Amit's Blog

A journey through matrilineal uncles, roasted masalas, snake worship, and the real reason your Mangalorean friend judges your sambar The Western Ghats are not a mountain range. They are a 1,600-kilometer custody order separating two warring siblings: coastal Karnataka—wet, matrilineal, coconut-drunk, spirit-worshipping—and interior Karnataka—dry, patrilineal, millet-chewing, temple-proud. For two millennia, the Ghats ensured that a Mangalorean fish curry and a Mysore ragi mudde never shared the same plate. Colonial ports bred English-speaking, pork-eating cosmopolitans. Princely Mysore bred Sanskrit-spouting, ghee-pouring royals. Today, Bengaluru’s traffic jams blur the line, but ask a Bunt about Aliyasantana and a Lingayat about gotra—they will stare at each other like Europeans meeting Amazonians. The irony? They now meet in corporate cafes eating quinoa salads, united only in their disdain for the other’s pickles. Across the Ghats, a line of rain, One side feast, one side grain...

Siddis of the Sea: A Tale of Coastal Might and Missed Opportunities The Siddis, an East African diaspora in India, carved a remarkable naval legacy on the Konkan coast, establishing the Janjira State in the late 15th century. From a wooden fort captured by Piram Khan, they built the impregnable Murud Janjira Fort, a marvel with 19 bastions and a self-sufficient design. Their agile navy dominated coastal trade, bolstered by Mughal alliances, yet they never challenged European powers like the Portuguese and British due to technological and strategic limitations. Rival Marathas, led by Shivaji, built Padmadurg to counter Janjira but failed due to incomplete construction and Siddi artillery superiority. The Siddis held other bastions like Danda-Rajpuri and Underi, but British dominance reduced Janjira to a princely state by the 19th century, ending in 1948 with India’s independence. Today, Siddi communities in Gujarat, Karnataka, and Telangana preserve their Afro-Indian heritage, with Mu...