Andaman and Nicobar - History
The modern history of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands begins with the establishment of a settlement by East India Company in 1789. However, in 1796 this settlement was abandoned. After the First World War, this place was famous for a dreaded area because of the association of the "Kala Pani" ( transl. "Black Water" or lit. 'solitary confinement in jail') concept. According to "Kala Pani", crossing the seas to foreign lands causes the loss of one's social respectability, as well as the putrefaction of one’s cultural character and posterity.
Andaman & Nicobar Island is the native of four Negrito tribes (the Great Andamanese, Onge, Jarwa and Sentinalese) and two Mongloid tribes in the Nicobar group (the Nicobarese and Shompens). Among these tribes the Jarwa and the Sentinalese people prefer to go unclothed.
The Andaman archipelago, in the Bay of Bengal, lies in the track of commerce, but being surrounded by coral reefs and inhabited by a apparently untameable savages who had the character of being cannibals, it was only of late years that it has been voluntarily visited. The first expedition of the kind known to historians was that under Captain Blair and Colonel Colebrooke, who in the year 1789 surveyed the Andamans by direction of the East India Company. The objects of the expedition was to find suitable sites for harbors of refuge and a penal settlement. These were found, and a settlement established, under Captain Blair, in the year 1789; but after struggling with many difficulties, it was abandoned in 1796, in consequence of the extreme 'unhealthiness of the position.
The continually recurring outrages committed by the natives of the Andaman Islands on such shipwrecked mariners as had been thrown by the tempests on their inhospitable shores, were at length carried to such a formidable extent that the Government of India was imperatively called on to interfere. In the year 1855, therefore, when this matter became so urgent that it could no longer be neglected, the measure proposed as a remedy for the evil were taken into consideration without any further delay.
After the 1957 mutiny a settlement was required to which those agents of the mutiny, whose crime, however great, was not attended with circumstances of such unpardonable atrocity as rendered imperative the forfeiture of their lives, might be transported. There were many whose hands had not been actually imbued in blood, yet who, from the share they had openly taken in the revolt, could not with safety be included in any measure of amnesty, however comprehensive, until either the last traces of disaffection had entirely disappeared or were thoroughly convinced that any further attempt at rebellion against the authority of England must infallibly be put down. It was believed that the transportation of these mutineers to the Andaman Islands would be an adequate punishment for the crime of which they had been guilty.
British Government sent political prisoners and dreaded criminals from the mainland of India to the island (in cellular jail). The Penal Settlement was not a prison, but a place for the detention of a certain class of prisoners only, viz., transported convicts. The persons transported to Port Blair are sent by the Government of India and are murderers, who for some reason have escaped the death penalty, and the perpetrators of the more heinous offences against the person and property, such as dacoity (gang robbery with murder or preparation for murder). The sentences they had to undergo were chiefly for life, but a number, varying from a very few to a considerable amount, with long term sentences, were also sent from time to time.
The Andaman Penal System is sui generis, has grown up on its own lines, and has been gradually adapted to the requirements of a Penal Settlement, covering officially an area of 473 square miles, of which 327 square miles were occupied, containing grazing and arable lands, swamps, dense forests, large harbors and inlets, of the sea, hills up to 1,500 feet, and small villages for the ticket-ofleave (self-supporter) convicts, ex-convicts and free persons, convict stations, workshops, and jails.
The old Settlement at the Andamans, established by the well-known Marine Surveyor Archibald Blair in 1789, was not a Penal Settlement at all. It was formed on the lines of several then in existence, e.g., at Penang, Bencoolen, and so on, and was established under Lord Cornwallis, Governor-General, originally to put down piracy and the murder of shipwrecked crews. Convicts were sent incidentally from India to help in its development, precisely as they were sent to Bencoolen and afterwards to Penang, Malacca, Singapur, and Moulmein, and the Tenasserim Province. Everything that Blair did was performed with ability, and his arrangements for establishing the Settlement in what he named Port Cornwallis '(now Port Blair) were excellent.
Since its foundation, the history of the Penal Settlement up to the Census of 1901 is merely one of continuous official development. In January 1858 the Andaman Commission came to examine the islands for a possible site for a Penal Settlement. Initially the Settlement was directly under the Government of India, but in 1861 it was ordered to be transferred to the Chief Commissionership of Burma, the transfer not actually taking place till April 1864. In 1869 the Settlement was removed from the control of the Chief Commissioner, Burmà, and placed again under the direct orders of the Government of India, and in 1870'it was placed for judicial purposes under the High Court of Calcuttà. In the same year the Nicobar Penal Settlement was founded which continued till 1888. The Andaman and Nicobar Regulation of 1874, and in placing the Settlement judicially under the Government of India direct, removing it from the jurisdiction of the Calcutta High Court.
After a convict had completed ten years in transportation and can receive a ticket-of-leave (self-supporter). In this condition he earns his own living in a village: he can farm, keep cattle, and marry or send for his family. But he is not free, has no civil rights, and cannot leave the Settlement or be idle. After 20 or 25 years spent in the Settlement with approved conduct, he may be absolutely released. While a self-supporter, he is at first assisted with house, food, and tools, and pays no taxes or cesses, but after three to four years, according to certain conditions, he receives no assistance and is charged with every public payment, which would be demanded of him, were he a free man.
There are also disciplinary gangs all involving degradation either on account of bad character on arrival or while in the Settlement. These are known as Cellular Jail Prisoner, Viper Island Disciplinary, Chatham Island Disciplinary, Chaingang, Habitual Criminal Gang, Unnatural Crime Gang, “D” (for doubtful) ticket men. The lingua franca of the Settlement is Urdu (Hindustani), spoken in every possible variety of corruption and with every variety of accent. All the convicts learn it to an extent sufficient for their daily wants and the understanding of orders and directions. It is also the vernacular of the local born, whatever their descent. The small extent to which many absolute strangers to it, such as the Burmese, inhabitants of Madras, and so on, master it is one of the safeguards of the Settlement, as it makes it impossible for any general plot to be hatched. In barracks, in boats, and on works where men have to be congregated, every care is taken to split up nationalities, with the result that, except on matters of daily common concern, the convicts are unable to converse confidentially together.
In 1882, during the occupation of the islands as a Penal Settlement, a system of control over all the islands was started by means of making formal appointments of all chiefs as from the British Government. The chiefs thus appointed are, as far as possible, selected by the people themselves, but the Government reserves to itself the power to depose any chief who misbehaves and to appoint another in his place. The whole of the islands have now quite acquiesced in this procedure, and by its means an effective continuous control is maintained. Each chief receives a formal certificate of appointment, an annual suit of clothes, a flag (Union Jack), and a blank leather-bound book. All these he is bound to produce at every official visit to his village and he undertakes to hoist the flag at the approach of every ship, to produce his book so that the commander may write in it any remarks he has to make, to report to official visitors all occurrences, especially smuggling, wrecks and violent offences that have taken place since the last visit, and to assist in keeping order. On the whole the chief perform their duties as well as people of their civilisation might be expected to perform them. In every other respect the people were left to themselves.
There is a sharply marked division of the Settlement into what is known as the “ free” and “convict” portions, by which the free settlers living in villages are separated from the ticket-of-leave (self-supporter) convicts also living in villages. Every effort is made to prevent unauthorised communication between these two divisions. A large proportion of the free settlers are “ local born,” i.e., descendants of convicts born in the Settlement and permanently resident there. Like every other population the local born comprise every kind of personal character.
This was continued up to Second World War. During the Second World War, the Japanese forces occupied the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. e Japanese occupation of the Andamans is perhaps one of the least talked about episodes of the Second World War. Japanese forces landed in South Andamans on March 23, 1942 and in the next three to four hours gained complete control over the area. Japanese control over the Andamans coincided with Subhas Chandra Bose's Indian National Army (INA)’s occupation over the area. The alliance between the INA and the Japanese ensured that the latter could occupy the Andamans with little or no resistance at all.
The Andaman and Nicobar Islands were promised to Bose’s Azad Hind Government by Japan in November 1943, at the Greater East Asia Conference held in Tokyo. Bose said "Like the Bastille in Paris, which was liberated first in the French Revolution, setting free political prisoners, the Andamans, where our patriots suffered much, is the first to be liberated in India’s fight for independence." Things turned bitter as the East Asian force erupted over the island’s population with the kind of barbarity unheard of before. During the occupation, the Japanese administration carried out summary trials and executions of suspected spies. Local women were reportedly drafted into service as comfort women while men became forced laborers to construct a new airfield. An estimated 2,000 civilians of Port Blair were killed by the Japanese during the occupation, roughly 10% of the population. In 1945 Vice Admiral Tiezo Hara signed the document confirming the formal surrender of Japanese forces in the Andaman Islands on 07 October 1945.
Further following the surrender of the Japanese forces in the Second World War, the British India Government reoccupied these in 1945 and continued their administration of these islands till the Independence of the country in 1947.
During his 31 December 2018 visit to the Andamans, Prime Minister Modi paid tribute to Subhas Chandra Bose’s Provisional Government of Azad Hind, which nominally administered the Islands during World War II. Modi announced the renaming of three islands of Andaman and Nicobar archipelago as a tribute to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. The three islands are major tourist spots.
"When it comes to heroes of the freedom struggle, we take the name of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose with pride. The first Prime Minister of the Azad Hind government Subhash Babu had made India's independence resolution on the soil of Andaman," Modi said. "The country draws inspiration from Andaman. That is why the government has issued a notification and I am proudly announcing that henceforth, Ross Island will be known as Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Dweep. The Neil Island will be known as Shahid Dweep and Havelock Island as Swaraj Dweep".
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