The Andaman and Nicobar Islands is a union territory of India comprising 836 islands, of which only 31 are inhabited. The islands are grouped into two main clusters: the northern Andaman Islands and the southern Nicobar Islands, separated by the -wide Ten Degree Channel. The capital and largest city of the territory, Port Blair (officially Sri Vijaya Puram), is located approximately from Chennai and from Kolkata in mainland India. The islands are situated between the Bay of Bengal to the west and the Andaman Sea to the east. The northernmost point is from the mouth of the Hooghly River. Indira Point, located at 6°45'10″N and 93°49'36″E on the southern tip of Great Nicobar, is the southernmost point of India.
The territory shares maritime borders with Indonesia located about to the south, Myanmar located to the north-east and Thailand located to the south-east. The islands occupy a total land area of approximately with a population of 380,581 as per the 2011 census. The territory is divided into three districts: Nicobar, South Andaman, and North and Middle Andaman with the capitals at Car Nicobar, Port Blair and Mayabunder respectively.
Genetic and cultural studies suggest that the indigenous Andamanese people may have been isolated from other populations during the Middle Paleolithic era, more than 30,000 years ago. Archeological evidence of civilisation has been dated back to 2,200 years. In the 11th century, Cholas, one of the three Tamil kingdoms, used the islands as a naval base to launch expeditions in South East Asia. The Danish were the first Europeans to arrive on the islands in 1755. The islands became part of the British Raj in 1868. During the Second World War, the islands were invaded by the Empire of Japan. After Indian Independence in 1947, the region automatically became a province of the Dominion of India and was later designated as a union territory following the adoption of the Constitution of India in 1950.
The islands host the Andaman and Nicobar Command, the only geographical command operated jointly by the three major wings of the Indian Armed Forces: the Army, the Air Force and the Navy. While Hindi and English are the official languages, the major spoken languages include Bengali, Tamil and Telugu. Indigenous people speak any of the Andamanese or Nicobarese family of languages. Hinduism is the majority religion in the union territory, with a significant Christian minority. The islands include North Sentinel Island, home to the Sentinelese people, an uncontacted tribe.
Etymology The name Andaman might have been derived from Handuman, after the Indian God Hanuman from the Hindu epic Ramayana. The place was called with a similar name by the Malays, who used to be involved in slave trade in the region. The place was also referred by various names such as Angademan by Ptolemy in the 2nd century CE and Angamanian by Marco Polo in 13th century. Nicobar, which was located in the sea route connecting South India to South East Asia, was known as Nakkavaram, meaning "open/naked land" borrowed from Tamil language which later became Nicobar. In the middle ages (500–1500 AD), Nicobar was known as Lankhabatus in Arabia, probably a mis-transcription of the name Nakkavaram. An 11th-century work Kathasaritsagar indicates the name as Narkel Dweep (meaning Coconut Island in Bengali). Marco Polo termed the island as Necuverann, while the islands were known as Lo-Jan Kuo in China, a translation of Nakkavar with the same meaning.
History
Early history Genetic and cultural studies suggest that the indigenous Andamanese people may have been isolated from other populations during the Middle Paleolithic era, which ended 30,000 years ago. Archeological work on the islands has concentrated on shell midden sites. The islands were mentioned by Ptolemy in the 2nd century CE.
Middle Ages
The Nicobar islands existed on a major trade route connecting India to the South East Asia and had much contact with the outside world for centuries. But there are very few accounts of information as there was no written language with the indigenous people to document their history. The islands appeared in the accounts of travellers like Faxian in the 6th century and Yijing in the 7th century.
In the 11th century, Rajendra Chola I of the Chola dynasty invaded parts of South East Asia using the Nicobar islands as an intermediate naval base. It was part of an established Chola trade route connecting India and South East Asia, a practice that continued during the subsequent reigns of Rajendra II and Kulothunga I. Chola inscriptions from Thanjavur, dated to 1050, describe the islands as Ma-Nakkavaram meaning "great open/naked land" in Tamil. The islands were later noted by Marco Polo in the 13th century and Friar Oderic in the early 14th century.
European colonisation
The European colonisation on the islands began when settlers from the Danish East India Company arrived on the Nicobar Islands on 12 December 1755. On 1 January 1756, the Nicobar Islands were made into a Danish colony, first named (New Denmark) and later (Frederick's Islands). The islands were managed from the Danish colony of Tranquebar in the Indian mainland. However, various attempts to settle on the islands were unsuccessful due to repeated outbreaks of malaria, which led to the death of the colonists.
Between 1778 and 1783, William Bolts tried to establish an Austrian colony on the Nicobar islands, mistakenly assuming that the Danish had abandoned the claims to the islands, renaming them Theresa islands. In 1789, Archibald Blair of the Royal Indian Navy colonised the Andaman islands, and established a naval base. In 1794, a penal colony was established on the Chatham island and the first batch of 100 prisoners were sent to the island. The prisoners were used for labour, and worked under a civil contract. After two years, the colony was abandoned. The settlement was abandoned in 1796.
In February 1858, the British re-established a colony in Port Blair. A new penal colony was established on the Ross Island near Port Blair, mainly to house the prisoners of the Indian rebellion of 1857, and the first set of 200 convicts arrived at the island in March 1858. The prisoners were used for hard labour and the clearing of forests led to frequent confrontation with the native Andamanese people. Many of the prisoners died in conflict, while some were hanged for trying to escape, apart from deaths due to disease and starvation. Between 1864 and 1868, Italy tried to buy the Nicobar islands from the Danish. On 16 October 1868, the Danish sold the rights to the Nicobar islands to the British, which was made part of the British India in 1869. In 1872, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands were united under a single command and administered by a chief commissioner based out of Port Blair. The construction of the Cellular Jail started in 1896 and was completed in 1906. The jail was used to house political prisoners and independence activists away from the Indian mainland.
World War II
During Second World War, the Andaman and Nicobar islands were invaded by Japan. The Japanese captured Port Blair on 23 March 1942 and established control over the islands. Japan gave provisional control of the islands to the Azad Hind organisation of Subhash Chandra Bose on 29 December 1943, and the Andaman and Nicobar islands were renamed as Shaheed-Dweep (Martyr island) and Swaraj-dweep (Self-rule island) respectively. Bose appointed general A. D. Loganathan as the governor of the islands. However, he had limited power while the real control of the islands remained with the Japanese.
There were reports of widespread looting, arson, rape, and extrajudicial killings during the Japanese occupation. The residents were often killed by the Japanese for trivial reasons. The largest incident was the Homfreyganj massacre on 30 January 1944, where 44 local civilians were shot by the Japanese on suspicion of spying. Approximately 2,000 people were reportedly killed in Port Blair during the occupation, which represented ten per cent of the pre-war population of the settlement. Japanese vice admiral Teizo Hara and major general Tamenori Sato surrendered to lieutenant colonel Nathu Singh Rathore, commanding officer of the Rajput Regiment, on 15 August 1945 aboard the Royal Navy ship HMS Rocksand. On 7 October 1945, the territory was officially handed back to British brigadier J. A. Salomons, commander of the 116th Indian Infantry Brigade, and chief administrator Noel Patterson, in a ceremony at the Gymkhana Ground in Port Blair.
Post independence During the Partition of India, the British announced their intention to retain possession of the islands and use them to resettle Anglo-Indians and Anglo-Burmese on these islands. The islands were claimed by the Indian National Congress for India and the Muslim League for Pakistan during the partition negotiations. After the Indian Independence in 1947, the islands automatically became part of the Dominion of India. With the adoption of the Constitution of India in 1950, the islands were designated as the only Part D territory and placed under the administration of a lieutenant governor appointed by the Government of India. The islands were later used to resettle people displaced during the partition with a substantial number of displaced immigrants establishing agricultural colonies. The islands became a separate union territory administered by the Government of India, following the re-organization in 1956. The islands have been developed into a key defence establishment since the 1980s due to its strategic location in the Bay of Bengal across the Strait of Malacca.
On 26 December 2004, the coasts of the Andaman and Nicobar islands experienced high tsunami waves following an undersea earthquake in the Indian Ocean which resulted in more than 2,000 casualties, 46,000 injuries and rendering at least 40,000 homeless. The locals and tourists on the islands suffered the greatest casualties while the indigenous people largely survived unscathed due to movement to high grounds following the oral traditions passed down over generations that warned them to evacuate following earthquakes.
Geography
The territory consists of 836 islands and islets occupying an area of , of which only 31 are permanently inhabited. The islands extend from 6° to 14° North latitudes and from 92° to 94° East longitudes. The islands are grouped into the north Andaman Islands and south Nicobar Islands, separated by the wide Ten Degree Channel. The Andamans cover an area of while the Nicobar group covers an area of . The highest point is the Saddle Peak at , located in North Andaman Island.
The northernmost point of the islands is away from the mouth of the Hooghly River in the Indian mainland. The territory shares maritime borders with Indonesia located about to the south, Myanmar located to the north-east and Thailand located to the south-east. Indira Point, the southernmost point of India, is located at 6°45'10″N and 93°49'36″E at the southern tip of Great Nicobar. The capital and largest city is Port Blair (officially Sri Vijaya Puram), located from Chennai and from Kolkata on the Indian mainland. Barren Island, the only active volcano in India, is located in the Andaman Sea.