Indigenous peoples on the Andaman islands threatened by extinction

[redpaintednavi]

The Andaman Islands is located in the Indian Ocean and do formally belong to India today. But its native population(s) has lived there for many millennia.
Since the 18th century the islands have experienced increasing colonisation and occupation by foreigners. First it was the Britsih who, among other things, opened a penal colony on one of the Islands. During WWII the Japanes also had a presence on the islands. Since 1947 the islands belong to India.

From the beginning the native population of the islands is calculated to have been around 6000 – 7000 people (the calculations vary between different sources) but violence and above all contagious diseases have since then reduced the population so it is now down to between 500 to 1000 people belonging to 4 groups. Two of the groups (the Jarawas and the Sentinelese) have more or less withstood to be assimilated by foreigners while the other two groups (the Onge and the Great Andamanese) have nearly disappeared. Nowadays the Indian poulation becomes more and more numerous while the native become less and less. The Indians are now about 300 000 and they many time enchroach on the remaining land of the natives, with illegal logging, illegal fishing, illegal hunting, settling and other activitis. Also companies are building roads, or try to build facilities for tourists close to indigenous territory. The only Island that is free from invaders is North Sentinel Island where the inhabitants meet all forms of enchroachment with arrows.

Last year a member of the Indian parliament, Bishnu Prada Ray, came up with the grotesque proposal that one should remove the children of the Jarawa people and indoctrinate them into living a so called modern Indian life. The proposal is rather similar to the policy of the Stolen generation in Australia or the boarding schools for native children in North America. Some debaters consider Pada Rays plan a plan for genocide and ethnocide.

Sickening call to indoctrinate Jarawa children

Luckily enough there are also some Indian politicians who fight to preserve and save the indigenous Andaman people, among them Sonia Ghandi:

Sonia Gandhi stands up for endangered Andaman tribe - Survival International