Konkani Muslims (or ''Kokani'' Muslims) are an ethnoreligious subgroup of the

Konkani people The Konkani people are an Indo-Aryan peoples, Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group native to the Konkan region of the Indian subcontinent. They speak various dialects of the Konkani language. Following the Konkani language agitation, Konkani becam ...

of the

Konkan The Konkan is a stretch of land by the western coast of India, bound by the river Daman Ganga at Damaon in the north, to Anjediva Island next to Karwar town in the south; with the Arabian Sea to the west and the Deccan plateau to the eas ...

i region along the west

coast of India Coastal India is a geo-cultural region in the Indian subcontinent that spans the entire coastline of India. In 2024, the Indian total coastline was estimated to be 11,098 km. Earlier in 1970, the National Hydrographic Office and Survey ...

, who practice

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

. '' Nawayath'' and "

Nakhuda A Nakhuda was the captain of a pearling boat sailing in the Persian Gulf, typically from Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (then the Trucial States). Arabian Pearling vessels would typically take to sea with the ''Nakhuda'', ass ...

" Muslims from the

North Canara Uttara Kannada is a fifth largest district in the Indian state of Karnataka, It is bordered by the state of Goa and Belagavi districts to the north, Dharwad District and Haveri District to the east, Shivamogga District, and Udupi District to ...

district of

Karnataka Karnataka ( ) is a States and union territories of India, state in the southwestern region of India. It was Unification of Karnataka, formed as Mysore State on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, States Re ...

have similar origin as Konkani Muslims, but show a distinct ethnolinguistic identity due to geographical isolation of the

Canara Kanara or Canara, also known as Karāvali, is the historically significant stretch of land situated by the southwestern Konkan coast of India, alongside the Arabian Sea in the present-day Indian state of Karnataka. The subregion comprises thr ...

coast from the Konkan coast.

Geography

The Konkani Muslim community forms a part of the larger Konkani-speaking demographic and are predominantly located in the

Konkan division Konkan division is one of the six administrative divisions of Maharashtra state in India. It comprises the central portions of the Konkani region, excluding Goa and Damaon, which were absorbed into Maharashtra owing to the States Reorganisat ...

of the Indian state of

Maharashtra Maharashtra () is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. It is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west, the Indian states of Karnataka and Goa to the south, Telangana to th ...

. This includes the administrative districts of

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

, Mumbai Suburban,

Palghar Palghar () is a prominent town in the Konkan division of Maharashtra state, India, and a municipal council. It is strategically located within the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, and since 2014, it has been the administrative capital of the Palgh ...

Thane Thane (; previously known as Thana, List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1996) is a metropolitan city located on the northwestern side of the list of Indian states, state of Maharashtra in India and on ...

, Raigad,

Ratnagiri Ratnagiri (IAST:Ratnāgirī ; �ət̪n̪aːɡiɾiː is a port city on the Arabian Sea coast in Ratnagiri District in southwestern Maharashtra, India. The district is part of Konkan division of Maharashtra. The city is known for the Hapus or ...

, and

Sindhudurg Sindhudurg Fort (Marathi pronunciation: in̪d̪ʱud̪uɾɡ is a historical sea fort located in Arabian Sea near the Konkan region of Maharashtra in Western India. The fort, commissioned by Chhatrapati Shivaji, was constructed between 1664 ...

. There is a diaspora Konkani Muslim community based in

Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf, sometimes called the Arabian Gulf, is a Mediterranean seas, mediterranean sea in West Asia. The body of water is an extension of the Arabian Sea and the larger Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.Un ...

states, the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, and

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. Some Konkani Muslims migrated to

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

during the

Partition of India The partition of India in 1947 was the division of British India into two independent dominion states, the Dominion of India, Union of India and Dominion of Pakistan. The Union of India is today the Republic of India, and the Dominion of Paki ...

in 1947, and are presently settled in

Karachi Karachi is the capital city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Sindh, Pakistan. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, largest city in Pakistan and 12th List of largest cities, largest in the world, with a popul ...

, as part of the larger

Muhajir Muhajir or Mohajir (, '; pl. , ') is an Arabic word meaning ''migrant'' (see immigration and emigration) which is also used in other languages spoken by Muslims, including English. In English, this term and its derivatives may refer in a general s ...

community.

History

Since antiquity, the Konkan coast has had mercantile relations with major ports on the Red Sea and Persian Gulf. Konkani Muslims can trace their ancestry to traders from

Hadhramaut Hadhramaut ( ; ) is a geographic region in the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula which includes the Yemeni governorates of Hadhramaut, Shabwah and Mahrah, Dhofar in southwestern Oman, and Sharurah in the Najran Province of Saudi A ...

(in

Yemen Yemen, officially the Republic of Yemen, is a country in West Asia. Located in South Arabia, southern Arabia, it borders Saudi Arabia to Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, the north, Oman to Oman–Yemen border, the northeast, the south-eastern part ...

South Arabia South Arabia (), or Greater Yemen, is a historical region that consists of the southern region of the Arabian Peninsula in West Asia, mainly centered in what is now the Republic of Yemen, yet it has also historically included Najran, Jazan, ...

), the North of Indian (Haryana/Punjab) and other parts of

Arabia The Arabian Peninsula (, , or , , ) or Arabia, is a peninsula in West Asia, situated north-east of Africa on the Arabian plate. At , comparable in size to India, the Arabian Peninsula is the largest peninsula in the world. Geographically, the ...

and the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

, who visited the Konkan coast between the seventh and eighth centuries AD and fled persecution in North India, during the rule of the

Chalukya The Chalukya dynasty () was a Classical Indian dynasty that ruled large parts of southern and central India between the 6th and the 12th centuries. During this period, they ruled as three related yet individual dynasties. The earliest dynas ...

and

Rashtrakuta The Rashtrakuta Empire was a royal Indian polity ruling large parts of the Indian subcontinent between the 6th and 10th centuries. The earliest known Rashtrakuta inscription is a 7th-century copper plate grant detailing their rule from Manapu ...

dynasties. In the later eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Konkani Muslims became influential sailors, merchants, and government employees as the port city of Bombay (present

) began developing.

Demography

Ancestry formed the basis for social stratification: Konkani people are direct descendants of Arab traders formed an elite class over those who had indirect descent through intermarriages with local women converts to Islam. The Konkani people have a varied ethnic background as most Muslims within the region are descendants of people who migrated from the Delhi region,

(in

), Iran and other parts of

and the

Religion

Konkani Muslims follow the

Shafi’i The Shafi'i school or Shafi'i Madhhab () or Shafi'i is one of the four major schools of fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), belonging to the Ahl al-Hadith tradition within Sunni Islam. It was founded by the Muslim scholar, jurist, and traditionist al ...

Islamic

jurisprudence Jurisprudence, also known as theory of law or philosophy of law, is the examination in a general perspective of what law is and what it ought to be. It investigates issues such as the definition of law; legal validity; legal norms and values ...

This is in contrast to the Deccan regions, where Muslims adhere to the

Hanafi The Hanafi school or Hanafism is the oldest and largest Madhhab, school of Islamic jurisprudence out of the four schools within Sunni Islam. It developed from the teachings of the Faqīh, jurist and theologian Abu Hanifa (), who systemised the ...

school.

Language

Konkanis speak a variety of dialects of

Konkani __NOTOC__ Konkani may refer to: Language * Konkani language is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in the Konkan region of India. * Konkani alphabets, different scripts used to write the language **Konkani in the Roman script, one of the scripts used to ...

collectively called

Maharashtrian Konkani Maharashtri Konkani or Konkan Marathi, is a group of Konkanic dialects spoken in the Konkan division of the Konkan region. George Abraham Grierson, a British Indian linguist of the colonial era referred to these dialects as the ''Konkan S ...

Cuisine

The cuisine of Konkani Muslims is meat and seafood. Its staple food is rice and bread made of rice (preferred at dinners) with meat/fish and lentils or vegetables. It is mainly influenced by Kashmiri people who settled in the late 1800s fleeing tensions in the North of India.

Notable Konkani Muslims

Rafiq Zakaria Rafiq Zakaria (5 April 1920 – 9 July 2005) was an Indian politician and Islamic religious cleric. Zakaria represented India abroad at the United Nations thrice. He was the first Muslim urban and development minister of the newly created Mah ...

- Indian politician, ex-Deputy Chairman, Rajya Sabha & Cabinet Minister in Maharashtra State *

Abdul Rehman Antulay Abdul Rahman Antulay (9 February 1929 – 2 December 2014) was an Indian politician. Antulay was a union minister for Ministry of Minority Affairs (India), Minority Affairs and a Member of Parliament (India), Member of Parliament in the 14th Lok ...

- Indian politician, ex-Chief Minister of MaharashtraA. R. Antulay - Official biographical sketch in Parliament of India website
*

Hamid Dalwai Hamid Umar Dalwai (29 September 1932 – 3 May 1977) was an Indian journalist, social reformer, thinker, activist, author, writer and the founder of Muslim Satyashodhak Mandal and Indian Secular Society. Despite being an atheist, he attempted a ...

- writer and social reformer *

Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar Dawood Ibrahim (, ; born 26 December 1955) is an Indian mob boss, drug lord, and terrorist. He reportedly heads the Indian organised crime syndicate D-Company, which he founded in Mumbai in the 1970s. Ibrahim is wanted on charges including m ...

, Indian crime boss and terrorist *

Zakir Naik Zakir Abdul Karim Naik (born 18 October 1965) is an Indian Islamic da'i and orator who focuses on comparative religion. He is the founder and president of the Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) and Peace TV. He is a well-known figure in the Isl ...

- Islamic comparative theologian *

Fareed Zakaria Fareed Rafiq Zakaria (; born January 20, 1964) is an Indian-born American journalist, political commentator, and author. He is the host of CNN's '' Fareed Zakaria GPS'' and writes a weekly paid column for ''The Washington Post.'' He has been a c ...

- journalist

References

External links

*
Melting pot: Konkani Muslims in Kalyan hold on to their legacy amid urbanisation
{{Authority control

Muslims Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

Muslim communities of India Social groups of Maharashtra Muslim communities of Maharashtra Social groups of Karnataka Muslim communities of Karnataka Muslim communities of Pakistan Indian diaspora in South Africa Arab diaspora in India Sub-ethnic groups Muslim ethnoreligious groups Ethnoreligious groups in India