Africa–India relations refers to the historical, political, economic, military,helper and cultural connections between the India and the African continent.
Historical relations concerned mainly India and Eastern Africa. However, in modern days —and with the expansion of diplomatic and commercial representations,— India has now developed ties with most of the African nations.
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[hide]Historical background[edit]
Africa and India are separated by the Indian Ocean. The geographical proximity between the Horn of Africa and the Indian subcontinent has played an important role in the development of the relationship since ancient times.
Ancient trade relations[edit]
Little is known about contacts made between Indians and Africans before the first century CE. The only surviving source, Periplus Maris Erythraei (Periplus of the Erythraean Sea),—which dates to mid-first century—refers to trade relations between the Kingdom of Aksum (nowadays Ethiopia) and Ancient India around the first millennium. Helped by the monsoon winds, merchants traded cotton, glass beads and other goods in exchange for gold and soft-carved ivory.[1] The influence of the Indian architecture on the African kingdom shows the level of trade development between the two civilizations.[2]
Under Ptolemaic rule, Ancient Egypt dispatched two trade delegations to India.[3] The Greek Ptolemaic dynasty and India had developed bilateral trade using the Red Sea and Indian ports.[4] Controlling the western and northern end of other trade routes to Southern Arabia and India,[5] the Ptolemies had begun to exploit trading opportunities with India prior to the Roman involvement but according to the historian Strabo the volume of commerce between India and Greece was not comparable to that of later Indian-Roman trade.[6] The Periplus Maris Erythraei mentions a time when sea trade between India and Egypt did not involve direct sailings.[6] The cargo under these situations was shipped to Aden:[6]
| “ | Eudaimon Arabia was called fortunate, being once a city, when, because ships neither came from India to Egypt nor did those from Egypt dare to go further but only came as far as this place, it received the cargoes from both, just as Alexandria receives goods brought from outside and from Egypt. | ” |
The trade started by Eudoxus of Cyzicus in 130 BCE kept increasing, and according to Strabo (II.5.12.):[7]
| “ | "At any rate, when Gallus was prefect of Egypt, I accompanied him and ascended the Nile as far as Syene and the frontiers of Kingdom of Aksum, and I learned that as many as one hundred and twenty vessels were sailing from Myos Hormos to India, whereas formerly, under the Ptolemies, only a very few ventured to undertake the voyage and to carry on traffic in Indian merchandise." | ” |
In India, the ports of Barbaricum (modern Karachi), Barygaza, Muziris, Korkai, Kaveripattinam and Arikamedu on the southern tip of India were the main centers of this trade. The Periplus Maris Erythraei describes Greco-Roman merchants selling in Barbaricum "thin clothing, figured linens, topaz, coral, storax, frankincense, vessels of glass,and silver and gold plate" in exchange for "costus, bdellium, lycium, nard, turquoise, lapis lazuli, Seric skins, cotton cloth, silk yarn, and indigo".[8] In Barygaza, they would buy wheat, rice, sesame oil, cotton and cloth.[8]
With the establishment of Roman Egypt, the Romans took over and further developed the already existing trade.[4] Roman trade with India played an important role in further developing the Red Sea route. Starting around 100 BCE a route from Roman Egypt to India was established, making use of the Red Sea to cross the Arabian Sea directly to southern India.[9] Traces of Indian influences are visible in Roman works of silver and ivory, or in Egyptian cotton and silk fabrics.[10] The Indian presence in Alexandria may have influenced the culture but little is known about the manner of this influence.[10] Clement of Alexandria mentions the Buddha in his writings and other Indian religions find mentions in other texts of the period.[10]
Medieval period relations[edit]
Relations attained stronger levels during medieval times due to the development of trade routes between the Mediterranean and Asia, through Arabia.
African heritage in India[edit]
The presence of Africans in India dates back to the eighth century CE.
Under the rule of the British Empire[edit]
During the British colonial rule in the Indian Subcontinent and large parts of Africa, the Indian city of Mumbai was already a center of ivory trade between East Africa and Britain.[11]
The stay of Mohandas Gandhi in South Africa between 1893 and 1915 remains one of the main events which paved the road to the modern-day political relation