1. CONTACT

1.3 Indian policy towards Sentinels

EMBASSY OF INDIA BERNE Z.N. Rao, Second Secretary (HOC) August 20th, 1998

Dear Mr. Weber,

1. Please refer to your letter dated 20.2.1998 regarding Andamanese Negrito and North Sentinel Island. We have consulted concerned authorities in India regarding North Sentinel Island and the position regarding this Island is given below.

2. The Administration of Andaman and Nicobar Islands has no plan to raise coconut plantation on the North Sentinel Island since the Sentinelese are apparently self-sufficient with regard to food resources on the island. The island is totally isolated and is not being opened to colonisation to settle refugees and others. Further, it is the firm policy of the Administration not to interfere in the life of the Sentinelese. The Administration, however, keeps a vigil to prevent the possible intrusion by any encroachers into the waters around North Sentinel Island. This is to prevent the exploitation of the natural resources on the island and its territorial waters by the non-tribals and also to prevent physical contact with the Sentinelese to avoid possible introduction of foreign diseases among the Sentinelese.

3. I hope that the above information will satisfy you with regard to the concerns expressed for the Sentinelese in your letter.

Yours sincerely (K.N. Rao)

Clearly this letter is based on what is official policy: the government's own "Master Plan1991-2021 for Welfare of Primitive Tribes of Andaman and Nicobar Islands" by S.A. Awaradi (former assistant commissioner of the Nicobars and director of tribal welfare in the Port Blair administration) published in January 1990 by the Andaman and Nicobar Administration at Port Blair. It is supposed to be official government policy. About the Sentineli it has the following to say:

MASTER PLAN FOR THE SENTINELESE

The Sentinelese situation is unique with their existing eco-cultural system and the dynamic eco-cultural equilibrium. The ubiquitous incubus phenomenon of destabilization of eco-cultural equilibrium, in contrast to all other Negrito tribes of Andaman Islands, has not yet succeeded to descend on the Sentinelese. The present state of situation with regard to all other primitive tribes viz, the Great Andamanese, the Onge, the Jarawa and the Shompen of Andaman and Nicobar Islands is the consequence of the historical expediency due to the nation's socio-political history, The British India government fought to befriend the hostile Great Andamanese in early years of the Penal Settlement when they decided to found such settlement in the Andamans following the Great Mutiny of 1857. The free India government usurped the territory of the Jarawas and Onges to settle the refugees following the partition of the Greater India in 1947. Similarly the Shompen territory in Great Nicobar Island was usurped to settle the Indian ex-servicemen, as it was thought expedient to inhabit this frontier and most strategic island with such people also though it was inhabited by the tribes i.e. the Shompen and the Nicobarese. Fortunately no such historical and socio-political expediency has crept up affecting the North Sentinel Island. And precisely on account of this the Sentinelese are beyond the reach of the arms of the modern society and hence they continue to be of their own making.

The above analysis of the tribal situation in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands brings us to the crucial crossroad and the question as to whether we are unwittingly bringing about or Creating the "ideological expediency", the "modern man's burden" to spread everywhere his culture and value system and "share" the"fruits" of the modern cvilization. Or is it the modern man's unending inquisition to uncover the unknown phenomena and people? But as the long experience goes these ethnocentric endeavours have done more harm expecially to the small and isolated primitive communities than any good. Despite all this, the contact expeditions are organised to the Sentinelese with the mission to befriend them. It appears that the genesis of the practice of organisation of contact expeditions is the modified form of the earlier practice of the British lndia government. The British tried to "win" the friendship of the autochthons often through battles while free India government tried to "earn" the friendship and not in the battle field. In case of the Jarawa, as noted above, it might have been expedient to solve the "Jarawa problem" by establishing the friendly relations so that the loss of life and property of the settlers caused by the Jarawas is curbed. However, this purpose/motif of the contact expedition has not been fully accomplished as the Jarawas continue to inflict terror on the non-autochthons and thus able to keep them at bay on the eastern part of the Great Andaman Island. And it appears that the mission to befriend the aborigines (Jarawa) has simply been extended to the hostile Sentinelese too though there was no expediency to do so. Once started, it becomes a bureaucratic precedent and continues as a matter of practice.

Though there is a specified contact team consisting of the Secretary of Tribal Welfare, Superintendent of Police (Bush Police) Deputy Director of Anthropological Survey of India, Port Blair, Medical Officer, Executive Secretary and the Senior Social Worker of AAJVS, in practice, as in the case of the Jarawas, the special visitors/VIP also accompany the team, creating similar situations as discussed in paragraphs 19.21 and 19,24. The gifts of coconut, machetes are dropped on the beach of the island. This new item of food may cause complication in digestive and. other systems of the Sentinelese. There is the possibility of the danger due to consumption of spoiled coconuts. At times the "adventurous" members of the contact team may cause the mishap like the one that happened a decade ago when the Sentinelese shot the arrows at the "daring" member and the latter had to fire in self defence, and escaped narrowly and fortunately he opened fire in the air that time (paragraph 20.4). Therefore, the basic question is why at all these contact expeditions? The Sentinelese do not require the benevolence of the modern civilization and if at all they require any thing, it is the non-interference, The continuation of the practice of organising the regular contact expedition to the Sentinelese would raise certain fundamental questions like for instance, what right does the modern man have got to interfere in the totally isolated tribal life of the. Sentinelese? What right does he got to decide unilaterally to impose his "friendship" on the Sentinelese who have been vehemently resisting it? Is it not their fundamental community right to live their own way, which they have been enjoying time immemorial? What is the logic in, meddling with their independent and the perfect eco-cultural equilibrium (may be unwittingly) first, and then attempt to run to restabilize the equilibrium?

Therefore the practice of organizing the contact expedition to the Sentinelese requires a review and modification as under. The expedition shall be organised occasionally to the North Sentinel Island only to observe the Sentinelese and their number from the respectable distance say 50 metres from the shore. No gifts of any kind shall be dropped. The authorised team shall also assess the efficacy of the total isolation of the Sentinelese enforced by the armed forces. A constant surveillance by the Indian Coast Guard,' Indian Navy and Police over this isolated island is kept so that no outsiders approach it. These forces too shall not land or go very near the beach of the North Sentinel Island.

Two international shipping liners viz. M.V. Primrose and M.V. Rusley have wrecked by agrounding on the coral beds in the coastal waters of the North Sentinel Island recently. The Sentinelese took away some iron pieces from these wrecked ships when they were abandoned following the rescue of crew. Subsequently these two ships have been auctioned away to the scrap dealers by the Andaman and Nicobar Administration. A portion of scrap has already been retrieved by the dealer while major chunk is still left there. The scrapping of ship involves the use of powerful metal cutters, explosives and manpower, thus resulting in intense human activities by the non-autochthons. It would be imperative to stall all such activities near North Sentinel Island. Nevertheless, such grounded ships can not be abandoned either because their hull plates will rust due to long sea water action and ship bottom may wreck spilling the cargo. The cargo spilth (especially the chemicals and oil) could be hazardous to marine life around the North Sentinel Island and in turn the Sentinelese who subsist on it. Therefore in such cases the cargo should be loaded to another ship so that the grounded ships float again and thereafter they are towed to safe place to scrap. Such mishaps may occur here in future also hence the environmental experts shall be consulted before the wreckage is salvaged quickly. If wrecks are to be auctioned, the suitable terms and conditions for the protection of environment and isolation of Sentinelese shall be incorporated in the agreement.

Admirable sentiments and mostly reasonable policies. But the policies must be carried out it and not just pronounced into the void. It has been one of the major shortcomings of a succession of Lieutenant-Governors and their administrations at Port Blair to let discussions on "tribal" matters ramble on and on - with no clear decision ever taken, still less implemented. The "isolators" argued with the "civilizers" within the Anthropological Survey as much as within the administration and so the matter was left for decades. Those interested in a more detailed overview of former British and present-day Indian policies towards the Andamanese Negrito are refered to an original publication on the subject Befriending the Jarawa...

Official policies are one thing, reality on the ground another and nowhere more so than in the Andamans. Attempts at contacting the Sentineli by the Port Blair authorities to establish "friendship" through gift giving continued in the 1990s and meet with some success (if that is quite the right word). The same methods used on the Jarawa since 1974 were used on the Sentineli: repeated gift-giving visits (including VIP visitors) to accustom the Sentineli to the alien presence with steadily closer physical contact and increasing dependence on gifts. After the mid-1990s the Sentineli had mellowed sufficiently to allow visitors on their beaches and gifts could be handed over with actual physical touching (and consequent risk of passing disease! the sientists worried about it, the VIP visitors did not).

However, the embarrassment to the administration caused by the "Jarawa crisis" starting in late 1997 grounded the dubious "friendship" campaign towards the Sentineli. The visits to North Sentinel Island ceased abruptly and have not been resumed. It is possible that the authorities at Port Blair have learned from their mistakes in handling the Jarawa, especially since some new personnel isnow involved at decisionmaking level - but on past performance one should not bet on it. Indian Supreme Court judgments and increasing international attention have put the breaks on the local authorities. They are no longer free to misbehave in the privacy of their own islands while hiding behind a screen of admirable sentiments and vague policies.

Optimists were delighted, pessimists wondered what the administration would come up with to simultanenously comply and sabotage the Supreme Court's intentions. It is early days yet but it looks as if the pessimists will have it. The trick used now is to inundate the Jarawa with researchers, researchers' assistants, hangers on and servants. For details on this developing official wheeze to kill off the Jarawa, see News.



The practical problems surrounding North Sentinel Island are indeed formidable and would test the capabilities of even the most competent government. On the supply side there are growing numbers of illegal fishing boats, coral collectors not averse to blowing up reefs with dynamite and businessmen ferrying sightseers around the island for a fat fee. On the demand side there are well-heeled tourists on yachts, adventure tourists looking for the "last challenge", nosey parkers and thrill seekers of all kinds plus, of course, journalists out for a story and a kick. The Indian Navy's job is to keep such visitors away from the island but it cannot patrol there around the clock, not with the few vessels available and the gun-running, smuggling and poaching going on elsewhere in Andamanese waters.