Jarawas (Andaman Islands)

The Jarawas (Jarawa: Aong, pronounced [əŋ][2]) are an indigenous people of the Andaman Islands in India. They live in parts of South Andaman and Middle Andaman Islands, and their present numbers are estimated at between 250–400 individuals. They have largely shunned interaction with outsiders, and many particulars of their society, culture and traditions are poorly understood. Since the 1990s, contacts between Jarawa groups and outsiders grew increasingly frequent. By the 2000s, some Jarawas had become regular visitors at settlements, where they trade, interact with tourists, get medical aid, and even send their children to school.

Jarawas
Aong
Total population
approx.
380 (2011 Census of India)[1]
Regions with significant populations
Western side of South Andaman and Middle Andaman Islands,  India
Languages
Jarawa, one of the Ongan languages
Religion
Traditional religion
Related ethnic groups
Other indigenous Andamanese peoples, particularly Onge

The Jarawas are recognised as an Adivasi group in India. Along with other indigenous Andamanese peoples, they have inhabited the islands for several thousand years. The Andaman Islands have been known to outsiders since antiquity; 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. Through many decades, contact with the tribe has diminished quite significantly.

There is some indication that the Jarawa regarded the now-extinct Jangil tribe as a parent tribe from which they split centuries or millennia ago, even though the Jarawa outnumbered (and eventually out-survived) the Jangil.[3] The Jangil (also called the Rutland Island Aka Bea) were presumed extinct by 1931.[4]

The Jarawa are a designated Scheduled Tribe in India.[5]

Origin

The Jarawas have been around for a long time. They are believed to be descendants of the Jangil tribe and it is estimated that they have been in the Andaman Islands for over two millennia. The Jarawas were both linguistically and culturally distinguished from the Greater Andamanese, who did not survive over the years. The early colonisations by the Jarawas showed evidence that there was an early movement of humans through southern Asia and indicate that phenotypic similarities with African groups are convergent. They are also believed to be the first successful tribe to move out of Africa. Any form of evidence on the Jarawas—social, cultural, historical, archaeological, linguistic, phenotypic, and genetic—support the conclusion that the Andaman Islanders have been isolated for a substantial period of time, which suggests why they have been able to survive despite modernization.[6]

The Jarawas are one of the three surviving tribes in the area, the other two being Sentinelese and Onge. This triad is connected with the Greater Andamanese language clade on a typological—rather than a cognatic—basis, suggesting a historical separation of considerable depth.[6]

Contact, settlements and dislocation
Comparative map showing distributions of various Andamanese tribes in the Andaman Islands – early 1800s versus present-day (2004). Notables:
  1. Rapid depopulation of the original southeastern Jarawa homeland in the 1789–1793 period
  2. Onge and Great Andamanese shrinkage to isolated settlements
  3. Complete Jangil extinction by 1931
  4. Jarawa move to occupy depopulated former west coast homeland of the Great Andamanese
  5. Only the Sentinelese zone is somewhat intact

The Jarawas have a history as traditional hunter-forager-fishermen, and have also had reputations as warriors and uncompromising defenders of their territory.[7] Before the 19th century, the Jarawa homelands were located in the southeast part of South Andaman Island and nearby islets. With the establishment of the initial British settlement, these are suspected to have been largely depopulated by disease shortly after 1789.[8] The Great Andamanese tribes were similarly depopulated by their overuse of alcohol and opium after their introduction, leaving open the western areas which the Jarawa gradually made their new homeland. The spreading of opium and alcohol was to some extent sponsored by the colonial authorities in order to depopulate the Jarawa.[9] The immigration of mainland Indian and Karen (Burmese) settlers, beginning about two centuries ago, accelerated this process.[10]

Despite this, the Jarawas managed to survive the British encroachment of the 19th and 20th century, as well as Japanese occupation during World War II.[7] From the 1970s, the controversial Great Andaman Trunk Road was built through their western forest homeland. As result, contacts between the Jarawas and outsiders began to increase, resulting in occasional trading but also the outbreak of diseases.[11][12][10] Most Jarawas vigorously maintained their independence and distance, however, and actively discouraged most incursions and attempts at contact.[10] Regardless, they became accessible to some Indian linguists.[13] From 1997, Jarawas began to initiate contacts with settled populations instead of being coaxed to show themselves. Meetings with outsiders, especially with tourists, remained extremely dangerous to the Jarawas due to the risk of disease.[10] In spite of these risks, the Jarawas increasingly assumed an active role, learning more about the settled population, taking up opportunities to trade more frequently, and informing themselves about their own special status as protected people. In the process, Jarawas learned other languages, sought medical aid, and began to ask tourists for money if they wanted to take photos.[14]

Today, several Jarawa groups 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.[14] Jarawas currently have a population of 270 remaining.[15]

Hunting and diet

As the Jarawas are a nomadic tribe; they hunt endemic wild pigs, monitor lizards and other quarry with bows and arrows. They have recently begun keeping dogs to help with hunting, as the Onges and Andamanese do.[7]

Since this is an island tribe, food sources in the ocean are highly important to them. Men fish with bows and arrows in shallow water. Women catch fish with baskets.

Mollusks, dugongs and turtles are a major part of the Jarawa diet. Besides meat and seafood, Jarawas collect fruit, tubers and honey from the forest. In order to get honey from bees, they use a plant extract to calm the bees.

The Jarawa bow, made of chuiood (Sageraea elliptica), is known as "aao" in their own language. The arrow is called "patho". The wooden head of the arrow is made of Areca wood. To make the iron head arrow, called "aetaho" in their language, they use iron and Areca wood or bamboo. When they go hunting or on raids, they wear a chest guard called "kekad".[16]

Food preparation is mainly done by roasting; baking as well as boiling. However, the Jarawas also consume food raw. The Jarawas have well balanced diets, and since they exploit both terrestrial as well as aquatic resources, they can easy supplement one type of food by another one in case of a shortage.[17]

The Jarawas also have support from the Indian government. They receive monthly allowances by the government and also receive wages for taking care of citrus fruit plantations. The Jarawas have a strong dependence on gathering different items, such as turtle eggs, honey, yams, larvae, jackfruit and wild citrus fruits and wild berries.

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.[11][12] In late 1997, some Jarawa started coming out of their forest to visit nearby settlements for the first time. Within months a serious measles epidemic broke out. In 1999 and 2006 the Jarawa suffered another outbreak of measles.[18] No deaths were reported.

The impact of the highway, in addition to widespread encroachment, poaching and commercial exploitation of Jarawa lands, caused a lawsuit to be filed with the Calcutta High Court, which has jurisdiction over the islands. The case escalated to the Supreme Court of India as a Public Interest Litigation (PIL). The Society for Andaman and Nicobar Ecology, the Bombay Natural History Society and Pune-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.[19] However, the Light of Andamans editorialised that the changes to the Jarawa were likely irreversible and should have been assessed more thoroughly before the road was built.[11]

Impact of tourism

A major problem is the volume of sightseeing tours that are operated by private companies, where tourists view, photograph or 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.[20] It has been alleged, however, that these rules are being flouted with over 500 tourists being taken to view Jarawas daily by private tour operators, while being shown as transiting to legitimate destinations and resulting in continuing daily interaction between the Jarawa and day tourists inside the reserve area.[20]

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.[21] Barefoot won that case.

Some Indian tourism companies bring tourists close to their secluded areas where the natives are tossed food from the caravans.[22] In 2012, a video shot by a tourist showed women encouraged to dance by an off-camera policeman.[22]

On 21 January 2013 a Bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and H.L. Gokhale passed an interim order banning tourists from taking the trunk road passing through Jarawa area. As a response to this interim order, a petition was filed on behalf of local inhabitants which stated that the Andaman Trunk Road is a very vital road and connects more than 350 villages. The Supreme Court therefore, on 5 March 2013 reversed its interim order, allowing the road to be fully re-opened, but with vehicles only being allowed to travel in large convoys four times a day.

See also

References
  1. http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/PCA/SC_ST/PCA-A11_Appendix/ST-35-PCA-A11-APPENDIX.xlsx
  2. Kumar, Pramod (2012). Descriptive and Typological study of Jarawa (PhD). Jawaharlal Nehru University.
  3. Maurice Vidal Portman (1898), Notes on the Languages of the South Andaman Group of Tribes, Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, Government of India, ... 'Jangil' is here used for 'Ancestors.' I found that this word was used by the very ancient Aka-Bea-da for the name of the hostile inland tribe in the South Andaman, who are now known as Jarawas and who belong to the Onge group of tribes.
  4. George van Driem (2001), Languages of the Himalayas: An Ethnolinguistic Handbook of the Greater Himalayan Region : Containing an Introduction to the Symbiotic Theory of Language, BRILL, ISBN 90-04-12062-9, ... The Aka-Kol tribe of Middle Andaman went extinct by 1921. The Oko-Juwoi of Middle Andaman and the Aka-Bea of South Andaman and Rutland Island were extinct by 1931. The Akar-Bale of Ritchie's Archipelago, the Aka-Kede of Middle Andaman and the A-Pucikwar of South Andaman Island soon followed. By 1951, the census counted a total of only 23 Greater Andamanese and 10 Sentinelese. That means that just ten men, twelve women and one child remained of the Aka-Kora, Aka-Cari and Aka-Jeru tribes of Greater Andaman and only ten natives of North Sentinel Island ...
  5. "List of notified Scheduled Tribes" (PDF). Census India. p. 27. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 November 2013. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
  6. Endicott, Phillip; Gilbert, M. Thomas P.; Stringer, Chris; Lalueza-Fox, Carles; Willerslev, Eske; Hansen, Anders J.; Cooper, Alan (January 2003). "The Genetic Origins of the Andaman Islanders". American Journal of Human Genetics. 72 (1): 178–184. doi:10.1086/345487. ISSN 0002-9297. PMC 378623. PMID 12478481.
  7. Sreenathan, M.; Rao, V. R.; Bednarik, R. G. (2008). "Palaeolithic Cognitive Inheritance in Aesthetic Behavior of the Jarawas of the Andaman Islands". Anthropos. 103 (2): 367–392. doi:10.5771/0257-9774-2008-2-367. JSTOR 40467418.
  8. Sita Venkateswar (2004), Development and Ethnocide: Colonial Practices in the Andaman Islands, IWGIA, ISBN 87-91563-04-6, ... As I have suggested previously, it is probable that some disease was introduced among the coastal groups by Lieutenant Colebrooke and Blair's first settlement in 1789, resulting in a marked reduction of their population. The four years that the British occupied their initial site on the south-east of South Andaman were sufficient to have decimated the coastal populations of the groups referred to as Jarawa by the Aka-bea-da ...
  9. Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza, Francesco Cavalli-Sforza (1995), The Great Human Diasporas: The History of Diversity and Evolution, Basic Books, ISBN 0-201-44231-0, ... Contact with whites, and the British in particular, has virtually destroyed them. Illness, alcohol, and the will of the colonials all played their part; the British governor of the time mentions in his diary that he received instructions to destroy them with alcohol and opium. He succeeded completely with one group. The others reacted violently ...
  10. "Jarawa", Survival International, 2009, retrieved 6 July 2009, ... The principal threat to the Jarawa's existence comes from encroachment onto their land, which was sparked by the building of a highway through their forest in the 1970s. The road brings settlers, poachers and loggers, who steal the tribe's game and expose them to disease...
  11. "Editorial: After ATR what?", The Light of Andamans, 32 (2), 6 January 2006, ... The Great Andaman Trunk Road was constructed over the dead bodies of the APWD mazdoors, the Jarawas and the bush police personnel ... The road is mired in controversy, a very serious one at that ... the Jarawas have gone through a churning. They have acquired all, almost all, the vices of civilization. They have taken to eating rice and dal, taking tobacco and gutka and maybe even submitting to sexual exploitation whether by choice or due to allurement. They too have gone too far. The irony is: nobody knows how to save the tribe. Nobody is sure closing the ATR would save them. Yet they have to maintain the position. If the tribal civilization disintegrates even after closing the road, it is nobody's loss; except the islanders. Barring a few, the tribal rights activists don't belong to the islands ...
  12. Anvita Abbi (2006), Endangered Languages of the Andaman Islands, Lincom Europa, ... The building of the Andaman Grand Trunk road has exposed Jarawas to the city dwellers and exploitation. Their fish catch and game are bought for a simple packet of biscuits. Jarawa children have become very fond of biscuits and loiter on the street to satisfy their desire from visiting tourists. These are highly endangered tribes, yet a slight increase in the population such as an increase from 19 in 1961 to 50 [refer to the table 2 given above] of Great Andamanese builds some hope. Nine days after giant waves struck the Little Andaman Island, a child was born at a relief camp at soccer stadium and the Ongre tribe of hunters and gatherers took a step away from extinction. Post-Tsunami life for tribes is varied. While Jarawas are least affected by the calamity ...
  13. Zide, Norman; Pandya, Vishvajit (1989). "A Bibliographical Introduction to Andamanese Linguistics". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 109 (4): 639–651. doi:10.2307/604090. JSTOR 604090.
  14. Vishvajit Pandya (2 June 2007). "From dangerous to endangered: Jarawa "primitives" and welfare politics in the Andaman Islands". Archived from the original on 5 May 2009. Retrieved 2 July 2009. "The early history of Jarawa hostility towards outsiders was brought to a gradual end by a series of friendly contacts by the Indian administration which continued till 1998–99 when the Jarawa community on its own came in close sustained contact with the outside world. Despite the changing trajectories of the history of contact between Jarawas and outsiders, what remains significantly unchanged are perceptions of the Jarawa from colonial to post-colonial times." "The Jarawa no longer loiter on the roadside, waiting for charity from passing people. They now allow themselves to be photographed against payment in kind. The ATR has changed the Jarawa and made them conscious that they are objects of discipline for the administration or commodities for gawking tourists in search of the "exotic" in the Andamans. This understanding has helped them to negotiate situations involving outsiders with increasing confidence." "Jarawa seeking medical help are moved to the local medical establishments at once. It is no longer a situation of outsiders trying to convince Jarawa to come out and seek medical assistance. They do so willingly at their own initiative" "These Jarawa, as has been experienced, are very friendly, speak Hindi very fluently and regularly visit the local inhabitants for food. It has also been observed that a group of about 80 Jarawa who regularly visit the Tirur area are so friendly with the people that a few of the Jarawa children recently approached the local teacher for admission in the school as they had observed other children studying in the school/college".
  15. "Database for Indigenous Cultural Evolution" (PDF).
  16. "Jarawa" (PDF).
  17. Sahani, Ramesh. "Nutritional and Health Status of the Jarawas : A Preliminary Report".
  18. The Jarawa
  19. "The road to destruction", India Together, retrieved 19 November 2008, ... In 1998, in an issue relating to excessive logging activities in Little Andaman and the danger posed to the Onge tribe, the Pune-based environmental action group Kalpavriksh, the Port Blair-based SANE and the Mumbai-based Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) filed a writ petition before the Kolkata High Court. The administration stonewalled it. It was argued that the matter could be taken up only in the Supreme Court, and the case landed there ...
  20. "जारवा के इलाकों में पयर्टकों का प्रवेश बंद (Tourists' entry to Jarawa areas forbidden)", oneIndia.in, 5 March 2008, retrieved 24 November 2008, ... इस आदेश का उल्लंघन करने वाले आपरेटरों के खिलाफ कड़ी कानूनी कार्रवाई की जायेगी. बयान में कहा गया कि यह जनजाति क्षेत्र केन्द्र शासित प्रदेश के प्रोटेक्श्न आफ एबोआरिजिनल ट्राइब्स रेगुलेशन एक्ट (1956) के अतंगर्त आते हैं (Violators will be prosecuted strictly. These tribal areas fall under the purview of the union territory's Protection of Aboriginal Tribes Regulation, 1956)... अंडमान ट्रंक रोड (एटीआर) पर पर्यटकों को ले जाते समय वाहनों को रोका नहीं जाये और न ही जारवा जनजाति के लोगों को अपने वाहन में बैठाया जाये. उन्हें यह भी कहा गया कि वे यह भी ध्यान रखे कि न तो जारवा जनजाति के फोटो लिये जाये और न ही उनकी वीडियोग्राफी की जाये (Vehicles in which tourists are transit via the ATR are not permitted to stop or offer rides to Jarawa tribal members. Photography and videography of Jarawas is prohibited) ... गणेशन ने कहा कि आधिकारिक तौर पर यह दिखाया जाता है कि पर्यटकों को एटीआर होकर बारातंत द्वीप की सैर कराई जाती है ... हर रोज करीब पांच सौ से अधिक पर्यटकों (Ganeshan said that, while on paper tourists are shown as transiting to Baratang Island ... over 500 are being taken to view Jarawas every day) ....
  21. "Indian Luxury Resort Endangers Isolated Jarawa Tribe", Ecoworldly, archived from the original on 25 June 2009, retrieved 3 July 2009, The survival of the Jarawa tribe, on the Andaman Islands in India, is threatened by the construction of a luxury resort ...
  22. Chamberlain, Gethin (7 January 2012). "Andaman Islands tribe threatened by lure of mass tourism". The Guardian. London.
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