The Great Experience
A linguistic field trip to the Andaman
Islands 2001-2002
by Prof. Anvita Abbi
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Table of Contents
1. Preface 2. Geography 5. Locals 8. The Andamanese Tribals: The Great Andamanese 9. The Andamanese Tribals: The
Jarawa 10. The Andamanese Tribals: The
Onge 12. Future plans |
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The author, Prof. Abbi, wishes to express her gratitude to the Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology Leipzig, Germany, for funding the project, and to Dr. S.A. Awaradi, Director of Tribal Welfare,Port Blair, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, for rendering all possible help to achieve our goal. Copyright ©2004 Anvita Abbi, Centre of Linguistics
and English, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi,
India |
Following is the account of a field trip to the Andaman islands, undertaken by the author to obtain first-hand knowledge of the linguistic situation of the aboriginal communities there. Data was elicited to write grammatical sketches of the tribal languages, which form a separate monograph and will be published soon. Help has been sought on aids for the reader as maps and genetic information available on the web site of the Andaman Association. The idea of sharing my experience with people interested in the islands has been the sole motivating force for this article. I hope that the readers enjoy this account of my experience. For the benefit of linguists, I have given the sample conclusion of our study in tabulated form. Readers will also find some sound recordings of songs and words here. However, prior permission from the author must be sought if this data is to be used for further linguistic research.
A cluster of approximately 250 islands running from north to south of the southeast of the Indian sub-continent in the Bay of Bengal constitutes the Andaman Islands. These islands lie between 10°13'-10°30' N latitudes and 90°15'E-93°10' E longitudes. The close proximity of these islands give a look of overlapping land mass on the map and perhaps this has been the reason that the entire area has been marked and identified as the Great Andaman, the Little Andaman, and the Nicobar. These islands are spread over an area of 6430 sq. km. The Ten Degree channel in the south separates these islands from the Nicobar Islands. The northernmost island of the Andaman Islands is at a distance of 900 km. south-east of the confluence of the Hugli river in West Bengal, India but merely at a distance of 193.12 km south of Car Negrais in Myanmar (Burma). The capital city of the Andaman Islands is Port Blair situated in the south of the Islands at a distance of 1255 km from Kolkata. The numerous islands and islets are surrounded by coral reefs and deep blue water. The islands are covered with thick forests, groves and visible roots showing signs of erosion. Some of the islands are breathtakingly beautiful. The entire area of the Andaman Islands is divided into five island clusters as given in table 1 (ref. Chakraborty 1990:3).
Table 1. The Andaman Islands
Group of islands Number of islands Area North Great Andaman Middle Great Andaman South Great Andaman Ritchie Archipelago Baratang island 50 27 42 15 14 585.78 sq.miles (1,1517 sq.km) 699.84 sq.miles (1,812 sq.km) 832 sq.miles (2,155 sq.km) 126.61 sq.miles (328 sq.km) 129.25 sq.miles (335 sq.km)
The current pilot survey concerns the areas of all except Ritchie Archipelago.
The maps below gives a good picture of the geography of the islands. The earliest study of the islands dates back to 1790 (ref. K.S. Singh 1990) but it was from 1869 onwards that serious study of the ethnography and anthropology of the islanders began. Although there had been disparate accounts of these islands in travelogues, government accounts and reports, it was not until 1788 when the British came into contact with the islanders that their history began to be written.
Map 1. The location of the Andaman islands.
Our team consisted of three investigators, two of my students, Shailendra Mohan and Pramod Kumar and myself. We reached Port Blair in the early hours of 18th December 2001. Our objective was to conduct a pilot survey of the languages spoken in the Andaman Islands. This included languages spoken by the original Andamanese tribals and the contact language, i.e. Andamani Hindi, which is used in all the islands. With this wide an objective, we divided our visits in such a way that we could visit Tribal reserves such as Dugong Creek on Little Andaman as well as the jungles of the Jarawa on Great Andaman. In addition, we wanted to scan the entire length of the island from the northernmost tip to the southernmost tip to record the Hindi spoken among the disparate and diverse communities. We divided our work among ourselves in such a way that we could cover all in a span of four to five weeks. The visits and experience were thus divided into three broad classifications: (1) Andamanese Tribes (2) The locals and (3) The tribes of Ranchi village. I discuss here specifically my experience with the Andamanese tribes and their languages. Readers will have to wait to see the published version our research on linguistic aspects of the languages spoken by the various communities residing in the Islands.
The Andaman Islands had been known as kaalaa paanii ('black waters' )by Indians as the islands were known for the establishment of penal settlement in 1858 by the British. Several freedom fighters and revolutionaries were brought in here and were imprisoned in the cellular jail. The stories of the torture of these freedom fighters at the hands of the British government are hair raising and heart rendering. The walls and the compound of the cellular jail are still there as mute witness of the history. In 1926, many convicts from India and Burma were brought in here. The tribe known as Karen was also brought in here in 1927 from Burma and made to settle down in north Andaman. After India's independence in 1947, most of the convicts, having released from the jail, made Andaman Islands as their homes. In addition, refugees from East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) mainly Bangla speakers migrated to the islands as they found it very convenient to make this land a new home in the wake of no resistance from the Indians. Andaman and Nicobar Islands were assigned the status of Union territories and the newly formed government of India wanted to habilitate the area as best as it could. It invited people from the mainland to join in new jobs. Thus came the Malayalam speaking communities from Kerala, the Telugu speaking communities from Andhra Pradesh, and the Tamil speaking communities from Tamil Nadu. A group of Tamil speaking Sri Lankan also came and made these islands their homes. Officers from northern India came and joined various government posts. At present, all these migrant groups are called 'locals' basically to distinguish them from those who happened to be in the Andaman Islands for only ten years and less. Some people from the Munda and Kurux tribes from Ranchi (in the state of Jharkhand) were also brought in by the government for various construction works in newly acquired territory. The misconception of the government was that the tribes of the Central India shared some affinities with the tribes of the Andaman Islands and thus the construction work would meet least resistance from the local tribes. The exercise, sure enough was totally futile except that the Ranchi tribal people found and welcomed new home which was far away from the Hindu hierarchical structure they suffered from back at home in the mainland India. These tribes later on invited their women folks and other members of the families to join them and thus generated a colony of tribal population called as 'Ranchi'. Currently, Ranchi is a heterogeneous village, which houses Munda and Dravidian tribes and their families. It is a mini Jharkhand tucked away in the north of the Andaman Islands. In short, the Andaman Islands have following major communities (some named after the language they speak at home).
Indian settlers:
Bengali, Malayali, Tamilian, Munda/Mundari, Kharia, Kurux,
Telugu, Karen, Hindi.
Migrants (from the mainland migrated in last 10 years) From various
regions of India.
Andamanese tribals .
Great Andamanese, Jarawa, Onge and Sentinelese.
According to the Census 1991, the total population of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands was 277,989, out of this 203,968 constitute the population of the Andaman Islands. It is not surprising that with all it diverse and heterogeneous communities co-existing, the Andaman Islands is called the 'Mini India'.
Various studies in the past ,both linguistic and genetic, suggest that Andamanese languages might be the last representatives of pre-Neolithic Southeast Asia. They represent, perhaps, the initial settlement by modern humans (ref. Hagelberg et al 2002 ). Hagelberg analysed mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences and RFLP polymorphisms, and Y chromosome bi-allelic markers and microsatellites, in present day Andamanese of the Onge, Jarawa, and Great Andamanese tribes. She and her co-workers also analyzed mtDNA sequences from Andamanese hair samples collected by an ethnographer during 1906-1908. Their conclusion was that Andamanese have closer affinities to Asian than to African populations and that they are descendants of the early Palaeolithic (old-stone age) colonizers of Southeast Asia.
Genetic and epigenetic data (ref. Endicott et al 2003) suggest long-term isolation of the Andamanese for a substantial period of time, extensive population substructure, and /or two temporally distinct settlements. Geographical isolation, scientists believe, probably aided the survival of ancient human lineages in the Andamanese. Some recent studies by geneticists point in the direction of Andamanese being related to the Negritos of the Malay Peninsula and in the Philippines despite the differences in the blood frequencies (the Andaman Association 1995-2002).
Living Andamanese tribes can be grouped into four major groups, i.e. the Great Andamanese, the Jarawa, the Onge and the Sentinelese. Barring Sentinelese, other tribes have been exposed to the mainlanders. Their history of contact varies from tribe to tribe, chronologically, the first one to come into contact with the mainlanders were the Great Andamanese followed by the Onge and finally the Jarawa [ja:rwa]. All attempts to establish contact with Sentinelese have failed so far. The Jarawa have come to be known to the mainlanders very recently, the first contact, as is generally believed, was established in 1997. The demographic scale of these islanders is inversely related to the period of contact with the mainlanders; higher and deeper the contact smaller the population. An estimated population of 3000 to 3500 Great Andamanese in the early part of the nineteenth century was reported to be reduced to 625 (Census 1901). Anthropological study of Great Andamanese was undertaken by A.R. Radcliffe-Brown during 1906-1908 when not more than 620 Great Andamanese were left in the jungles. Since then, the population has declined drastically to 37. The main reasons for such a decline had been disturbance in the ecological balance, high rate of diseases brought in by the contact with non tribes and high infant mortality rate.
It was as late as 1968 that the Andaman Government, on the recommendation of the anthropologists T.N. Pandit and others, took a policy decision of resettling the surviving tribes in an island called Strait Island, about 68 nautical miles from Port Blair. As of today, these tribes of Strait Island frequently visit Port Blair to receive monthly allowance, medical help, and other necessary aids from the government bodies. The Great Andamanese, especially those who visit Port Blair frequently, have functional knowledge of Hindi and Bangla. Some of them also understand few words spoken in English. Great Andamanese is a cover term that has been used for 10 disparate groups of the tribe once habited the entire region of the Andaman Island, but now settled in Strait Island. Our recent fieldwork could only establish four out of these ten tribes.
Map 2. The tribal territories before the 1860s (ref. Andaman Association).
Map 3. The present state of the Andamanese languages. Numbers in the brackets indicate the number of persons in a tribe living today (the crossed "o" signifies extinction).
While the Great Andamanese diminished in number due to ailments and diseases brought in by contact, the other important tribe, i.e. the Jarawa declined by what could be termed as genocide by the colonial rule. The Indian authorities decided to build a Grand Trunk road cutting through the thick forests of the Jarawa, thus wiping out all the survival modes of the tribes. In retaliation, the tribes fought with arrows and bows but could not withstand the modern guns. The common story that we heard in various government offices was that these tribes were electrocuted as and when they came near the construction sights demarcated by electric wirings. No one knows how many of the Jarawa died in the process of the building of the Grand Trunk road. Today their number is not more than 300 though the officials have failed to do the head count so far. A rough estimate is that about 70-80 Jarawa reside in Tiroor, about 90-100 in R K Nalla and around 125 in Kadamtalla. They still live in the jungles and very few of them, mainly young boys, come out in the street and ride on the top of the local buses to cross few kilometres, or to receive bananas and coconuts as gifts. The very name 'Jarawa' is given to them by one of the tribes of the Great Andamanese, i.e. Aka Bea which means 'stranger' in the language of Aka Bea. The Jarawas refer to themselves by the term 'ang' [ö:ng] meaning 'we people'. The history of the Jarawa is pathetic. The tribe, which was totally self sufficient and had not known any contact from the outside world, is slowly being drawn to the so-called 'civilization' and in return is becoming dependent on the gifts they receive from the Indians. Their language and culture are not as well-known to us as that of the Great Andamanese. We observed that they were fond of red cloth, which they shred into long pieces and then tie around their waist or made a hair band out of it. Jarawa boys are very sharp and intelligent and seemed far more receptive than the Great Andamanese. Our team workers Pramod Kumar and Shailendra Mohan observed that the Jarawa shed their clothes as soon as they reached the jungle. Other than a red thread adorning the waist nothing is worn on the body of male and female Jarawa. The tropical climate of the Andaman Islands helps them to be bare bodied.
Unlike the Great Andamanese, the Jarawas are spread out in the Middle and the South Andaman jungles. They are known to be fast runners as the same Jarawa boy had been traced in the north and in the south of the jungle within a short span of time. However, no measurement has been taken to prove this. Jarawa men and women are well built and seem to be afraid of none. The two tribes, Jarawa and the Great Andamanese have had a long history of animosity and fights among them. This was especially true of the times when the Great Andamanese occupied the north and the middle of the Island [in the nineteenth century] and Jarawa were settled in the Southern part of the Island. Refer to the following map 4. Jarawas are known to be good warriors and have the history of fighting any outside interventions.
Map 4. The shinkage of tribal territory since 1800 (ref. Andaman Association).
The third important tribe, only 94 persons as of 2002, in the island is that of the Onge [also called [Oenge] 'we people' by themselves], settled in the island called the Little Andaman south of the Great Andaman. The map of the Little Andaman resembles a pomp fret fish. There are two settlements of Onge in the island since 1976. One is known as the Dugong Creek settlement and the other is known as the South Bay settlement. The majority live in the forest reserve area of Dugong Creek.
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Map 5. 1 Dugong Creek Onge settlement 2 South Bay Onge settlement |
Dugong, [also known as 'sea cow' or 'water pig'] which is endangered specie now, is found in the sea near the area. In fact, Onge are very fond of hunting dugong, and when they are successful, the meat of the dugong is roasted and distributed to the entire population. Onge are far away from the feeling of personal possession and thus any catch of turtle or dugong is distributed to all, old, women, and the children alike. Their knowledge base of the various medicinal qualities of the parts of the meat guides them which part to offer to whom. What is good for growing children is not good for old people and what is good for pregnant women is not given to non pregnant women. The entire animal is cut into pieces according to the needs of the society. On asking how does dugong look like Onges described the animal that appears to be a pig from the front but fish from the rear. This is a sea mammal, which has a distinctive snout/mouth like a pig.
These tribes are settled in a big reserve by the government of India. Out of the 94 members, only five families comprising 15 members in all, live in South Bay. These have maintained communication with the families living in the Dugong Creek. The government has provided each family [family is defined as 'parents and unmarried children'] with huts erected on stilts. In addition, each family gets a monthly ration of daal (pulses), oil, salt, biscuits, match boxes and clothes to wear. Interestingly, each family has recently been provided with a portable transistor. It is very amusing to see an Onge walking in the jungle with the transistor blaring Hindi film music. Young Onge boys had been seen to hum lines from Hindi song without understanding a word of it.
Among the southern dwellers of the islands are the Sentinelese. A rough estimate by the government of India lists them as the population of 100, however, no one has done the head count yet and the tribes are hostile to foreign intervention till today. The history of Sentinelese-foreigners interaction is nothing but tales of violence from both sides. The tribes have maintained a 'touch me not' attitude in the past and at present, discourage sailors, other tribes and government parties from approaching their island. Our knowledge about them is very poor. We do not even have enough information regarding the number of communities living there, whether they all belong to the same tribe or a mixture of different tribes.
The tribe by the name of Jangil in the map 4 is extinct and nothing is known about it. One could postulate that this was also the Andamanese tribe which was perhaps given the name of jangli 'wild, belonging to forest' by the anthropologists working in the area in the first half of the nineteenth century. Later on the word changed as the metathesis of vowel and consonant took place.
Much has been written about the social organization of these tribes. However, I would like to submit that the hierarchical society that India is stratified with is missing here. The leader of the tribal group is selected on the initiative of the government officials so that the "caretakers" have some representative of the society to communicate with. Generally, the person with the knowledge of functional Hindi is preferred. This definitely is the case with Great Andamanese and Onge. Families are small and as said earlier, do not include married children. Married children are given separate huts to live in but community dwelling is still overpowering that is reflected in food distribution and boat building [as in the case of the Onge].
Tribes in general are hunter and gatherers, though as said earlier in the case of Great Andamanese and the Onge, city food is distributed on regular monthly basis. Despite the distribution of the food by the government officials, males prefer to hunt in the sea and in the forest and females prefer to gather roots and vegetables in the jungles.
8. The Andamanese Tribals: The Great Andamanese
It is not easy to visit the tribal reserves. I had sought permission to visit these reserves from the Resident Commissioner of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands much before I reached Port Blair. However, on reaching Port Blair we had to seek fresh approval from the Director of the Tribal Welfare Association (Adim Adivasi Janjati Vikas Samiti, AAJVS in short) Mr. S.A. Awaradi. He was initially very apprehensive but later on was convinced of our commitment and gave us permission to visit Dugong Creek. However, he barred us from visiting Strait Island but assured us that he would arrange meetings with the Great Andamanese in Port Blair - and he kept his promise. Visiting the Jarawa reserve was difficult as no officer would give us permission to do so. However, Shailendra and Pramod could visit the reserve with the researchers from the ASI, just for two nights. Our experience with the Great Andamanese started with meeting Mr. Peje, and two young boys, Gulat aged 30 and Ilfe aged 20 respectively, right in the heart of Port Blair in a specially designed guesthouse for the tribes, called Adi Basera or 'tribal home'.
They spoke Andamani Hindi1, and one of them, Peje said could understand Bangla too. When I tried to talk in Bangla with him, he answered in Hindi. Perhaps he had, as he said, passive knowledge of Bangla. Communication was no problem and it appeared that they were accustomed to visiting anthropologists and linguists. We began with pictorial method of data elicitation. On showing the primers written by the Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore, Peje got very annoyed and started criticising the book and the field linguist who had visited them some years ago. He repeatedly told us that the book was wrong and wrong data had been recorded. He also informed that most of the data was elicited from children who did not know their mother tongue well. It seemed that he had met linguists with the same book before us. Peje showed no hesitance in expressing that the book should be junked.2 That was the last time I showed that book to any Andamanese tribe. One of the major achievements of this meting with Peje was the discovery of the existence of voiced an voiceless bilabial fricatives, the sounds neither shared by other speakers that we came across nor shared by the other two languages of the Andamanese family that we investigated3.
1 Grammatical Sketch of Hindi spoken in the
Andaman islands by Anvita Abbi.
Forthcoming.
2 We have a video recording of Peje criticising the
book.
3 For a grammatical setch of Great Andamanese, see "Vanishing Voices
of Great Andamanese" by Anvita Abbi ,in Lesser-known languages in
South
Asia and
Technological Advances, Edited by Anju Saxena, John Benjamins.
Forthcoming.
We noticed that the love for hunting was great among all the tribes as the Great Andamanese would not miss a chance to describe the hunt for the tortoise even if it was a month ago. Unfortunately, males of Great Andamanese tribe have taken to drinking alcohol and thus very often create a pathetic sight in the town of Port Blair. Our main informant Mr. Peje, age 60, was once given Rs. 100 for food as he said he could not sit because he had not eaten anything since that morning. The result was that he did not show up till next morning as, we realized later, had gone to a wine shop and consumed liquor. He reported a day after in a stinking drunk state. In fact, many of the young boys used to frequently visit the town of Port Blair just to make some money to buy cheap country liquor. Andamanese tribes have not yet acquired the method of making liquors unlike many other tribes of the country. In fact, their culinary art is restricted to boiling, roasting and drying meat in the sun. Of course, those who are settled in Port Blair in any government organization are well adapted to modern kitchen, and are efficient in cooking variety of city foods.
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Fig 1. |
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Fig. 2. |
As said earlier, despite several requests, we were not given permission to visit Strait Island. However, we were compensated by frequent visits by Andamanese from Strait Island who were looking for medical treatment at Port Blair hospital. They would come in twos and stay at Adi Basera before and after the hospitalization. It appeared that they had least hesitance in frequenting the hospitals and getting free medical help.
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Fig. 3. |
Many Great Andamanese are totally acquainted with the city ways of life and aspire to adopt them, too. We met two Great Andamanese women working for police force who were completely immersed in the city culture, serving us tea and snacks from the kitchen fully equipped with modern utensils and gadgets. They spoke Andamani Hindi and as expected, knew few words of English as well. Though they were earning money by the employment they were engaged in, yet they said that the life in the jungle was far better as there were no restrictions of time and place. They said they felt like free birds in the jungle. They marvelled at us how could we sit on the same chair at one place for so long in the office doing "nothing". This perhaps was the reason why government officials had a constant complaint against Great Andamanese "escaping from their duty" and running away to the jungle as and when it suited them best. One of the male tribe I interviewed later minced no words in letting me know that they were against the literacy and education program run by the government, as he realized that the program was succeeding in making the tribes subservient to the locals. He asked me poignantly "what will you give me after I get educated? Most often, I will be serving as a peon in an office and the boss will expect me to get vegetables from the market for his family. I'd rather be naked in the jungle, and roam free and be my own lord". He had understood the perils of education rather well. More I saw semi educated and literate Great Andamanese, more I felt sorry for them. They were lost tribe immersed in vices such as alcoholism, begging and emulation of the educated city dwellers that brought only frustration and fear of breaking away from their roots.
Among all the Great Andamanese that we met the most interesting and dynamic personality was a lady called Licho [li:co] ( See the picture of Lico sitting on hospital bed in pink saree above and her family in front of Adi Basera]. She was in her forties and was the first Great Andamanese to taste the cosmopolitan city such as Chennai in southern India. She had mixed grandparents. Her paternal grand parents were Khora speakers while her maternal grand mother who was a Bo speaker, married a Burmese. Lico constantly claimed as speaking a "mixture language" of Jero, and Sare. She worked as a peon in a government office and took pride in being associated with the educated world. We have long tape recordings of Lico describing her aspirations of moving to Nicobar Islands so that she could educate her children away from the tribal influence of her parents. She not only spoke Andamani Hindi, but also wrote poems in the language. We have recordings of her Hindi and Andamanese poems.
Our general impression after meeting the tribes was unhappy. They are the lost tribe who do not know what is good for them and those who do know, such as the old people, do not know how to go back to the balanced and equilibrium stage they once enjoyed. They have reached 'a no return point' and have suffered in the past from various diseases contaminated by the city dwellers. Their way of living is in a flux and it will be sometime when they reach any comfortable equilibrium stage. We should not forget that they are only 37 in number and no matter how fast they run to catch this stage of equilibrium they are bound to miss it.
9. The Andamanese Tribals: The Jarawa
While being at Adi Baseera we saw two teenaged Jarawa one dressed in red T shirt and red cap and the other one in white T shirt and green cap (obviously given by the government officials. See their picture given below). Their names were Momo and Phuphu. Momo was a few years older to Phuphu. They understood some Hindi words and were accompanied by Mr. Dipu, a research assistant from the Anthropological Survey of India serving as an interpreter between the two Jarawa boys and the officials. We gathered that the ASI had recently identified another Jarawa reserve that they wanted to approach through these two friendly boys. We overheard in the office of the AAJVS that the new reserve might consist around 350 Jarawa. No one could confirm the figures, as these kinds of rumours are very common in Port Blair. At times, the same group is identified at two different places in a short span and local authorities take them as two different groups. As said earlier, Jarawa are fast runners, and surely there must be short cuts in the jungle.
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Fig. 4. |
We elicited some data from our word list from Phuphu and Momo and realized that Momo had better knowledge of Hindi words than Phuphu. Both of the boys were sharp, energetic and curious to know their surroundings. In fact, Phuphu was trying to repeat some Hindi words after us, a rare sign among the informants. Later when Shailendra and Pramod went into the Jarawa reserve and spent two days among them, their observation was that the tribal children were very receptive and eager to learn. You may click on the icon to hear the boat and bus song sung by Jarawa adult and a child. Jarawa children often come out on the road and love to have joy ride on the top of a bus.
Song 1: The Jarawa Boat Song (click icon to start):
Song 2: The Jarawa Bus Song (click icon to start):
Caution: The sound files can only be reproduced with permission from Prof. Anvita Abbi.
10. The Andamanese Tribals: The Onge, the journey to Dugong Creek
Our journey and stay at Dugong Creek was, pleasantly, beyond our expectations. We were warned of ferocious sharks, crocodiles, snakes and mosquitoes, in that order, attacking us unexpectedly during our journey by boat. The officials had already tried their best to dissuade me from going but my pursuance made them change their mind and finally we got the appropriate permission to sail to Little Andaman. A ten-hour journey by a ship to the point called Hut Bay in Little Andaman was rather a pleasant journey despite the fact that neither the deck nor the cabins were in good condition. By the time we reached our PWD [Public Works Department] guest-house it was evening and there was nothing we could do except to wait for the morning to appear so that we could plan our journey to Dugong Creek. Hut Bay was a very small sleepy town that housed mainly government officials and a bunch of shops to cater to the needs of the families of these officers. We gathered information that no one really visits Dugong Creek except the visiting officials, which is not very common. Not many anthropologists and linguists have visited the place either. The place, among the locals, is considered "dangerous".
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Map 6. |
Next morning we traveled 22 km by a bus to a point named Rabindra Nagar where we bought some grocery items for the next few days. This was also the point where one could find a boat, big enough to seat seven people to travel to Dugong Creek. The boat was parked in a very narrow creek surrounded by thick green mangroves. Unsure of what was waiting for us, with excitement and fear of unknown we sat in the boat and prayed that none of the untoward incident took place. The creek was curved at couple of places, as the mouth of the creek was not visible. Dark green shadows spread over the tranquil water of the creek had turned the water emerald green. The sky above was clear blue, but the dark willowing branches were thick enough to block the penetration of the bright sun on the water body. We were witnessing one of the oldest jungles of the world and perhaps were going to experience one of the oldest civilizations on the earth. Pramod had been little restless and made the boat shake a bit when we were warned by the boatman of the immanent dangers of being swallowed by crocodiles, plentiful in the water below. While we were being told of this, we saw a huge one basking in the sun on the shore just a few meters away. This was the first time I ever saw such a huge and fat crocodile.
The scene was breathtakingly beautiful and was unlike any other sea journey I had taken earlier. The lush green jungles on both the sides of the creek, trees with roots showing as much as one foot on the earth, the tranquil green water of the creek, fishes being disturbed by the running boat and jumping high at times made the whole scene reassuring and glorious. However, our excitement lasted a short time as when we reached the mouth of the creek, it opened in the vast sea with big waves approaching us. The boatman called these waves halfaa and refused to take us further in the sea. He predicted that the boat will overturn many times as the weather was rough and sure enough sharks will get plenty of food for a day. The only alternative left for us was to be on our own. The boatman asked us to walk for six miles on the sand north of the point [see the map given above] and promised that he would meet us at the end of our journey to enable us to cross another water body to ultimately reach Dugong Creek. None of us had any experience of walking in the sand but we had no alternative either. Thus began a long journey on the virgin island spread out by white untouched long strip of sand. Words fail to describe the serenity of the jungles, sand scattered with live seashells and conches, lapping waves approaching the shore, gradually reducing the walking area inch by inch. There were several types of crabs that we encountered on the way. The most interesting scene I still remember was the tiny little conches with lives in them situated in a semicircle, as if they were conferencing, spread out in all directions as soon as they heard our footsteps. It was a sunny day not very hot, white sand was spread out with rare brain-corals and nautilus shells that we could not resist collecting. Having walked for six miles, we reached a spot where we could see an island like structure lush green with forests across the waters. We also saw a jetty on the other side of the water and we knew we had arrived the Dugong Creek. The boatman, who perhaps was waiting all this while, saw us and immediately brought the boat towards us. But this was a smaller boat which could take only four people. After crossing the channel between the two shores, we reached the reserve of Onge and tried to settle down in a dilapidated cottage reserved for city guests. The windows without doors and entrance doors that would refuse to close, total absence of wire mesh prepared us what to expect at night. We went out for a walk in the reserve area to get the first glimpse of the Onge and their dwellings.
The tribal reserve had 30-odd huts all built on stilts that had a balcony, a cooking area and a bedroom fully furnished with wooden bed and mosquito net, an item we were deprived of. Each household had a dog who, I guess, was part of the family.
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Fig. 5. |
I was told that the Onge had acquired fondness of keeping dogs as pets because it helped them hunting pigs. An Onge family is not complete until there is a dog in the house. A peculiar custom was introduced to us: while sparkling white teeth might be a point of pride and fashion in our world, Onge consider white teeth the sign of a dead body. They all chew a kind of a bark to get their teeth colored red.
Unlike Great Andamanese, Onge women were shy and did not speak Hindi at all. Some men could understand Hindi and a few could also speak Andamani Hindi. The latter became our informants. Women wore maxis and men wore half pants and T-shirts given to them by the government. The children were provided with shirts and half pants too. A school was recently opened in the reserve and all Onge children were given white shirts and royal blue half pants as uniform which they meticulously wore every morning whether they attended the school or not. Onge in general, appeared to be happy and contended people. Oblivious of the outside world, hunting, fishing and boat making activities are followed with great passion.
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Fig. 6. |
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Fig. 7. |
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Fig. 8. |
We were told that the only motivating force for the children to come to school was a game of football. We noticed that children were very apt in climbing trees and it was their hobby to bunk classes and run to the trees. Once on the trees, they behaved almost like monkeys, destroying fruits, breaking branches and hopping from one thick branch to another. I noticed that they destroyed several young papaya trees planted by government officials. They were extremely happy stamping on the raw papayas lying on the ground. When I tried to stop them, I was told by one adult Onge that they did not eat papaya so they did not care for them. We also interviewed the school master who opined that compared to other Andamanese tribes, these children were dull and not willing to learn anything. We did not get into this in any detail to confirm whether the teaching method employed at school was good enough for the children to be receptive.
Whoever said never to rest under a coconut tree, as coconuts have a bad habit of falling down and breaking your head was very correct? We kept on hearing falling coconuts throughout the day and at night it sometimes disturbed our sleep. Interestingly, Onge were not very keen on picking coconuts despite the incentive offered by the government. Their favorite food is dugong, turtle, fish and pigs. Nevertheless, coconuts are plentiful on this island and we witnessed the establishment of the very first coconut drying plant. The idea of the government was that dried coconuts fetched better prices than fresh ones and this way the sale of the dried coconuts could go into the Cooperative Welfare Society meant for the Onge. The whole ceremony of inauguration of the plant was managed in Hindu style with burning the incense, breaking the coconut on the ground and going in circles (known as parikrama in Hindi) aound the drying machine several times etc. Onge were mute observers but keen to help the organizers in whatever way they could. We witnessed history in the making.
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Fig. 9. |
Data collection at Dugong Creek was mainly done in our cottage but at times, I had to sit near the seashore while an Onge was fishing. Despite being aware of the fact that the recording will have sea wave noise, this could not be helped as the informant was not willing to talk to us any other time. Most of the men had gone to the interior of the jungle, where, as we were informed, they were busy making a dongi (boat) for fishing and dugong hunting. We found out that apart from making boats and going fishing, the men loved collecting honey. An Onge described the process of collecting honey at length.
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Fig. 10. |
The youngest member of the reserve was a two-month-old baby and the oldest was a man of 71 years. The population in the reserve was around 75. Details of each member are given in the appendix. The Onge applied differently coloured mud paste to different parts of the body for various functions. For instance, the two-month-old baby had mud paste on his chest to keep him cool in the hot ,sultry weather. The tribes knew quite well how to cope with the harshness of nature. The knowledge of the diverse varieties of clays and plants found in the jungle was shared by all.
As far as the linguistic findings are concerned, we tried to attest the bilabial fricatives but could not. However, high central vowels and unrounded back vowels were attested in the speech of many speakers. Click on the icon below to hear sound samples. We also found that the vowel system of the Onge language is similar to that of the Jarawa.
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Fig. 11. |
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Song 3:
Song 4:
Song 5:
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Caution: The sound files can only be reproduced with permission from Prof. Anvita Abbi. |
The opportunity to live closely with tribals, to communicate with them freely and just talk and gossip, was an enriching experience. In all, we felt a sense of guilt in our attempt to bring them "into the mainstream" of Indian life. They were, unlike other tribes of India, happy and self contained. They lived in an equilibrium with nature and were leading a life of opulence. If economic status is decided by the equilibrium of demand and supply, then the Onge enjoyed in the past and Jarawa still enjoy ta time of opulence. Nature gives them more than they need. Their knowledge of indigenous plants, herbs, diseases, and creatures of the jungle is immense and needs no schooling. No one can really educate them further. It is we, who need to be educated because soon all this knowledge will evaporate, with the immanent danger of the extinction of the tribe. The quest for human origins and the first language is foremost on our minds but visiting these tribal people myself has assured me that we are nothing but impending danger to their very basic survival. The tribes should be left alone, at least those who have not already come into contact with us. Mr. Awaradi, as a well-wisher and caretaker of the tribes, after many years of experience of living with them and for them, also thinks that the contact with them should be stopped from both sides. That is the only way we can salvage whatever has remained. However, we cannot undermine the significance and urgent need for documenting this ancient heritage of India.
Readers will have to wait for the grammatical sketches5 of each of the three languages, i.e. Great Andamanese, Jarawa, and Onge but it would be useful to give a comparative vocabulary of body parts terms that indicate a closer relationship between Onge and Jarawa but Great Andamanese seems to be a family apart. The comparative typological features given in the Table 4 is self explanatory.
5 A monograph of grammatical sketches of three Andamanese languages under the title Vanishing languages of the Andaman Islands is ready to be published soon.
Table 2. Comparative list of body parts.
Jarawa Onge Great Andamanese Gloss -ejea -ejale -be:˜ 'forehead' -ejebo -ejebo -ulu 'eye' -ikh@w@ 'ekwagˆ -boa 'ear' -itho-ha -ito-ge -bala-tara dole 'elbow' -e¯ia -o¯a-ge -tho 'wrist' oba˜na -obana˜-ge -koro 'palm' -obotha -obotha-ge -k@nap 'thumb' -ib@ -ibo -buco 'thigh' -olak' ~
-ola -ola-ge -curok' 'knee' -ugÎaga -ubt@ga-me -motora-dole 'sole' -agitho -a¯githo -to 'neck'
Table 3. Comparative sound system.
Sound system Great Jarawa Onge Aspiration yes yes no Retroflex yes yes yes Bilabial fricative yes no no Four-way nasal contrast yes yes yes Labialized velar no no yes Eight-nine vowels system 8 9 9 Vowel length yes yes no Back unrounded vowel no yes yes Central high unrounded vowel no yes yes
Andamanese
Table 4. A typological comparison of the Andamanese languages
|
. |
Great Andamanese |
Jarawa |
Onge |
|
Unmarked clause order |
SOV |
SOV |
SOV |
|
Adjective |
Head-Modifier |
Head-Modifier |
Head-Modifier |
|
Possession system - alienable - inalienable |
Dependent marking |
||
|
Possessor-GEN-Possessed |
Possessor-GEN-Possessed |
Possessor-GEN-Possessed |
|
|
Personal prefixes |
Personal prefixes |
Personal prefixes |
|
|
Case markings |
Post-positional |
Post-positional |
Post-positional |
|
Pronoun system |
inclusive/exclusive distinction |
(insufficient data) |
inclusive/exclusive distinction |
|
Deictic system |
Three-way distinction |
Four-way distinction |
Three-way distinction |
|
Verb system |
|||
|
Distinct classes |
Defined by suffixed consonant |
No class |
No class |
|
Agreement |
No agreement with S/P |
No agreement with S/P |
No agreement with S/P |
|
TAM |
shown as ATM |
(not sure) |
TAM |
|
Clause linkage |
parataxis |
parataxis |
parataxis |
|
Tense distinction |
past/non-past |
(not sure) |
present/past/future/distant future |
|
Classifiers |
Nound classifiers but no fixed position |
not found |
shape classifier for round things |
|
Reduplication |
Absence |
Morphological |
Morphological |
|
Compounds |
Endocentric |
Endocentric and exocentric |
(insufficient data) |
|
Kinship and body parts by personal prefix |
Yes 1st Sg pro + V (C) |
Yes /ƒne/ 'human' |
Yes /ƒne/ 'your' |
|
Dependent marking |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Serial verbs |
- |
sequential reading |
- |
A project documenting the Great Andamanese language is planned at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, with the financial support of the SOAS, UK. The fieldwork will be undertaken in the Strait Island.
The objective of the project is to write a comprehensive grammar of the language, prepare a trilingual dictionary, Great Andamanese-Hindi-English, sketch the sociolinguistic aspect sof the language, record songs, narrations and folk tales among others. We are also planning to do extensive video recordings of the community. Readers who are interested in the project may contact me on e mail: anvitaabbi@hotmail.com .
Table A1.1. Demography
|
Tribe |
1931 |
1951 |
1961 |
1971 |
1981 |
1991 |
1998 |
|
Great Andamanese |
90 |
23 |
19 |
24 |
28 |
33 |
40 |
|
Onge |
250 |
150 |
129 |
112 |
102 |
97 |
105 |
|
Jarawa |
70* |
50* |
500* |
300* |
250* |
250* |
300 |
|
Sentineli |
50* |
- |
50* |
100* |
100* |
150* |
250* |
* estimates (or rather: wild guesses; the estimated populations did not in reality fluctuate as wildly as shown in the official figures)
Table A1.2. Tribal settlement areas
island Tribal settlement Area Strait island Great Andamanese 1.2 sq.mi (3.11 sq.km) Litle Andaman Onge (Dugong creek 267 sq.mi (700 sq.km) West Coast of south and Jarawa 292 sq.mi. (765 sq.km) North Sentinel island Sentineli
and South Bay)
middle Great Andaman
Table A1.3. Threeee territorial Jarawa bands in the Jarawa
reservation
(ref. board on the wall of the Anthropological Survey of India, Port
Blair, December 2001 headcount)
Tirur area: 70-80 persons
Middle Great Andaman (R.K. Nala and B.D. Nala): 75 persons
Kadamtala: 106-120 persons
The population figure of the Great Andamanese is given as 36 below. In September 2004 it increased to 37 when a baby was born.
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