(From Wikipedia as on October 09, 2011)
The Andaman and Nicobar Islands are a group of islands in the Bay of Bengal and a Union Territory of India.
The territory is located geographically 150 km (93 mi) north of
Aceh in Indonesia and separated from Thailand and Burma by the
Andaman Sea. It comprises two island groups, the
Andaman Islands and the
Nicobar Islands, separated by the 10° N parallel, with the Andamans to the north of this
latitude, and the Nicobars to the south. The Andaman Sea lies to the east and the
Bay of Bengal to the west.
The territory's capital is the Andamanese town of
Port Blair. The territory's population as per the most recent (2011)
Census of India was 379,944. Added together, the total land area of the territory is approximately 6,496 km
2 (2,508 sq mi).
History
First Inhabitants
The Andaman and Nicobar islands have been inhabited for several thousand years, at the very least. The earliest archaeological evidence yet documented goes back some 2,200 years; however, the indications from genetic, cultural and isolation studies point to habitation going back 30,000 to 60,000 years, well into the
Middle Paleolithic.
In the Andaman Islands, the various
Andamanese people maintained their separated existence through the vast majority of this time, diversifying into distinct linguistic, cultural and territorial groups. By the 1850s when they first came into sustained contact by outside groups, the indigenous people of the Andamans were:
In total, these people numbered somewhere around 7,000 at the time of these first encounters. As the numbers of settlers from the mainland increased (at first mostly prisoners and involuntary indentured labourers, later purposely recruited farmers), these indigenous people lost territory and numbers in the face of punitive expeditions by British troops, land encroachment and the effects of various epidemic diseases. The Jangil and most of the Great Andamanese groups soon became extinct; presently there remain only approximately 400–450 indigenous Andamanese, the Jarawa and Sentinelese in particular maintaining a steadfast independence and refusing most attempts at contact.
The indigenous people of the Nicobars (unrelated to the Andamanese) have a similarly isolated and lengthy association with the islands. There are two main groups:
Danish occupation of the Nicobar Islands
The history of organized European colonization on the islands began when the Danish settlers of the
Danish East India Company arrived on Nicobar Islands on 12 Dec 1755. On Jan 1, 1756, the Nicobar Islands was made a Danish colony and renamed 'New Denmark'. In Dec 1756, the Nicobar Islands was renamed 'Frederiksøerne' (Frederiks Islands). During 1754–1756 they were administrated under the name of
Frederiksøerne from
Tranquebar (in continental
Danish India); missionaries from the
Moravian Church Brethren's settlement in
Tranquebar attempted a settlement on
Nancowry and died in great numbers from disease; the islands were repeatedly abandoned due to outbreaks of malaria between 14 Apr 1759 - 19 Aug 1768, from 1787-1807/05, 1814-1831, 1830–1834 and finally from 1848 gradually for good.
From 1 Jun 1778 to 1784, they were occupied by
Austria, and renamed 'Theresia Islands', attempting to
establish a colony on the islands on the mistaken assumption that Denmark had abandoned its claims to the islands.
[7] Danish involvement ended formally on 16 October 1868 when the Danish rights to the Nicobar Islands were sold to Britain,
[7] which made them part of
British India by 1869 when the British took possession.
British colonial period
After an initial attempt to set up a colony in the islands by the British was abandoned after only a few years (1789–1796), a second attempt from 1858 proved to be more permanent. The primary purpose was to set up a
penal colony for dissenters and independence fighters from the
Indian subcontinent.
The islands were administered as a Chief Commissioner's Province.
The British continued their occupancy until the Japanese invasion and occupation of the Andaman Islands during World War II.
Japanese occupation of the Andaman Islands
The Japanese occupation of the Andaman Islands occurred in 1942 during World War II. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands (8,293 km² on 139 islands), are a group of islands situated in the Bay of Bengal at about 780 miles from Kolkata, 740 miles from Chennai and 120 miles from Cape Nargis in Burma. Until 1938 the British government used them as a penal colony for Indian and African political prisoners, who were mainly put in the notorious Cellular Jail in Port Blair, the biggest town (port) on the islands.
The only military objective on the islands was the city of Port Blair. The garrison consisted of a 300 man Sikh militia with 23 British officers, augmented in January 1942 by a Gurkha detachment of 4/12th Frontier Force Regiment of the 16th Indian Infantry Brigade. Following the fall of Rangoon on March 8, however, the British recognized that Port Blair had become impossible to defend, and on March 10 the Gurkhas were withdrawn to the Arakan peninsula. Indian Control
At the independence of both India (1947) and
Burma (1948), the departing British announced their intention to resettle all
Anglo-Indians and
Anglo-Burmese on the islands to form their own nation, although this never materialized. It became part of the Indian union in 1956. It was declared a union territory on 1956.
Recent history
On 26 December 2004 the coasts of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands were devastated by a 10 m (33 ft) high
tsunami following the
2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. At least 5,930 people were believed to have been killed on the Nicobar and Andaman Islands during the disaster. The worst affected Nicobar islands were
Katchal and
Indira Point, the latter the southernmost point of India, which was submerged by the ocean.
While newer settlers of the islands suffered the greatest casualties from the tsunami, most of the aboriginal people survived because oral traditions passed down from generations ago warned them to
evacuate from large waves that follow large earthquakes.
