE

PREFACE

This book includes the analytical study and documentation of a region, its climatic conditions, to-pography, inhabitant community and their settlement pattern as well as cultural values, which gives us an insight about the community and its spirit.Apart from documenting its local architecture, understanding the community and creating a ‘one-to-one’ connection with them, the program also extends towards travelling to the settlement, stay-ing in its vicinity, experiencing their culture and daily living. Envisaging the above stated factors, a group of students and faculties made a journey of about 350 Km from Ahmedabad to Jambur, meeting a contended community living in the shadow of a rural panorama. These students documented the village including the streets, chowks and the houses.The three day programme incorporated the detailed study of allotted areas and their relation with the surrounding context, enabling the students to comprehend an architectural approach of a very different social fabric in existence with its contextual parameters.It was lined up in four gradual set of tasks and studies: Literature Study, On-site observation & mea-sure drawing, Documentation & Analysis and Studio Design Programme.

Architecture in context is neither a cursory attention nor a radical innovation,it is a strong and elo-quent visual relationship to the surrounding. Individual building is always seen first as a part of the whole.Creating places and spaces that enrich the livs of people who use them is the foundation of Architects work.Every building can and should engage in dialog with the history,beliefs and needs of a particular place and time.Identification of place lies a generative core of architecture.Place is to architecture as meaning is to language.Recognition,memory,choice,sharing with pthers,the acquisi-tion of significance;all these conribite to the process of architecture.

INTRODUCTION

African by origin, Indian by nationality with Gujarati as their language – the Sidi tribe settled in Jambur, Gujarat. The word ‘Sidi’ is derived from an Arabic word meaning ‘mister’ or ‘ lord’. The village ,Jambur is located approximately 100 Km south of Junagadh, surrounded by the Gir for-est, which is a home to the Asiatic lions. Today they number about 500, making Jambur one of the largest communities of the African descendants in India.The Sidi settlement did not happen out of choice but by force. Long before African slaves were brought to America, Brazil, and the Caribbean, the Siddis were sold as slave soldiers for India’s princely states-from whom they adopted their Muslim faith. The scene is a mix of cultures and reli-gions: Indian and African; Sufi Islam and Hinduism. They have adopted the local Gujarati language, clothing as well as the diet.Due to the practice of endogamy by most families, the physical features of the Siddis represent their African origin and heritage. Majority of the Siddis live in low economic conditions, due to their negligence by the society .They have been assimilated in the local Muslim population because of their close breeding groups and small number. Siddis are Africans of Indian Descendants who were brought to India as special servants or slaves in courts of Muslim Navabs & Sultan. Siddis of Jambur have originally come from KANO in Ni-geria.

CONTENTS

1. PEOPLE AND THE PLACE ....... 10

2. JAMBUR VILLAGEa. Surroundingsb. Physical Featuresc. Climated. Settlement and Habitat

....... 16

3. ARCHITECTUREa. Jambur VIllageb. Street Elementsc. System of Public Spacesd. Houses

- Type 1 - Type 2 - Type 3 - Type 4 - Type 5 - Type 6 - Type 7 - Type 8

e. Other Houses

.......

.......

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PEOPLE AND THE PLACE

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COMMUNITY AND CULTURE

The Siddis of Jambur are a part of ‘Hanafi’ School of the ‘Sunni’ sect of Muslims The clan names (Gotra/Attak) of Siddis is also identical with locals viz. Mori, Makwani, Mazgum, Parmar etc.In customs and religious practices, they are similar to their local counter parts.

The Sidi, also known as Sheedi, Habshi or Makrani, are ethnic group inhabiting India and Pakistan.

The SIDDI Community is said to have been migrated to Saurashtrian peninsula of India from East AFRICA around 500 years ago.

Members are descended from Bantu people from Southeast Africa that were brought to the indian subcontinent as slaves by Arab and Portuguese merchants and worked under Nawab of Junagadh.

“The Nawab of Junagadh had once visited Africa where he fell in love with an African woman. They got married and she moved to India with him,” said Siddique. She came to India with a hundred slaves and since then we have been based in Gujarat only.”They were objects purchased as for elite consumption,not production.”

The genetic influences of the Siddis was:Bantu people: 34%Sub Saharan : 36%Eastern associates: 30%

The maternal ancestry of Sidi consists mixture of Sub Saharan and Indian haplogroups.

PEOPLE AND PLACE

SOCIAL LIFEEconomic conditions of the Siddis are not up to the mark, mostly because of neglect from the society.

Leadership is virtually absent. Though there is a ‘Patil’ - headman who is elected by the Siddi in their community gathering,his power and authority are mainly used to represent griev-ances to higher authority.It is said that some decades ago, the Patil had the power of executing punishment; but his authority is died out due to administration de-centralization.

Families live in cohesion.The Siddis believe in cross cousin marriages and wedding outside their community is pro-hibited.

A typical Sidi household consists of husband, wife, unmarried children and occasionally Old parents. The male is the head of the family ,who makes all important decisions & settles disputes. The wife is consulted in economic matters within the family.

In Jambur village panchayat, the Siddis are represented by only one number, the rest are taken from the non - Siddi village Madhupur which in conjunction with Jambur has one Panchayat.Most villagers are marginal farmers and the rest work as sedentary workers.On a daily basis, the tribals are engaged in var-ious occupations. They have a dual profession – although they do small time jobs in the day, they dance to the African beats at night. While many members of the tribe work in the forest, there are some who are in government jobs, earning up to Rs.5,000 a month.

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They work on the fields, in the forest depart-ment, some as tourist guides,farming, casual labor, household help ,truck drivers,fish (main source: veraval)and chicken selling and other odd jobs.Also siddis are considered to be very good athletes.Most of the males and females of the village were involved in playing cards.especially the elder age group (from 40 to 70 years ).This seemed to an extra income for the people.“With the meagre salary it is very difficult to manage. There are many tourists visiting Gir and we entertain them with our performance. This helps us make some extra money. This extra money helps us tremendously,” said Rasheed who is a truck driver.

VALUES AND RITUALSJambur, a population of 500 persons, has a mosque looked after by a mullah who is a non - Sidi and attendance for prayers in this mosque is surprisingly low.In the day to day life, the significance of reli-gion is less known to them. They do not read Quran daily, neither do they follow usual pat-tern of prayer. They are not so familiar with the importance of Ramadan fasting, Idulzuha, Bakra Id etc. either.The Pir revered by them is Baba Ghor who was supposed to be a trader from Abyssinia who established the agate industry in Cambay. The other saint worshipped locally is Baba Nagar-chi Pir (the drum-beater saint). Today the en-tire religious activities of the Siddis of Jampur are around the durga of Baba Nagarchi- the tomb of Rahmatullah.

MARRIAGESFamily names are passed on from generation to generation. After marriage, the girl adopts husband’s family name. In customs and prac-tices there is not much difference when com-pared to local groups.Marriages take place at the age of 16-18. The boys and girls are not encouraged to have their choice of partner. Cross cousin is the preferen-tial pattern.The knot-tying ceremony- The fathers of both the families sit face to face in the presence of several members of the family and village. The girl’s father starts making knots on a piece of thread, and the boy’s father also makes the same number of knots on an identical thread. The girl’s father can stop at any number he de-sires. After the girl’s father has stopped, both of them go back to their respective homes and untie each knot everyday. The marriage is cel-ebrated when they reach the last knot. A feast marks the wedding ceremony with a usual certificate of marriage issued by the resident mullah.

RITUALS For instance, on the seventh month of preg-nancy, they serve coconuts, sweets and clothes among villagers, the number of individuals en-tertained depending entirely on the economic condition of the household.Delivery as a rule is always found to take place in the expecting mother’s parents’ place. On the sixth day they have both ‘Sunnat’ and the naming ceremony. Though a feast is pre-scribed for all such occasions, what actually is done most of the times is serving just nominal quantity of rice and gur (jaggery).

DHAMAAL DANCE

A dance performed by the Siddis called dhamaal in Urs, a particular festival in Novem-ber. Their native music has mingled with local influences to form this final symbolic repre-sentation of African-Indians. This includes the ‘Goma’ music. Siddis perform in a group of twelve and four lead musicians (drummers and singers) and eight dancers.They wildly beat cylindrical drums and howl and jump. The dancers smear colour all over their body and face symbolising traditional African body art, they wear bright orange ti-ger print skirts, straw hats and breathe fire. On the head and around the waist, peacock feath-ers are used to decorate. They sing about their forefathers. Cowree shells put in a coconut shell and wrapped in a red cloth that is held in hand to produce jingle music by shaking. The combination which forms a musical in-strument known as an Ulka. While the mu-sic gradually gets more rapid and excited, the dance unfolds with constantly evolving indi-vidual and small group acts of animal imita-tions and coconut breaking The dance goes on for hours sometimes up to early morning and many a times the main dancer enters a trance by the time of finish. After everybody is tired, the dance ends with a buffalo meat feast. Per-forming dhaamal dance also acts as a source of income for the siddis.

PEOPLE AND PLACE

Earlier Siddis did not like to give education to their children beyond primary level. Higher education did not attract them. But nowadays there are countable Siddi students studying Law, BBA, BCA and many professional cours-es. But this number is not good enough to entitle Siddis as fully literate. Poverty, age old cus-toms, indifference, lack of school facilities are some of the main reasons for their educational backwardness.

JAMBUR VILLAGE

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SURROUNDINGS

VILLAGE Jambur (Madhupur)TALUKA Talala

DISTRICT JunagadhSTATE Gujarat

ELEVATION 85M above sea levelCOORDINATES Lat. 21 E, Lon. 70 NSEISMIC ZONE Seismic Zone 3 (earth-

quakes up to 6.5 on ‘Richter Scale’ may be expected)

CLIMATE Tropical wet and dry climate

TEMPERATURE 15-40 Co

RAINFALL 800 mm

Distance from Jambur to Talala is 9.1 Km. The Gir Forest and Jambur are at a 40 Km dis-tance away while Sasan is about 35 Km away from the village.

Surrounding areas include; - Mathasulia (11.5 Km) - Umri (21.4 Km) - Bherala (23.4 Km) - Sasan (24.4 Km) - Bholawat (25.5 Km)

PHYSICAL FEATURES

WATER RESOURCESThere are 2 parallel water bodies to the vil-lage i.e., river ‘Karkari’(seasonal) and the river ‘Saraswati’(used for daily chores, flows through-out the year) running on either side of the village Jambur. Saraswati provides wa-ter for their routine work apart from the taps and hand pumps which avail water at specific timings.

VEGETATION/FLORAMost of the time during the year the average temperature remains around 30 Co. Due to the high temperature, the place is basically a grassland i.e., area dominant by grass, vegeta-tion. Trees such as ‘Peepal’, ‘Harigvo’, ‘Nariya-li’, ‘Ravana’, ‘Pendula’, ‘Amla’, Coconut, ‘Neem’, Mango and ‘Jamphal’ are also cultivated.Apar from Jambur, Gir has a large variety of flora.Some of them are ‘Babul’, ‘Khair’, ‘Vad’, ‘Umro’, ‘Jambun’, ‘Charel’, ‘Sirus’, ‘Amli’.Mixed deciduous type of forest dominated by Teak covers nearly 70% of the protected area.

FAUNAThere is a very few variety of animals in Jam-bur. It consists of a large population of cattle such as goat, cow, buffalo, bullocks, etc.Apart from Jambur, Gir (16 Km away form Jambur) consists of a variety of fauna. Gir has a large population of crocodiles, which is among the 40 species of reptiles and amphib-ians recorded in the sanctuary.Some of the snakes are Python, Common Rat-snake, Keel-backs.There are approximately 250 birds, some of them are; Asian Paradise Flycatcher, White Eye, Brown Fish Owl, Night Jars, ‘Shikra’, Great Horned Owl, Black Winged Kite, Tawny Eagle and many more.

It consists of many animals such as; Lions, Leopards, ‘Nilgai’, ‘Sambhar’, Spotted Dear, Wild Boar, Jackal, ‘Chinkara’(Indian Gazelle), Rusty Spot-ted Cat.

JAMBUR VILLAGECLIMATE

Jambur experiences Composite kind of cli-mate.This climates usually occur in large land masses near Tropic of Cancer and Capricorn, which are sufficiently far from the Equator to experience marked seasonal changes in solar radiation and wind direction.Three seasons are witnessed during the year in this type of climate:Summer(Mar-Jun)19deg-310 Co

Monsoon(Jul-Oct)18deg-340 Co

Winter (Nov-Feb)14deg-290 Co

SETTLEMENT AND HABITAT

SIDDIS AND THEIR LIVING Siddis of jambur village are engaged in various occupations, they do small jobs in the day time, they work on fields, in tourist de-partments, some are truck drivers, they also cultivate sugarcane in their farm, they sell fish too earn for their livelihood and perform their traditional ‘Dhamaal’ Dance on occa-sions. In all there are 500 Siddis residing in Jambur village according to the 2011 census.

Evolving settlement of the community :With time,the community has grown in number,due to which there has been an expansion in settlement .

ARCHITECTURE

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JAMBUR VILLAGE

CONSTRUCTIONThe village of Jambur has red mud lanes as well as tar roads, a few local shops, surrounded by small residential blocks having backyards/foreyards. A small ‘Dargah’ and the graveyard nearby is located at the rear end of Jambur vil-lage. The other part of Jambur village consists of a primary school and a water tank and a few residential blocks and farms. The land form is such that there is easy disposal of water. The slopy streets dispose off the water into the small drains and the excess water runs into the water bodies which are on the either side of the village.

ARCHITECTURESTREET ELEMENTS

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ARCHITECTURE

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Street views

ARCHITECTUREStreet sketches

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SYSTEM OF PUBLIC SPACES

Characteristics

ARCHITECTURE

Scale

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Land Use

ARCHITECTURE

Sketches and Views

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HOUSES

Generally, we found stone houses, random rubble masonry and square rubble masonry are there. Masonry is plastered with mud. Roofs are pitched and covered with Mangalore tiles and supported over bamboos and wood-en rafters. Foundation is shallow about 2’ and is made up of stone. Openings are smaller than normal sizes.

MASONRYMainly there are 2 types of masonry that are seen in the Jambur village;

Random rubble

Squared rubble or Dressed Rubble

OPENINGS - Openings are smaller in size compared to

normal. - There are thresholds in every houses in

Jambur of about 100 - 150 mm high. - The levels vary at the opening of the door. - Windows or ventilations are absent in

most of the houses. - ‘Gokhlas’ are provided for keeping things.

ARCHITECTUREFOUNDATIONS - Random rubble shallow foundation in

stone masonry. - Depth of foundation is about 300 - 500

mm. - Width of a foundation is about 600 - 800

mm. - The plinth is 300 - 900 mm high. - There are extended ‘Otlas’ in front and

back facades of houses.

ROOFS - Pitched roof:-covered with Mangalore tiles

and supported with wooden members. - King-post wooden truss are used to sup-

port the roof structure. - Mangalore tiles measuring 200 x 450 x 20

mm with overlap of 80-120 mm are placed over each other.

ROOF MEMBERS - Principal rafter - Secondary rafter - Supporting rafter - Bamboo purlins - Battens - Ridge - Tie beam - Intermediate supports

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HOUSE TYPE 1

ARCHITECTURE

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HOUSE TYPE 2

ARCHITECTUREHOUSE TYPE 3

Response to Climate

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Activities

ARCHITECTURE

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HOUSE TYPE 4

ARCHITECTURE

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ARCHITECTUREHOUSE TYPE 5

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High Plinth

No Weather-shed

ARCHITECTURE

1. BACKYARD Used mainly for sanitary purpose, disposal of gar-bage and drying clothes. Covers majority of the area.

2. OTLA Used as sitting. Majorly during afternoon.

3. OPPOSITE OTLAComparatively larger olta. Used as gathering space from people from neigh-boring houses. Other used were playing cards, drying spices and clothes.

4. YARDa useless land with veg-etation presently used as dump yard.

5. STREETPopulated during evening as it is the main road to masjid.

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ARCHITECTUREHOUSE TYPE 6 HOUSE TYPE 7

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HOUSE TYPE 8

ARCHITECTUREOTHER HOUSES

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ARCHITECTURE

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ARCHITECTURE

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ARCHITECTURE