Android ndk version r11c.

The crash happens very early on python startup.  The SIGILL occurs when python is built 'with-pydebug'.

Python runs fine on the armv5te emulator when built with clang without '-mthumb'.
Python runs fine on the armv5te emulator when built with gcc 4.9 with or without '-mthumb'.

Attaching the strace and logcat output for each type of build.

The backtrace when python is built 'with-pydebug' (but logcat.txt says that the SIGSEGV occurs at PyUnicode_DecodeUTF8Stateful when not built 'with-pydebug'):

Program received signal SIGILL, Illegal instruction.
0xb6d77e0a in r_object (p=0xbed89588)
    at Python/marshal.c:1340
1340                idx = r_ref_reserve(flag, p);
(gdb) bt
#0  0xb6d77e0a in r_object (p=0xbed89588)
    at Python/marshal.c:1340
#1  0xb6d76ba2 in PyMarshal_ReadObjectFromString (str=0xb6e5f9ae <_Py_M__importlib> "c", len=30106)
    at Python/marshal.c:1584
#2  0xb6d72506 in PyImport_ImportFrozenModuleObject (name='_frozen_importlib')
    at Python/import.c:1187
#3  0xb6d727ec in PyImport_ImportFrozenModule (name=0xb6e49ac0 "_frozen_importlib")
    at Python/import.c:1236
#4  0xb6d7ff96 in import_init (interp=0xb6919068, sysmod=<module at remote 0xb688a818>)
    at Python/pylifecycle.c:243
#5  0xb6d7fc80 in _Py_InitializeEx_Private (install_sigs=1, install_importlib=1)
    at Python/pylifecycle.c:413
#6  0xb6d80f30 in Py_InitializeEx (install_sigs=1)
    at Python/pylifecycle.c:450
#7  0xb6d80f3e in Py_Initialize ()
    at Python/pylifecycle.c:456
#8  0xb6daa5e6 in Py_Main (argc=1, argv=0xb6901068)
    at Modules/main.c:678
#9  0xb6f9b84c in ?? ()