People of Indian descent had long interacted with the Swahili of East Africa. This interrelationship became particularly momentous during British colonial rule that gave additional impetus to Indian migration to East Africa. In time East Africa, in general, and Mombasa, Kenya’s second largest city, in particular, became home to significant populations of Indian settler communities. Motivated by an immigrant psychology and relatively privileged status under colonial rule, Indian immigrants took full advantage of the opportunities to become remarkably successful socially and economically.Local inhabitants were fully aware of the success of Indian immigrants of East Africa, and for some of them, the Indian record became a yard stick for their own successes and failures. Among these was Sheikh Al-Amin bin Ali Mazrui (1891-1947), famed for his reformist ideas about East African Islam. Using his Swahili periodical, Swahifa , he tried to galvanize members of Swahili-Muslim community towards the goal of community uplift by drawing on the experiences of East African Indians as a way of referring them back to some of the fundamentals of a progressive Islamic civilization in matters of the economy, education, and cultural preservation. In this sense, the East African Indian “mirror” became an important means of propagating Sheikh Al-Amin’s agenda of an alternative modernity rooted in Islamic civilization.

中文翻译：

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印度人作为蒙巴萨殖民地中斯瓦希里语镜的经历

印度裔人长期以来与东非的斯瓦希里语互动。在英国殖民统治期间，这种相互关系变得尤为重要，这进一步推动了印度向东非的迁移。总体上说来，东非地区，尤其是肯尼亚第二大城市蒙巴萨，成为大量印度定居者社区的所在地。受移民心理和殖民统治下的相对特权地位的激励，印度移民充分利用了在社会和经济上取得显著成功的机会。当地居民充分意识到东非的印度移民的成功，对于其中一些人来说，印度唱片成为他们成功和失败的准绳。其中包括谢赫·阿敏·本·阿里·马祖瑞（1891-1947），以他对东非伊斯兰教的改良主义思想而闻名。他利用斯瓦希里语期刊《 Swahifa》，通过借鉴东非印第安人的经验，鼓励斯瓦希里语-穆斯林社区的成员朝着提升社区的目标迈进，以此来使他们回到伊斯​​兰文明的一些基本原理上。经济，教育和文化保护问题。从这个意义上讲，东非印第安人的“镜子”成为传播谢赫·阿敏的“以伊斯兰文明为根基的另类现代性”议程的重要手段。他试图通过借鉴东非印第安人的经验来激发斯瓦希里语-穆斯林社区的成员朝着提升社区的目标迈进，以此来使他们回到经济，教育，和文化保护。从这个意义上讲，东非印第安人的“镜子”成为传播谢赫·阿敏的“以伊斯兰文明为根基的另类现代性”议程的重要手段。他试图通过借鉴东非印第安人的经验来鼓励斯瓦希里语-穆斯林社区的成员朝着提高社区的目标迈进，以此来使他们回到经济，教育，和文化保护。从这个意义上讲，东非印第安人的“镜子”成为传播谢赫·阿敏的“以伊斯兰文明为根基的另类现代性”议程的重要手段。