Sometimes, the most fascinating discoveries about a country are not found in its political institutions, economic ambitions or geopolitical significance. They are found in the ordinary words spoken by its people.
During my recent visit to Somaliland, one such discovery caught my attention. The Somali word gaadhi, meaning a vehicle or car, sounded remarkably familiar to the Hindi word gaadi, which carries essentially the same meaning.
It was a small linguistic coincidence, or perhaps something much more historically significant. It made me curious about how many other words spoken in Somaliland resemble words used across India.
As I explored further, I discovered that the similarities extend beyond a single word. They offer an interesting window into the centuries-old connections between the Indian subcontinent and the Horn of Africa.
An Ocean That Connected Civilisations
For centuries, the Indian Ocean was not a barrier separating India from Africa. It was a highway connecting civilisations.
Long before modern diplomatic relationships, merchants, sailors, scholars and travellers moved between the western coast of India, the Arabian Peninsula and the ports of the Horn of Africa.
Somaliland’s historic coastal towns, particularly Berbera and Zeila, were important centres in these commercial networks. Indian merchants, especially those from Gujarat and other western coastal trading communities, participated in the wider commercial life of the region.
Goods travelled across these waters, but so did ideas, customs, food, religious traditions and languages.
When people trade with one another over generations, their vocabularies inevitably begin to reflect those encounters.
This is one reason why certain words spoken in Somaliland sound surprisingly familiar to an Indian ear.
Words That Sound Like Home
Consider a few examples.
In Somaliland, gaadhi refers to a vehicle. In Hindi and Urdu, gaadi is commonly used for a vehicle or car.
The Somali word rooti, meaning bread, resembles the Indian roti. The Somali jabaati is even more striking because it refers to a flatbread closely associated with the Indian chapati.
Then there is baaldi, meaning bucket, which resembles the Hindi and Urdu balti.
Other similarities appear in words that travelled through Arabic, Persian and the wider Islamic trading world.
The Somali kitaab and the Hindi-Urdu kitaab both mean book. Kursi means chair in both languages. Xisaab resembles hisaab, referring to calculation or accounts. Jawaab means answer, while waqti resembles waqt, meaning time.
The Somali nasiib and the Hindi-Urdu naseeb both refer to fortune or destiny.
The similarities reveal something significant: India and Somaliland have long participated in overlapping worlds of commerce, culture and communication.
The Indian Connection to Somaliland Is Older Than Modern Diplomacy
When India and Somaliland are discussed today, the conversation generally revolves around diplomatic recognition, maritime security, strategic geography, economic opportunities and regional stability.
These are important subjects. But the relationship between the peoples of the two regions predates the political questions of the modern era.
Indian traders were familiar participants in commercial networks linking the subcontinent with the Gulf of Aden and East Africa.
Berbera’s position along the Gulf of Aden made it a natural point of contact between African markets and the maritime economies of Arabia and Asia.
Indian textiles, food products and other merchandise circulated through these networks. African livestock, hides, gums and other commodities moved in the opposite direction.
Under British colonial administration, commercial and administrative connections with British India added another dimension to these exchanges.
The result was not simply an economic relationship. It was an accumulation of human interactions that influenced the everyday lives of communities across the Indian Ocean.
Language preserves traces of those interactions long after the merchants and sailors who carried the words have disappeared.
Chapati May Tell a Bigger Story Than Politics
Perhaps one of the most delightful connections is food.
In India, chapati is an everyday staple in millions of homes. In Somaliland, jabaati is a familiar flatbread, often eaten as part of breakfast or other meals.
The preparation and serving traditions are not identical, but the resemblance in name and culinary form is unmistakable.
Food has a remarkable ability to travel across borders without passports, treaties or diplomatic recognition.
A recipe moves with a merchant. A cooking technique moves with a family. A word moves with the dish itself.
Over generations, what begins as an imported practice becomes part of local culture.
Today, a Somaliland family eating jabaati and an Indian family eating chapati may have little reason to think about their shared historical connections.
Yet the resemblance offers a reminder that cultural relationships are often older and more enduring than political arrangements.
Somaliland and India’s Shared Maritime Heritage
There is also a larger strategic lesson in these linguistic connections.
India’s engagement with Africa is sometimes described primarily through contemporary investments, development partnerships, energy security and diplomatic initiatives.
However, India’s relationship with the African continent has deeper civilisational foundations.
The western Indian Ocean historically connected the Indian subcontinent with the Arabian Peninsula, the Somali coast and the wider East African region.
Somaliland occupies a strategically important position within this maritime geography.
Berbera, situated near one of the world’s most consequential shipping corridors, has the potential to serve as a commercial bridge between the Horn of Africa, the Gulf and South Asia.
For India, understanding Somaliland should therefore involve more than examining its present political status.
It should include recognising the historical networks that connected Indian communities with the people of this region.
Language, food and shared commercial memories can become valuable foundations for educational exchanges, tourism, cultural diplomacy and stronger people-to-people relationships.
The Familiarity of a Distant Land
What struck me most during my visit to Somaliland was how quickly certain unfamiliar surroundings began to feel familiar.
The hospitality of the people, the importance attached to family, the vitality of local markets and the warmth of everyday interactions reminded me of experiences in India.
Of course, Somaliland has its own distinct language, identity, history and cultural traditions. It would be wrong to reduce those traditions to similarities with India.
But discovering familiar words in another society creates an immediate human connection.
When someone says gaadhi, an Indian who knows the word gaadi instinctively understands something.
When one encounters jabaati, the connection with chapati is equally immediate.
And when words such as kitaab, kursi, hisaab and jawaab emerge in conversation, the linguistic distance between the two societies appears smaller than geography might suggest.
These are modest discoveries, but they encourage a broader appreciation of the historical relationships between peoples.
A Relationship Worth Rediscovering
I believe India and Somaliland have an opportunity to rediscover their historical connections and build upon them.
That relationship need not begin with grand declarations or complicated geopolitical frameworks.
It can begin with cultural exchanges, academic research, historical documentation, business partnerships and conversations between ordinary people.
There is considerable scope for scholars from India and Somaliland to study the movement of words, foods, trading communities and cultural practices across the Indian Ocean.
Such research could help distinguish direct South Asian influences from the broader Arabic and Persian linguistic heritage shared by both regions.
It could also uncover lesser-known chapters of Indian commercial engagement with Somaliland’s historic ports.
For a region whose contemporary political identity is frequently discussed through the lens of sovereignty and international recognition, these cultural connections offer another important perspective.
They remind us that the history of Somaliland cannot be understood solely through the political developments of 1960 or 1991.
Its story also belongs to the much older history of Indian Ocean civilisation.
From Gaadi to Gaadhi
A single word can sometimes open the door to centuries of history. For me, that word was gaadhi.
What began as a moment of recognition became an invitation to explore the shared linguistic and cultural heritage of two geographically distant societies.
India and Somaliland may be separated by the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Aden, but their peoples have been connected through maritime exchanges for generations.
Some of those connections remain visible in food. Others survive in trade traditions. Still others are preserved in the words people use without giving their origins a second thought.
Perhaps that is the most beautiful aspect of cultural history. Political boundaries may change, governments may rise and fall, and diplomatic relationships may evolve, but the words inherited from centuries of human interaction continue to live.
From gaadi to gaadhi, the distance between India and Somaliland is not always measured in nautical miles. Sometimes, it is measured in a single familiar word.
