The Southern Nicobar Islands as Imaginative Geographies

Bibliographic Data

ID10939623
AuthorsAjay Saini (0000-0003-3616-0527, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, corresponding author)
Year2016
Volume46
Issue4
Pages495-511
Publication date2016-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSocial Change (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0049-0857 • E-ISSN: 0976-3538
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0049085716666582
OpenAlexW2569709950
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited7

The southern Nicobar, an isolated archipelago in the eastern Indian Ocean, is the southern most territory of India. The Shompen and the Nicobarese were the sole inhabitants in the archipelago until the Government of India settled 330 ex-servicemen families in Great Nicobar. The ex-servicemen families, who came from an entirely different socio-cultural milieu of mainland India, perceived the cultural practices of the indigenes as odd and developed strong prejudices against them. This article juxtaposes two diametrically opposed discourses on the indigenous cultural practices—the settlers’ and the indigenes’—and explores how the indigenes make sense of their cultural practices that the settlers find problematic. It also explores if such cultural practices hold any special significance for the isolated tribal communities that live in a fragile island ecosystem. The article elaborates its analyses against the backdrop of the issues that the indigenes have been facing due to the changes brought in their societies through external interventions

Archaeology · Archipelago · China · Ethnology · Geography · Government (linguistics · Indigenous · Mainland · Mainland China · Asian Studies and History · Ecology · History · Island Studies and Pacific Affairs · Maritime Security and History

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