Lakshadweep: Forgotten islands in India’s vicinity
by Raseela P.A.
A land that had remained forgotten by the masses since eternity, has gained the world’s attention through their clenched fists in recent times, making the world search for their stories. Isn’t this the only time the world has wanted to listen?
Lakshadweep is an island group situated in the Arabian Sea, off the South-western coast of the Indian mainland. As a designated ‘Union Territory’ of India, it guards the nation from international waters. The archipelago comprises a total of 35 islands¹, of which only ten are inhabited, by about 70000 people. Earlier known as ‘Laccadives Amindivi and Minicoy Islands’, in 1973, the late P.M Sayeed initiated the change of name to, simply, ‘Lakshadweep’.
Often called ‘the coral paradise of India’, this isolated archipelago lies just beyond the world’s sight, as yet untouched by the drooling menace that flows from selfish corporate doorways. It battles the roaring waves, nationalism, and corporate greed unarmed, but is never acknowledged for its worth and strength. The machine-run world laughs at the islanders for their ‘uncivilized’ styles. A group that turns to nature for its religion and propagates humanity over monetary profit, is a serious joke to the advocates of the ‘smart city’ in fragile islands. This is a geography that never meant more than a few dots and lines on the physical map for the rest of the world, because they cannot fit within ethnicised boundary lines arbitrarily created by the ones who are on the clean side of the contours. As Haitian American author Edwidge Danticat writes in her novel The Farming of Bones, “misery won’t touch you gentle. It always leaves its thumbprints on you; sometimes it leaves them for others to see, sometimes for nobody but you to know of.”
In terms of geography and culture, Lakshadweep has a lot in common with the fictional land of ‘Aathi’, depicted in the Malayalam writer Sarah Joseph’s novel Gift in Green. As in ‘Aathi’, the people of Lakshadweep find their cultural life disrupted and the ecological balance on the islands disturbed. Choking because of the draconian moves of its new administration, the people of Lakshwadeep are protesting against the actions proposed for forced migration from the mainland. Theirs is a fight for the islands of their birth. Their movements are not intended to make newspaper headlines, but more of a ‘do or die’ plan of action; acts of resistance so that they can exist on their own land, in accordance with the motto of ‘live and let live’.
The life practices in the islands are based on mutual love and care, and respect for Mother Earth. The preservation and sustainable use of natural resources constitute channels of empowerment and independence for the people. The selling and buying of land has until now been strictly restricted to those who are indigenous to the islands, thereby preventing greedy developers to place their feet on the land. The people’s resistance in Lakshadweep thus emphasizes the need to realize development not only as physical, but also as the happiness and well-being of people. It anticipates the need for action concerning the environment and the impact of an attack on nature.
The issues associated with Lakshadweep that have been in the spotlight recently emerge from the proposal of a multi-crore tourism project in the islands initially proposed by NITI Aayog and the Government of India’s Ministry of Home Affairs in 2018. The project has been earmarked for the holistic development of three coral islands of Lakshwadeep — Kadmat, Minicoy, and Suheli, along with ten islands of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. An initial investment of Rs.266 crores, with an additional investment of Rs.788 crores (expected from the private sector) has been set up for the implementation of the aforesaid project. If realised, it will probably pave the way to the destruction of these three islands.
When the NITI Aayog report stresses that the project is ‘economically profitable, technically feasible and socially acceptable’, the possible destructive impact on the ecology of the islands is not spoken of. 114 scientists from more than 30 universities and research institutes have urged the Lakshadweep administration to reassess the project, pointing to the possibility of the fragile islands not standing any chance to survive it. But their call has fallen on deaf ears. However, as they point out, there are clear scientific as well as social reasons for rejecting the project. The Lakshadweep waters are home to a variety of threatened and endangered marine life, including sea cucumbers, giant clams, green turtles, and corals. The inshore reefs and underwater grasslands will be in deep peril if the ruthless tourism project, which proposes the construction of beach and water villas offering 370 rooms, becomes a reality. The Integrated Island Management Plan (IIMP 2015) has agreed that the indiscriminate and unscientific dumping of concrete tetrapods have already affected the islands’ beaches. Hence, the granting of permission for the villa project and the Floating Solar Panel would have a negative impact on the outer coral reef that protect the lagoons from the open sea, and the sea grass meadows that feed the reef fishes and green turtle.
While new regulation drafts are planning for the implementation of ‘smart city projects’ within the 4.8 sq.km area, their designers should keep in mind that the human activities such as construction, mining and quarrying are bound to impact the coral of the lagoons, which would ultimately result in the submersion of the smallest islands into the Arabian Sea. The Justice R.V Raveendran Committee set up in 2014 to evaluate the IIMP has made some strong recommendations emphasizing the necessity to protect the sea grass and other ecosystems from anthropogenic activities, which should be taken into serious consideration. The only elected local body of Lakshadweep, led by the President cum Chief Counsellor, the District Dweep Panchayat, should be consulted to learn more about the people’s views, while proposing development plans for the islands, as the locals are the guardians of this coral paradise, and those who would be most affected souls by these destructive plans.
In 2021, the continuation of the 2018 project (that not too many had known of earlier) made headlines. The islanders, who were stunned to learn about its possible ecological, social, and cultural impacts, rose up in rage and protest, leading to several arrests and prosecutions. A people that had fought and defeated the deadly Covid-19 virus without any arms, was failed by the administration. The beginning of the ‘inhumane’ laws was with the revision of the SOP set by the Lakshadweep administration, that initially was set up to protect the islands and its people from the global pandemic. Hence, the virus reached the islands that do not have any basic medical equipment to tackle it, and took lives.
Among the authoritarian drafts brought into the islands by the administration, the most prominent is the ‘Lakshadweep Prevention of Anti-Social Activities Regulation Act 2021’ introduced last February, a replica of the ‘Gujarat Anti-Social Activities Regulation Act 1985’. This law permits the police to detain a person without a trial, and keep them under custody for a year, without any public notice. This is an obvious infringement of people’s freedom of expression in an area that claims to hold the least number of criminal cases on record in the country. Secondly, a new clause has been included in the draft of the ‘Panchayat Regulation Amendment Act’ that directs people not to have more than two children if they want to contest in the Panchayat election. The regulation marshals arguments around economic development to curb the power of the only elected body in the islands, by seeking to limit its interventions in issues related to departments of education, animal husbandry, fisheries, etc. Finally, the ‘Lakshadweep Animal Preservation Regulation, 2021’ to be implemented in the islands forces the people to change their food style by curtailing their freedom of food choice by banning beef, which is a cheap source of protein. It also removes mutton and chicken from the menu for school children. These dietary implementations, in an archipelago that does not have access to a range of vegetables and fruits, are also formulated in the name of ‘development’ of the islands.
Until February 201, the Union Territory of Lakshadweep was a ‘dry’ space, following a liquor ban under the provision of the ‘Lakshadweep Prohibition Regulation, 1979’. Alcohol for tourists was provided in Bangaram, an uninhabited island and a tourist spot. Hence, it did not impair the culture and belief system of the locals. But today, when the authority is trying to intrude into the cultural space of the islanders by opening bars in the inhabited islands, knowing that the government will not get any revenue from this, as the locals will not support this attempt, it is evident that these measures are not taken for the sake of development, but to disturb the lifestyle of the peace-loving community. The people who had offered their land to build temples, have the right to expect their beliefs and customs be equally respected.
The recent ‘Lakshadweep Development Authority Draft, 2021’ proposes the privatization of Lakshadweep, by making its people tenants on their own homeland, by forcing them to claim their properties every three years. It also puts forth the ‘utopian plan’ for national highways and railway projects connecting the islands with the mainland, along with the destructive plan of mining and quarrying in the coral islands.
The movements to demolish private buildings including mosques has begun. The sheds where the fishing equipment of the fishermen were kept has been set on fire; the ties of the islands with the outer world have been cut off by exempting the Beypore port from those connecting Lakshadweep with the mainland; corporate products like ‘amul’ have been imposed on the islanders; protesting nurses have been threatened with arrest for demanding a fixed minimum wage; contractual workers have been dismissed without prior notice; educational institutions have been shut down; etc. All these measures are claimed as being taken for the economic betterment of the islands.
Lakshadweep is not on the path of development, but on the verge of a forced migration. The new regulations have caused great unrest among the lives of the island-dwellers. The Maldives model of development is not what Lakshadweep seeks. Lakshadweep can neither be Maldives nor Singapore. Lakshadweep does not need mortgaging by developmental projects, but freedom of life, and a design of progress that empathizes with the pulse of its topography and geographic location. Lakshadweep requires a developmental strategy that does not intrude into the belief system and lifestyle of its people, and that does not force them to leave behind their ancestral islands; it needs a plan of action that accommodates its breaths and beats. Its people need to be in their archipelago, to transmit to the world more stories of how their ancestors toiled to transform their salty, barren islands into a paradise for them, and that there are no good enough reasons on the earth to make them leave these islands.
Notes
[1] The latest studies show that one of the atolls, ‘Parali I’ has submerged into the sea due to climate change, reducing the total number of islands to 35.
Raseela P.A. hails from Androth island, Lakshadweep. She graduated with triple degree from the Regional Institute of Education, Mysore, and has pursued post-graduate studies in English literature at Jawaharlal Nehru University.
Email: raseelapa06@gmail.com
