they're part of the 20,000 siddis, an ethnic group of african descent, who live in gujarat, western india. [boy speaking local language] narrator: though far removed] from their a ancestral lands, te siddis s have cheherished their culture. [drums beating] now it's a source of income for them. narrator: imran is a siddi, a descendant of the bantu people from southeast africa. he believes his ancestors originally came from uganda. now he lives in a small village called jambur, with his mother and grandmother. the village is surrounded by the forest of gir, the last bastion of the world's 500 remaining asiatic lions. centuries ago, africans from ethiopia, eritrea, and somalia sailed to the indian subcontinent as merchants, while others were brought as slaves. the siddis say they were an elite group of slaves, serving the ruling class only. because of their loyalty and military skills, they were favored by india's nawabs, or muslim rulers, and the mughals, the muslim imperial power in the early 16th century. the siddis rose to positions of power, serving as kings themselves over princely cit

for the next part of myjourney, i'm heading to the south—east of gujarat, to the town ofjunagadh.me, nothing sums up this country better than the indian railway network. more than any political act, they say that this is what unifies this country. i remember as a small child being on an indian train and being totally overwhelmed by it, but i love it. ah, this feels imminent. who knows when this was made, this train? it looks pretty damn old to me. but wow, look at that. it's a network that ferries millions of passengers daily across tens of thousands of track to nearly 7,000 stations. it's one of the world's biggest employers. if there's one defining legacy of british rule, it's the vast, sprawling, creaking indian railway network. it's still the lifeblood of the country today. they sing. i'll tell you this. you wouldn't get this on a suburban train on a cold wednesday morning in london, or any other western city. this is unique. do you know everyone on this carriage? yeah. yeah, from the train journey? yeah, trainjourney, train friends. you're the train friends, excellent. you ha

i began in gujarat, in the far west. this is genuinely incredible, i'm in heaven. pretty crowded.ek, i've travelled 2000 miles over to the north—east. i'm on the banks of the mighty river brahmaputra, and about to go to a very spiritual place. it's one of india's lesser—known regions. we're really high up, and just to my right, the border with bangladesh. a part of the country which prides itself on its traditions. he makes it look so easy. it's incredibly difficult. but it's also looking forward and embracing progress. so now, i'm on my way to go and see assam's very own eco—warrior. it is going to be an incredible adventure. india's north—east, a collection of eight states, almost cut off from the rest of this vast country, but for a tiny strip of land. at partition, a large swathe of this region was sectioned off, to become east pakistan, which later became bangladesh, leaving the indian area landlocked. it's geographically and culturally out on a limb. this is frontier country, little—known to tourists and other indians alike. they call it the land of cloud, that's because of

the indian state of gujarat have passed a law which increases the penalty for slaughtering cows fromenalty for slaughtering cows from seven years to life. and that the new law india's strictest ever, carl stalker will also become a non—bailable offence. —— slaughtering cows. they are widely considered sacred by —— considered sacred by india's hindu majority. and now the sport. a big weekend of premier league football. a particularly famous fixture, the merseyside derby. liverpool and everton have met over 200 times, they are grounds and metres apart and domestic football returns across europe and what a match to start us off. both managers understand the significance. everton are a good team, they have a very good run, did not lose a lot of games recently, good results, confident but we're liverpool, we play at anfield and nobody should underestimate the power of anfield and whenever we played that we have to create a special atmosphere. it is a new season, a new game, a new manager for everton and i do not know why, i heard a bit about the last two seasons of everton that maybe they