The islands' six degrees of tribal separation

“The people are without a king and are idolaters, and no better than wild beasts.

And I assure you that all the men of this Island of Angamanaian [Andaman] have heads like dogs … and have a quantity of spices; but they are of a most cruel generation, and eat everybody that they can catch, if not of their own race. ''
–Marco Polo

The great traveller, in his rather heartless and biased account, wrote at a time when the indigenous tribes of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands were its only inhabitants.

However, today they are a tiny minority, most living in guarded reservations.

There are six indigenous tribes in the archipelago, of which four are “negrito'' — Jarawas, Onges, Sentinelese and Great Andamanese — and two “mongoloid''— Nicobarese and Shompen.

The Nicobarese, who live in the islands of Nicobar, can be said to be the “least primitive'', given that there has been a certain degree of assimilation into mainstream society.

On the other hand, the Sentinelese can be termed the “most primitive'' as they have had almost no contact with the outside world for the thousands of years that they have lived on the islands.

Indeed, most of the negrito tribes still practise a way of life that is subsistence level at best. Dr B.K. Das of the Anthropological Museum in Port Blair told Weekend Review: “The government is making efforts to bring them [the tribals] into the mainstream.

But that cannot happen without their free will. We cannot and will not force them to do anything.

The administration is keen on community development programmes. But we can only assist them. Change must be very gradual.''

According to Dr Das, there are only 329 Jarawa people left. “We have counted them.Their child mortality rate was more than 40 per cent before 2002 but now it has been brought under control.

"In 2003, for instance, their population was only 266. On the other hand, the population of the Great Andamanese tribe is only 56 now.

"But it is the Sentinelese tribe with which we have been unable to establish any contacts.''

Though contacts with the Jarawas have been going on since 1974, it was only in 1996 that the anthropologists really managed to win the tribe's trust.

“A Jarawa boy, called Enmay, was badly wounded in the leg and was taken by people to a hospital in Port Blair, where he was treated and kept for three months.

"He was later sent back to his community, and has since become a liaison between us and the Jarawas.

"Our anthropological contact teams visit them in boats from time to time,'' Dr Das said.