Indian origins
Dobbin (1970) refers to the Khojas as a Hindu trading class which abandoned Hinduism, possibly in the thirteenth century at the time when Nizari Ismaili Muslims fleeing persecution entered South Asia preaching their particular brand of Islam (Titus 1930). One of the two groups referred to by the name Khoja is the Ismaili group which includes the Kachchi-speaking Ismailis in East Africa. Bharati (1972) asserts that these Ismailis were converted Lohana Hindus, and says that this is common knowledge among South Asian Hindus and Muslims in East Africa. Dobbin’s picture, by contrast is that of an intact social unit converting to the new religion, reminiscent of the movement of Chuhra Hindus in the Punjab to Christianity early in this century (Stock 1975). If so, this group may have been an endogamous unit prior to the thirteenth century. This has certainly been the case in recent centuries. According to Nanji (1974) the conversion process was complete by the fifteenth century. From then on the Khoja Ismailis were one of several endogamous Kachchi-speaking Muslim and Hindu groups who arguably fit many of the criteria of distinct ethnic identity mentioned by Parsons (1975): they were a transgenerational collectivity, they viewed themselves as a distinct group and were so viewed by others, sharing a common culture. In the case of Hinduism and Islam, religious differences come to be reflected in linguistic differences, as with of Hindu Hindi and Muslim Urdu, Hindu Sindhi and Muslim Sindhi, Hindu Dhatki and Muslim Dhatki, etc. For instance, basic greeting and leave-taking formulas will differ, giving instant religiously significant linguistic marking to interactional encounters.