Shantharam Budna Siddi is also the first in the community to hold a degree. Shantharam Budna Siddi, one of the five newly nominated MLCs by Karnataka’s BJP government, is from the Siddi community — a small group of the community believed to be descendants of the Bantu people from Southeast Africa. Shantharam, who never dreamt of becoming the MLC, is happy that through him the Siddi community has got recognised in the State and the Country. “I will continue to create awareness about the title deeds to the land belonging to the Siddi community so that people in the community will not face threats of evictions,” he added. The people from the Siddi community are also into athletics.

Source: Indian Express July 24, 2020 07:30 UTC