WI : Candis in Zanzibar

How do we get a Hindu Zanj /AFTER/ the conquest of Persia, Levant and North Africa by the muslims ?

Only a period of time is okay, just enough to get East African coast hosting a couple of ruins of immodest Hindu Temples where native notables are entombed. Or perhaps some sort of tantric influence in the interior to complicate native mysticism.
 
Well, I'm actuallly looking to convert the natives. The rulers at least. That it will happen only after Fatah will going to make it temporary but basically I'm aiming to get a parallel of Indonesia across the ocean : an indicized culture that gone muslim.
 
Surely it will. Pretty much an ATL sister to Swahili will rise up, I would say. First documented Swahili dated back only to 1700s, I heard.
 
The most obvious way is to have a Hindu state somewhere on the west coast with a sizable navy and merchant marine. Such a state might get trading concessions in a couple of the Swahili cities, or maybe further south, and might establish enough of a presence for a few temples to exist and for Hindu legend to pass into local myth Southeast Asia-style.

Maybe a sect that rejects the strictures against ocean travel would help, although there's disagreement about how much effect that prohibition actually had in classical and medieval times.

Another possibility is for a Muslim empire that rules both Zanj and parts of India to bring Indians to East Africa as hired laborers or slaves. That raises the question of why they'd use Indians rather than Africans, but maybe a strong inland kingdom might prevent them from taking African slaves, or maybe they'd figure that Indians who are an ocean away from home would be less able to escape. Of course this would place the Indians in a subordinate role, so they wouldn't be in a position to convert African rulers, but escapees might spread the faith to the interior, or to the lower classes on the Swahili coast.
 
Let's narrow the objective and go for coastal Hindu African states.

The one curious thing that has caught me was India's seemingly cultural block against centralized bureaucracy. But later Indian states such as Mysore had the potential to build a centralized kingdom. Badshah in his TL has her achieving it very early, but I wonder if, say, the Cholas or Chalukyas could've done so even earlier and orient themselves more towards trade. As for sea-going ban, I thought it was just a north Indian thing.

One more thing besides India's strength, would be to disrupt muslim dominance in trade. I'm not sure how, but the point is to enable the Hindus to take over Indian Ocean middleman position from the Arabs, at least for a decent while during medieval era.
 
The one curious thing that has caught me was India's seemingly cultural block against centralized bureaucracy. But later Indian states such as Mysore had the potential to build a centralized kingdom. Badshah in his TL has her achieving it very early, but I wonder if, say, the Cholas or Chalukyas could've done so even earlier and orient themselves more towards trade. As for sea-going ban, I thought it was just a north Indian thing.

Centralized bureaucracy wouldn't necessarily be needed - Greek-style overseas colonies could do just as well as an empire.

The best starting point might be Cheras rather than Cholas - they did a lot of business with the Greek and Arab worlds in OTL, so it's not impossible to imagine them wanting their own merchant fleet. If that happens, there could be Chera trading colonies on the East African coast by the fifth century or so (or, if you want to make sure Mohammed isn't butterflied, the sixth). The Muslims could then conquer these colonies later, but by that time you'd have your Indonesia-style Hindu overlay. Depending on how far south or west the Cheras get, there might be a few unconquered colonies to provide ongoing interaction and conflict.
 

katchen

Banned
Indeed. The Hindus could get as far as Dayak settled Madagascar and the Shona settled Zambesi Valley and the Ngumi settled South African coast all the way to the Great Fish River. Maybe even to the Cape of Good Hope, considering that these Hindus will have wheat and cattle--necessary for agriculture between the Great Fish River and the Cape of Good Hope. These Hinduvta Ngumi will defeat the Khoi yet.
 
Aren't the currents unfavourable for following the coast south past Madagascar? I'm sure that I've seen that given as the reason for the lack of Arab/Swahili/Muslim settlements along that section of coast...
 
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