People of Andaman and Nicobar Island

The original tribal people who lived here are the great Andamanese, Jarawas, Sentinelese and Onges in the Andaman group and the Nicobarese and Shompens in the Nicobar group. Along with them, the present-day Andaman and Nicobar Islands are the homes of descendants of hundreds of prisoners from all part of India who constituted the penal settlement during the British Raj.

They are the offspring’s of the Moplas of Malabar deported during the Mopla Rebellion, the Kilafat movement and of refugees from the rest while east Pakistan who settled over thirty years ago with hope for a new life; or ex-servicemen of the Indian Army; of jobseekers and adventurers from every corner of India.

Settlers

In Andaman and Nicobar Islands more than 50 percent of the population is made up of settlers from the mainland India. That is why many describe Andamans as a Little India or a mini-India. Everyone speaks Hindi no matter which part of the mainland he comes from. The settlers or ancestors of these settlers came either prior to 1947 or after 1947.

In the course of seven or eight decades, till about the thirties, thousands of prisoners form north, south, east and west and central Indian regions were brought in. Many women came there as prisoners or as relations to liberated prisoners. Majority of prisoners after serving their term chose to stay on.

There was a lot of social mixing without any inhabitation of traditional social restraints. There were inter-caste and inter-creed marriages. Thus a new social order and culture evolved, discarding the values of traditional society and culture of the mainland.

In the early twenties several hundred Moplas or Mappillas were deported following the Malabar revolt. Many of them later brought their families and relatives to settle down in the Andamans. Many villages in South Andamans are inhabited by them forming a big chunk of Malayalam speaking population there. In the case of Moplas their traditional life style has not changed much. They still maintain their separate identity.

Karens migrated in 1925 to work as forest Labourers. Later they settled down on agricultural land in Middle Andamans. At present some of them live in separate settlements doing fisherman’s job and hunting in Maimyo and Herbertabad. Many Burmans in Maimyo and Burma after 1966. They too had come as convicts. The few who remain have preserved their distinct identity. The Karens are concentrated in webi, Base and Letaw.