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Andaman & Nicobar: History

The Cellular Jail which housed freedom fighters and political activists who were sentenced to two decades of imprisonment on these islands came to be known as Kala Pani or Black Water.

Ancient and Medieval
The Roman geographer Ptolemy first referred to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands as the island of cannibals, in the second century AD. Chinese Buddhist monk, Xuan Zang in the seventh century and Arabian travellers in the ninth, spoke of the inhabitants as fierce and cannibalistic. Marco Polo's description of the islanders in the 13th century was similar.

Contrary to the above descriptions, accounts of the ferocity of the Andamanese seem to be propagated by Malay pirates who held sway over the surrounding seas and needed to keep looters well away from trade ships that passed between India, China and the Far East.

The Nicobar Islands are located 50 km south of Little Andaman. 13 of the 19 Nicobar Islands are inhabited by about 12,000 aboriginal tribesmen most of whom live on Car Nicobar, the northern most of the archipelago. Port Blair, the capital of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands is 780 miles from Calcutta, 749 miles from Chennai and120 miles from Cape Negrais in Myanmar.

More on Andamans
• Overview
• Geography
• People
• Economy
• Climate
• Port Blair

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• Islands in the Sun

Adventure
• Scuba Diving
In the seventeenth century the islands witnessed Maratha Rule. Several futile attempts to convert the Nicobarese to Christianity were made by the French, Dutch and Danish, in the 17th and 18th centuries, when plans were abandoned in the face of repugnant diseases and a severe lack of food and water. Trading companies met with a more treacherous fate at the hands of the Nicobarese with their ships captured and their crew murdered.

Chinese Buddhist monk, Xuan Zang in the seventh century and Arabian travellers in the ninth, spoke of the inhabitants as fierce and cannibalistic.
Regular prisoners and political activists of the Mutiny of 1857 were made to clear land and build their own prison. Most lost their lives while trying to escape, were hung or attacked by the Andamanese who objected to deforestation.

Port Blair became a penal colony at the end of the nineteenth century. The Cellular Jail built over a period of 18 years from 1890 to 1908 housed thieves and smugglers but later, on the lines of Sumatra, Singapore and Penang, freedom fighters and political activists were sentenced to two decades of imprisonment on these islands, which came to be known as Kala Pani or Black Water. Made up of hundreds of tiny solitary cells it was used to confine political prisoners until 1945. During World War II the islands were occupied by the Japanese, who tortured and murdered hundreds, suspected of collaborating with the British. British forces moved back in 1945 and abolished the penal settlement.

Modern
The Andaman and Nicobar Islands were constituted into a Union Territory of the Indian Union in November 1956. Since then a lot of effort has gone into the development of the Andaman Islands as a tourist resort. More woodland has been cleared and new industries established. But it has had an adverse effect on the needs and rights of the tribal settlers. A majority of the population of the Andamans has migrated from Bangladesh and Bengal. Administrators are appointed from Delhi on a two-year posting and no significant development has taken place in the last couple of years. The Indian Navy patrols the islands and the sea around to keep it free from gunners and drug smugglers.

Compiled by Puneet Sachdeva


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