Andaman and Nicobar Islands

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 miles) 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 Andaman to the north of this latitude, and the Nicobar to the south. The Andaman Sea lies to the east and the Bay of Bengal to the west. This Union Territory is spread over a distance nearly 800 Km. from North to South with 38 inhabited islands. The total land area of the territory is approximately 6,496 km² (2,508 sq miles).

History of Andaman and Nicobar Islands

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:

• Great Andamanese
• Jarwa
• Onge
• Sentinelese

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:

• the Nicobarese, or Nicobari, living throughout many of the islands; and
• the Shompen, restricted to the hinterland of Great Nicobar.
  

The Great Andamanese, Onges, Jarawas, and Sentinatese, all of Negrito origin, while the Nicobarese and Shompens, both of Mongoloid stock.

Pre-colonial Era

Rajendra Chola I (1014 to 1042 CE), one of the Tamil Chola dynasty kings, occupied Andaman and Nicobar Islands to use it as a strategic naval base to launch a naval expedition against Sriwijaya Empire (a Hindu-Malay empire based on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia). The cholas called the 'Nicobar' island as 'Nakkavaram' which is inscribed on the Tanjore inscription of 1050 CE. Nakkavaram in Tamil means "naked man" or "land of the naked" which should have been evolved to the modern name "Nicobar". Marco Polo (12-13th Century CE) also referred this island as 'Necuverann'.

The name of the island has always been 'Andaman' and might represent Handuman, the Malay form of Hanuman.

The islands provided a temporary maritime base for ships of the Marathas in the 17th century. The legendary admiral Kanhoji Angre established naval supremacy with a base in the islands and is credited with attaching those islands to India.

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 December 1755. On January 1, 1756, the Nicobar Islands was made a Danish colony and renamed 'New Denmark'. In December 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 April 1759 - 19 August 1768, from 1787-1807/05, 1814–1831, 1830–1834 and finally from 1848 gradually for good.

From 1 June 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. Danish involvement ended formally on 16 October 1868 when the Danish rights to the Nicobar Islands were sold to Britain, 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 British used the islands as an isolated prison for members of the Indian independence movement. The mode of imprisonment was campaign 1941-1942.

Indian Control

The islands were only nominally put under the authority of the Arzi Hukumate Azad Hind of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, and the Islands were practically under Japanese control, who committed tremendous atrocities. Netaji visited the islands during the war, and renamed them as "Shaheed-dweep" (Martyr Island) & "Swaraj-dweep" (Self-rule Island). General Loganathan, of the Indian National Army was made the Governor of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. On 22 February 1944 he along with four INA officers—Major Mansoor Ali Alvi, Sub. Lt. Md. Iqbal, Lt. Suba Singh and stenographer Srinivasan—arrived at Lambaline Airport in Port Blair. On 21 March 1944 the Headquarters of the Civil Administration was established near the Gurudwara at Aberdeen Bazaar. On 2 October 1944, Col. Loganathan handed over the charge to Maj. Alvi and left Port Blair, never to return. The islands were reoccupied by British and Indian troops of the 116th Indian Infantry Brigade on 7 October 1945, to whom the remaining Japanese garrison surrendered.

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.