Place:Lakshadweep, India

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source: Family History Library Catalog

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Lakshadweep, also known as Laccadives, is a union territory of India. It is an archipelago of 36 islands in the Arabian sea, located off the Malabar Coast.

The name Lakshadweep means "one lakh islands" in Sanskrit, though the Laccadive Islands are just one part of the archipelago of no more than a hundred islands. Malayalam is official as well as the widely spoken native language in the territory. The islands form the smallest union territory of India and their total surface area is just . The lagoon area covers about , the territorial waters area and the exclusive economic zone area . The region forms a single Indian district with 10 subdivisions. Kavaratti serves as the capital of the Union Territory and the region comes under the jurisdiction of Kerala High Court. The islands are the northernmost of the Lakshadweep–Maldives–Chagos group of islands, which are the tops of a vast undersea mountain range, the Chagos-Lakshadweep Ridge. The Lakshadweep originally consisted of 36 islands; however, due to the Parali 1 island being submerged in water due to sea erosion, 35 islands remain.

As the islands have no aboriginal inhabitants, scholars have suggested different histories for the settlement of these islands. Archaeological evidence supports the existence of human settlement in the region around 1500 BCE. The islands have long been known to sailors, as indicated by an anonymous reference from the first century CE to the region in Periplus of the Erythraean Sea. The islands were also mentioned in the Buddhist Jataka stories of the sixth century BCE. Islam was established in the region when Muslims arrived around the seventh century. During the medieval period, the region was ruled by the Chera dynasty, the Chola dynasty, and finally the Kingdom of Kannur. The Catholic Portuguese arrived around 1498 but were expelled by 1545. The region was then ruled by the Muslim house of Arakkal, who were vassals to the Kolathiri Rajas of Kannur, followed by Tipu Sultan. On his death in 1799, most of the region passed on to the British and with their departure, the Union Territory was formed in 1956.

Ten of the islands are inhabited. At the 2011 Indian census, the population of the Union Territory was 64,473. The majority of the indigenous population is Muslim and most of them belong to the Shafi school of the Sunni sect. The islanders are ethnically similar to the Malayali people of the nearest Indian state of Kerala. Most of the population speaks Malayalam with Dhivehi being the most spoken language in Minicoy island. Jeseri dialect is spoken in the inhabited islands of archipelago, namely Amindivi and Laccadive Islands, with an exception of the southernmost island of Minicoy, where the Mahl dialect is used. The Ponnani script of Malayalam was used to write Jeseri until the British Raj.^[1] The culture is almost similar to that of Mappilas in the nearest mainland state of Kerala.^[2] The islands are served by an airport on Agatti Island. The main occupation of the people is fishing and coconut cultivation, with tuna being the main item of export.

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Ancient history

One of the earliest references to the region is by an anonymous author in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea. There are references to the control of the islands by the Cheras in the Sangam Patiṟṟuppattu. Local traditions and legends attribute the first settlement on these islands to the period of Cheraman Perumal, the last Chera king of Kerala. The oldest inhabited islands in the group are Amini, Kalpeni Andrott, Kavaratti, and Agatti.

Buddhist and Islamic influences

Archaeological evidence suggests that Buddhism prevailed in the region during the fifth and sixth centuries CE.^[3] The local legends attribute the history of Islam here to the Legend of Cheraman Perumals, the last Chera king of Kerala, who left for pilgrimage from the island of Dharmadom near Kannur to Mecca. However, the legend is not substantiated.^[4] According to popular tradition, Islam was brought to Lakshadweep by Ubaidullah in 661 CE. His grave is located on the island of Andrott.

Medieval period

During the 11th century, the islands came under the rule of the Late Cholas when the Cholas conquered parts of Kerala^[3] and subsequently the islands came under the Kingdom of Kannur. The islands had an important role in the Indian Ocean trade during the medieval period as it was located in the principal trade route which connected the Middle East with Malabar Coast, Ceylon, and Southeast Asia (Indonesia and Malaysia).^[5]

Modern period

In the 16th century, the Portuguese ruled the seas between Ormus and the Malabar Coast and south to Ceylon. As early as 1498 when the Vasco da Gama arrived at Kozhikode during the Age of Discovery, they took control of the archipelago (called Laquedivas by them), later on to exploit coir production, until the islanders expelled them in 1545. In the mid 16th century all the inhabited islands of the Lakshadweep were conferred as jagir on the ruling family of the Cannanore Kingdom (Arakkal Kingdom) by the Chirakkal or Kolattiri Raja in order to grant protection from the Portuguese. The Arakkal kingdom had jurisdiction over Laccadive and Amindivi groups of islands, in addition to the city of Kannur. The islands are also mentioned in great detail in the stories of the Arab traveller Ibn Batuta.

The Aminidivi group of islands (Amini, Kadmat, Kiltan, Chetlath, and Bitra) came under the rule of Tipu Sultan in 1787.^[6] They were passed to British control after the Third Anglo-Mysore War and were attached to Kasaragod Taluk of South Canara. The rest of the islands (Agatti, Andrott, Minicoy, Kavaratti, Kalpeni, and Bangaram) remained under the suzerainty of the Arakkal family of Kannur in return for a payment of annual tribute. The British took over the administration of those islands for nonpayment of arrears. These islands were attached to the Malabar district of the Madras Presidency during the British Raj. Later it was placed under Kozhikode Taluk.

Independent India

On 1 November 1956, during the reorganization of Indian states, the Lakshadweep islands were separated from Malabar District and organised into a separate union territory for administrative purposes. The new territory was called Laccadive, Minicoy, and Amindivi Islands before adopting the Lakshadweep name on 1 November 1973.^[4] The headquarters of the new union territory remained at Kozhikode for nearly a decade until 1964. In 1964, the seat of administrator of the islands was shifted to Kavaratti.^[7]

To safeguard India's vital shipping lanes to the Middle East, and the growing relevance of the islands in security considerations, an Indian Navy base, INS Dweeprakshak, was commissioned on Kavaratti island.

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