The
Jarawa (
HindiStandard Hindi, also known as High Hindi, Nagari Hindi or Literary Hindi is a standardised register of Hindi. It is one of the 22 languages with official status in India, and is used, along with English, for administration of the central government.Standard Hindi is a sanskritised register derived...
: जारवा, also
Järawa,
Jarwa) are one of the
adivasiĀdivāsīs is an umbrella term for a heterogeneous set of ethnic and tribal groups believed to be the aboriginal population of India...
indigenous peoplesThe term indigenous peoples can be used to describe any ethnic group of people who inhabit a geographic region with which they have the earliest known historical connection, alongside more recent immigrants who have populated the region and may be greater in number...
of the
Andaman IslandsThe Andaman Islands are a group of archipelagic islands in the Bay of Bengal, and are part of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Union Territory of India. The Andaman Archipelago is an oceanic continuation of the Burmese Arakan Yoma range in the North and of the Indonesian Archipelago in the South...
. Their present numbers are estimated at between 250-350 individuals. Since they have largely shunned interactions with outsiders, many particulars of their
societySociety or human society is the manner or condition in which the members of a community live together for their mutual benefit. By extension, society denotes the people of a region or country, sometimes even the world, taken as a whole....
,
cultureCulture is a term that has different meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
and traditions are poorly understood. Indeed, the word
jarawa is an exonym, and likely a variant of the (now obsolete, but current in the 19th century)The word 'Jarawa' is derived from 'Aka Bea' dialect of Great Andmanese meaning 'the other people', 'the stranger'.
The
Jarawa (
HindiStandard Hindi, also known as High Hindi, Nagari Hindi or Literary Hindi is a standardised register of Hindi. It is one of the 22 languages with official status in India, and is used, along with English, for administration of the central government.Standard Hindi is a sanskritised register derived...
: जारवा, also
Järawa,
Jarwa) are one of the
adivasiĀdivāsīs is an umbrella term for a heterogeneous set of ethnic and tribal groups believed to be the aboriginal population of India...
indigenous peoplesThe term indigenous peoples can be used to describe any ethnic group of people who inhabit a geographic region with which they have the earliest known historical connection, alongside more recent immigrants who have populated the region and may be greater in number...
of the
Andaman IslandsThe Andaman Islands are a group of archipelagic islands in the Bay of Bengal, and are part of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Union Territory of India. The Andaman Archipelago is an oceanic continuation of the Burmese Arakan Yoma range in the North and of the Indonesian Archipelago in the South...
. Their present numbers are estimated at between 250-350 individuals. Since they have largely shunned interactions with outsiders, many particulars of their
societySociety or human society is the manner or condition in which the members of a community live together for their mutual benefit. By extension, society denotes the people of a region or country, sometimes even the world, taken as a whole....
,
cultureCulture is a term that has different meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
and traditions are poorly understood. Indeed, the word
jarawa is an exonym, and likely a variant of the (now obsolete, but current in the 19th century)The word 'Jarawa' is derived from 'Aka Bea' dialect of Great Andmanese meaning 'the other people', 'the stranger'. Their own name for themselves remains unknown, but may be similar to
öngeThe Onge , also Önge or Ongee, are one of the Andamanese adivasi indigenous peoples of the Andaman Islands, located in the Bay of Bengal. They are sometimes classified as "Negritos"...
, which is how their closest relatives call themselves - it means "enemy" or "hostile people" in Aka-Bea.
Prehistory and origins
Along with other indigenous
AndamaneseThe Andamanese is a collective term to describe the adivasi peoples who are the aboriginal inhabitants of the Andaman Islands, which is the northern district of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands union territory of India, located in the southeastern part of the Bay of Bengal. The term includes the...
peoples, they have inhabited the islands for at least several thousand years, and most likely a great deal longer. The Andaman Islands have been known to outsiders since
antiquityAncient history is the study of the written past from the beginning of recorded human history in the Old World until the Early Middle Ages in Europe and the Qin Dynasty in China....
; however, until quite recent times they were infrequently visited, and such contacts were predominantly sporadic and temporary. For the greater portion of their history their only significant contact has been with other Andamanese groups; the experience of such a lengthy period of isolation almost completely lacking in external cultural influences is equaled by few other groups in the world, if at all.
There is some indication that the Jarawa regarded the now-extinct
JangilThe Jangil were one of the Andamanese indigenous peoples of the Andaman Islands, located in the Bay of Bengal. They were formerly distributed through the interior of Rutland Island, and were given the name Rutland Jarawa because it was supposed that they were related to the neighbouring Jarawa...
tribe as a parent tribe from which they split centuries or millennia ago, even though the Jarawa outnumbered (and eventually out-survived) the Jangil. The Jangil (also called the
Rutland Island Aka Bea) were presumed extinct by 1931, sixteen years prior to Indian independence.
Contact, settlements and dislocation
Before the 1800s, the Jarawa homelands were located in the southeast part of
South Andaman IslandSouth Andaman Island is the southernmost island of the Great Andaman and is home to the majority of the population of the Andaman Islands. Port Blair, the capital of the islands, is located on the southern part of this island. Some areas of the island are restricted areas for non-Indians; however,...
and nearby islets. With the establishment of the initial British settlement, these are suspected to have been largely depopulated by disease shortly after 1789. The
Great AndamaneseGreat Andamanese is a collective term used to refer to related groups or tribes of indigenous peoples who lived throughout most of the Great Andaman archipelago, the main and closely-situated group of islands in the Andaman Islands...
tribes were similarly decimated by disease, alcoholism and alleged British government-sponsored destruction, leaving open the western areas which the Jarawa gradually made their new homeland. The immigration of mainland
IndianThe demographics of India is remarkably diverse. India's population of approximately 1.17 billion people consists of approximately one-sixth of the world's population...
and
Karen (Burmese)The Karen , self-titled Pwa Ka Nyaw Po or Kayan, and also known in Thailand as the Kariang or Yang, are some languages and many ethnic groups in Burma and Thailand. The Karen make up approximately 7 percent of the total Burmese population of 47 million people.The Karen have fought for independence...
settlers, beginning about two centuries ago, accelerated this process. Prior to their initiating contact with settled populations in 1997, they were noted for vigorously maintaining their independence and distance from external groups, actively discouraging most incursions and attempts at contact. Since 1998, they have been in increasing contact with the outside world and have increasingly been the choosers of such contact. All contact, especially with tourists remains extremely dangerous to the Jarawa due to the risk of disease. Of the remaining Andamanese peoples, only the
SentineleseThe Sentinelese are one of the Andamanese indigenous peoples of the Andaman Islands, located in the Bay of Bengal. They inhabit North Sentinel Island which lies westward off the southern tip of the Great Andaman archipelago. They are noted for vigorously resisting attempts of contact by outsiders...
have been able to maintain a more isolated situation, and their society and traditions persist with little variance from their practices they observed before the first significant contacts were made. Today the Jarawa are in regular contact with the outside world through settlements on the fringes of their Reserve, through daily contact with outsiders along the Andaman Trunk Road and at jetties, marketplaces and hospitals near the road and at settlements near the reserve, with some children even showing up at mainstream schools and asking to be educated along with settler children
Impact of the Great Andaman Trunk Road
The biggest threat to the Jarawa in recent years came from the building of the Great Andaman Trunk Road through their newer western forest homeland in the 1970s. In late 1997, some Jarawa started coming out of their forest to visit nearby settlements for the first time. Within months a serious
measlesMeasles is an infection of the respiratory system caused by a virus, specifically a paramyxovirus of the genus Morbillivirus. Morbilliviruses, like other paramyxoviruses, are enveloped, single-stranded, negative-sense RNA viruses...
epidemic broke out. Later, in 2006 the Jarawa suffered another outbreak of Measles.There were however, no reported deaths.
The impact of the highway, in addition to widespread encroachment,
poachingPoaching is the illegal hunting, fishing, trapping, or eating of wild plants or animals contrary to local and international conservation and wildlife management laws...
and commercial exploitation of Jarawa lands, caused a lawsuit to be filed with the
Calcutta High CourtThe Calcutta High Court is the oldest High Court in India. It was established on July 2, 1862 under the High Courts Act, 1861. It has jurisdiction over the state of West Bengal and the Union Territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The High Court building is an exact replica of the Stand Hans...
, which has jurisdiction over the islands. The case escalated to the
Supreme Court of IndiaThe Supreme Court of India is the highest court of the land as established by Part V, Chapter IV of the Constitution of India. According to the Constitution of India, the role of the Supreme Court is that of a federal court, guardian of the Constitution and the highest court of appeal.Articles 124...
as a
Public Interest LitigationPublic Interest Litigation, in Indian law, means litigation for the protection of public interest. It is litigation introduced in a court of law, not by the aggrieved party but by the court itself or by any other private party...
(or PIL). The
Society for Andaman and Nicobar EcologyThe Society for Andaman and Nicobar Ecology, also known as SANE, is an Indian environmental organization based in Port Blair in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands union territory of India...
, the
Bombay Natural History SocietyThe Bombay Natural History Society, founded on 15 September 1883, is one of the largest non-governmental organizations in India engaged in conservation and biodiversity research. It supports many research efforts through grants, and publishes the Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society. Many...
and
PunePune , formerly known as Punawadi or Punya-Nagari or Poona, is the eighth largest city in India, and the second largest in the state of Maharashtra, after Mumbai...
-based Kalpavriksh joined in the petition, resulting in a landmark High Court judgment in 2001, directing the administration to take steps to protect the Jarawa from encroachment and contact, as well as preemptively ruling out any program that involved relocating the Jarawa to a new reservation. Planned extensions of the highway were also prohibited by the court. However, the
Light of Andamans editorialized that the changes to the Jarawa were likely irreversible and should have been assessed more thoroughly before the road was built.
Impact of tourism
Another major problem is the volume of sightseeing tours that are operated by private companies, where tourists gawk, photograph or other otherwise attempt interactions with Jarawas, who are often begging by the highway. These are illegal under Indian law, and in March 2008, the Tourism Department of the Andaman and Nicobar administration issued a fresh warning to tour operators that attempting contact with Jarawas, photographing them, stopping vehicles while transiting through their land or offering them rides were prohibited under the Protection of Aboriginal Tribes Regulation, 1956, and would be prosecuted under a strict interpretation of the statute. It has been alleged, however, that these rules are openly being flouted with over 500 tourists being taken to view Jarawas daily by private tour operators, while technically being shown as transiting to legitimate destinations and resulting in continuing daily interaction between the Jarawa and day tourists inside the reserve area. In 2006, the Indian travel company Barefoot had established a resort 3 km distant from the Jarawa reserve. The development was the subject of a recent court case brought by a small section of Andaman authorities who wanted to stop the resort, and appealed against a Calcutta High Court ruling allowing it to continue.. The case and the attempt to deflect attention from the core issues and instead single out and target a legal business operation rather than address wider problems was the subject of much debate. Barefoot won the case on firm legal grounds and because the case against it had very little popular support. The Light of Andamans editorialised that the hypocrisy of international and local NGOs in this and other related issues was ultimately unhelpful and highlighted the hypocrisy of Survival International in procuring and using contraband images of the Jarawa for fund raising for themselves, in violation of the very ideals they claim to campaign for. .
External links