Gujarat

Majority of the Afro-Indians presently live in the cities, towns, and villages of Gujarat and they are an ethnically and culturally diverse group. They are known as Sidis or Sidi Badshahs and most of the Afro-Indian communities are followers of the Sufi saint Bava Gor. According to the Sidis, Bava Gor was an Abyssinian military leader and messenger of god who was sent on a mission from Africa to the Indian Ocean to subdue a demoness called Makhan Devi who was harassing the local people of Gujarat. Bava Gor's siblings, his brother Bava Habash and sister Mai Misra followed him to Gujarat and assisted in vanquishing the demoness and liberating the local population. While the contemporary Sidi population considers themselves as descendants of Bava Gor,  scholars argue that the Sidi communities in Gujarat came to India during a later period of the slave trade, operated by Europeans, Arabs, and Gujarati merchant. In the case of Gujarat, not all Africans were slaves, some of them were employed by the local rulers as agricultural laborers, tax collectors, administrators, soldiers, and domestic servants, while others worked in the commercial ports of Gujarat. Today, the dargah of Bava Gor in Ratanpur is a significant site of worship for the Muslim Sidi communities in the state of Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Karnataka. Aside from the central shrine at Ratanpur, there are several memorials shrines or chillas dedicated to Bava Gor, Bava Habash, and Mai Misra all over Gujarat that are maintained by the local Sidi families.