The Slow
Tsunami of Population influx
---- Dr. Pronob Kumar
Sircar
The Andaman aborigines attacked on numerous
occasions more than the officially recorded number of attacks,on the camps of invaders.Behind
those attacks theysmelled the threats of encroachment, resource exploitation
and the land alienation.This was not only occurring from the year 1789 onwards
when the modern history of Andaman Islands began with the first penal
settlement. Since the time immemorial, whenever any ship crewtried to land,
they protested with their simple bows and arrows.These attacks including the
battle of Aberdeen of 17 May 1859,with other several instances of similar
nature, to an extent can be taken into our account to learn that how the
natives of Andaman tried to defend themselves with their xenophobia to protect
their mother land from the outsiders’ invasion. For these attacks or say their
belligerence, the Islands for thousands of years were remaining unexplored
while the islands were appearing in the Ptolemy’s second century AD map.
We have passed through two centuries and many
years with crossing the milestone of ‘Independence’ with all changes around;
but the above instances are still very important to bring into our think tank
when we talk about the present population influx in the Andaman. The crux of
present situation and the problems have come to be with new faces and
dimensions.
With the corridor of times, the Andaman
aborigines (Onge, Great Andamanese, Jarawa, Sentinelese, Nicobarese and
Shompen) were later joined by the local born indigenous communities (1858), the
Karen (1920), Moplah people (1921), and the Bhantu (1926-28). Among these
communities, the oldestgroupis Andaman Local Born Indigenous Community, the
people who as 200 mutineers with Colony Superintendent JP Walker set foot
beginning the second penal settlement on this island on 10th March 1858.
For lack of space and time in this paper, it is
broadly mentioned only to be underlined here that these 200 convicts further
joined by few more batches of convicts had to be chain ganged, to work hard, to
die or suffer throughout the history of Andamans. The monster face of torture
became more grim and horrifying during the Japanese occupation between 1942 and
1945, in which many of this indigenous group died of torture and round upsin a
series on different occasions including the dates 30 March 1943 and 30 January
1944, when 07 and 44 people respectively were killed by the Japanese troops.
The old people of this community still recall their those days and expresswith
tears about how they lived wearing gunny bag clothes, how they lived on food of
itching colocasia and nothing else or in starvation for several days, how they
were made to clap on killing of their own family members, how their houses were
burnt in front of them and the unspeakable scenes of the various methods of
torture which are still vivid in their memory.These people are unanimously
known as the oldest ethnic groups of the Andaman Islands after the negrito
aborigines.
The above mentioning is very important in the
present time and space to be expanded with the sense that their sufferings are
still continuing with increased challenges looking to the negligence of their
rights and identity and the various challenges being originating from the
outside population. The threats and challengesare not only being faced by the
Andaman Local Born Pre-42 communities but also by all those islanders who had
been resettled by non-other but by the government. The population census
records in the chronology indicate about the growth of population from ‘slow’
to ‘rapid’ with the increasing labourers’ population who finddifferent means
and ways to settle even after completion of their works for which their
contractors brought them for the first time in these islands.
In the census report of 1901 the population of
the A&N Islands was only 24649, 33768 in 1941, 18962 in 1951 and 356152 in
2001. This statistic reveals how the Pre-42 peoples were tortured to death
during the Japanese period (1942-45) resulting in the sudden decrease of
population in the census of 1951.A majority of the lost population in it belonged
to the Andaman Local Born Pre-1942 communitieswho were often worded in timesas
martyrs, victims, Kaidis (prisoners), Andamanians,
Hindustanis, convicts, self-supporters/free ticket holders, residents,
shopkeepers, traders, the members of Indian IndependenceLeague (IIL) and Indian
National Army (INA).A record of their population and ethnic history is well
maintained by the Andaman Local Born Association established in 1921 with its
head quarter at Netaji Ground, Port Blair, identical itself as a historical association.
But it is appalling that apart from the population under the government schemes
from 1949 onwards, the ‘out of scheme population’ has grown up in the graph and
rapidly in the recent census years particularly 1981 onwards.The below placed
figures denote this fact..
Census
Year
|
Andaman
|
Nicobar
|
A&N
Islands
|
1951
|
18962
|
12009
|
30971
|
1961
|
48985
|
14563
|
63548
|
1971
|
93468
|
21665
|
115133
|
1981
|
158287
|
30454
|
188741
|
1991
|
241453
|
39208
|
280661
|
2001
|
314084
|
42068
|
356152
|
2011
|
343739
|
36842
|
380581
|
It may significantly be noted that the
Population Density of the A&N Islands has increased from 3 persons (in
1901) to 46 persons (2011) posing a major threat to the Islands’ Carrying
Capacity and the much spoken Ecological Equilibrium of the islands. The
population of Port Blair city has grown up from 1,42,317 (2001) to 1,65,754(2011)
which is a red line threat to the ethnic population of the islands creating
manifold problems revolving around the land, resources, jobs and the ecological
niche of the city. The recent increase in population largely includesthe
unchecked migrants who arrive here chiefly as labourers (enticed /coerced by
the contractors engaged in construction works in the islands), traders and
friends-families- relatives of such groups who arrived earlier and gradually
settled.An analytical review of the crime records in recent decades may also
reveal that the increased crimes (with some other natures of crimesthat the
local people had never seen and observed in the islands) have been caused by
the uncontrolled people or say floating people who don’t fall easily under
census’ pen.As an islander it is my proud privilege in mentioning that by the
end of 1970-80s much of the householders had no proper lock system in their
houses, since very meagerly cases of theft or any civic crime was recorded. But
the next census year i.e. 1991 shocked us stating about 01 lakh
people (exact number is 83,166) increased in the Andamans alone, while the
increased no of people for entire Andaman & Nicobar islands in 1991 was
91,920 to make total population 2,80,661 with the decadal variation of 48.70
(+).Now the population has increased to be more than 3, 80 581(2011). Thus the
trend of population growth corroborates that there has been a population
pressure at multiple levels on these lush green islands, exotic flora and fauna
and the century old ethnic groups.
In the recent decades, a large number of cases
pertaining to the marriages have been observed in the islands particularly in
the inter-islands. In these casesalmost commonly a recently arrived labourer or
trader married a girl belonging to any community of Bangali Settler/ Local Born
Indigenous group/ Moplah/ Karen/ Bhantu/ Ranchi/ Nicobarese/Great Andamanese.
These were obviously only with the hidden aim from end of the groom to well
settle in the islands. These may seem normal course of social/family happening
but looking to the Islands’ carrying capacity and the resource factors of these
tiny islands,these are of course a serious issue collectively. This
sarcastically said ‘Just Married’ event can simply be taken into notice at the
very outset, but unleashes a deep stretch of impact on the ethnicity of the
bridal Genealogy, whichcarries the islands’ historical ethnic setup.It should
never be forgotten in the dust of time that the islands have always been
recognized and praised as Mini India. Philipp Zehmisch in his Working Papers in
Social and Cultural Anthropology LMU Munich Vol 2 in 2012 writes- ‘The Andaman
Society is like a Xerox Copy of India’. This is true because of the social
integrationin contexts of local relations, behaviours, population structure and
the historical composition of the families now represented in core by the Local
Born Pre-42 Communities.The local way of creating unity can be seen as result
of speaking a common vernacular, too. The Andaman based societies particularly
the people from the Andaman Local Born Indigenous community has adopted the
colonial lingua franca i.e. Andaman Hindustani, a colloquial type of Urdu that
in tune with the all-embracing nationalist unification – is often termed as
Hindi. This Andaman Hindustani has much efficacy will all the capabilities to
build a social integration in a unique manner. Thus all these suggest us to
conclude that only the presence of these ethnic groups make the Andamans a MINI
INDIA. On the contrary, such a ‘Just Married’ event generally has the
pre-determined objectives of land acquisition, resource exploitation and above
all a permanent settlement on the island; and significantly contributes to the
socio-cultural damage in the historical and ethnic identity of the Andaman
Islands. In the contrary the issues of settlement of these so-said floating and
unchecked people in recent decades has further aggravatedto be some serious
concerns about the ecological setup and resource status of the islands. By
introducing Inner Line Permit system in these islands, the Government of India
can prevent all round damage as discussed above. In this context it may also be
included in the references that in the interest of the Jarawa of Andaman Islands,
a Jarawa policy has been framed in 2004 to save them from extinction on basis
of the orders issued from the High Court of Calcutta (Circuit Bench at Port
Blair) after a PIL (WP No. 048 of 1999) filed by a local Ld. Advocate Ms.
Shyamali Ganguli in 1999. Itmay also be submittedto be pertained that we have
the first recorded reference of the Jarawa in Capt. Colebrook’s account of 1901
(before this year on most of the occasions the Britishers misunderstood and
wrote Jarawa instead of Andamanese); while the Andaman Local Born Indigenous
community is recorded existent from 1858 onwards with the first arrival of 200
mutineers in the Andamans. ‘Jarawa’ is the name derived from Great Andamanese
word means ‘stranger’ means those who came later on). Then, why the interests
of the Andaman Local Born Indigenous Community or say these natives be
ignored?Like the case of the Jarawa Policy, the Inner Line Permit System should
also be immediately introduced in the interest of not only the local
communities but also to protect the islands from further ecological damage of
these oceanic islands most of which are uninhabitable.The carrying capacity of
the islands has frequently been discussed in various reports and again to be
placed below excluded or included of many parts.
A threat to Islands’ Carrying Capacity
To start the discussion on this topic which
carries a wide range of contents, at the very outset I find it comfortable to
begin with some recent alarming incidents recently occurred in some corners of
the islands. These civic incidents serve as an alarming bellfor having
something dangerous with the ecological niche of the island with the growing
activities of the growing population. Few days ago on Sunday of 12 November
2017, a young migrant labourer namely Bishnu Hari Mandal was killed by a
crocodile on Wandoor beach. Herpetologists argue that when some human
activities around the croc habitat increase to pose food opportunity or threat,
then they appear near.This is true when unchecked population cause directly and
indirectly habitat alteration for the wild life in the vicinity. This habitat
alteration in a panoramic view is also a threat for the endemic and endangered
species of the Andamans.
Generally an incident of croc attack on a person
or a simple snake bite is viewed not as our own problem, but it indicates
something serious and dubious in the core further surely to confirm the event
to be headlined as ‘Human Increase Vs Animal Decrease’. The uncontrolled and
unchecked population growth in the Andamans in recent decades causes extensive
pressure on the existence of exotic and endemic flora and fauna of the Andaman.
In an ecosystem, Ecological Balance
is "a state of dynamic equilibrium within a community of organisms in
which genetic, species and ecosystem diversity remain relatively stable,
subject to gradual changes through natural succession." and "A stable
balance in the numbers of each species in an ecosystem."The most important
point being that the natural balance in an ecosystem is maintained.
An increased urbanization requires more water to
feed the city's population and industry, often requiring deeper and deeper
wells to be drilled or water to be moved from even more distant locations.
Increase of population and their constructions not lonely lessens the amount of
water vapour that transpires back from the vegetation but also contributes to
groundwater pollution. The unchecked people settle themselves in far flung
areas and a clearing of land they require; and they do all damaging things
being unconscious to the ecological significance. In recent times more than
before, unchecked labourer’s population expanded and they encroached larger
areas for agriculture and other land-use goals, often at the expense of natural
ecosystems.
A research paper on this discussed issue
mentions, “One of Island Biogeography's important contributions is that each
island has an equilibrium number of species on it, which is a function of local extinction
rate and of colonization (or immigration) rate: extinction increases as more
species colonize the island, while colonization decreases as more species
already had colonized. Since immigration also depends on the distance between
the mainland (the source of immigrants) and the island (the sink, in a broad
sense), nearby coastal islands should have more species of animals and plants
than remote oceanic islands. Furthermore, large islands should also have more
species than smaller ones”. In this sense it is apparent that the Andaman
Islands have large scale limitations which require strict control about the
human population these islands bear on it. Unfortunately a concreteremedial
step is still awaited here to be taken by the kind administration. Meanwhile
apolicy of eviction of land encroachers was formulated but what about this
unchecked population influx (?)who in large number are arriving by ships and
flights (in many cases tickets purchased by their contractors). It is beyond
our capacity even after exclusive researches but can be intellectually guessed
that how they generate problems for the sustainability of the ethnic groups and
the ecological equilibrium. The Theory of Island Biogeography is determined by
two factors. The first is the effect of distance from the mainland. The
mainland is where new immigrant species originally inhabited. The second is the
effect of island size. These two factors establish how many species an island
can hold at equilibrium. The present trend of human population growth
(unchecked)in the Andamans can affect adversely the immigration and colonization
of new species and may lead to extinction of endemic and endangered lives of
the isles. The Andaman Islands carrying the world famous tropical rain forests
in this context, is not just a segment of land surrounded by water.
The population that can be supported
indefinitely by its supporting systems is under a great threatand signaling
that under the present conditions and if ILP system is not implemented, it may
be overcrowded to burst out. Then we can have the only option to cry aloud.The land
records with encroachment cases, passengers’ names and permanent addresses
through ship & flight tickets, crime records and the demographic details of
recent few decades once undergone scrutiny in a row, for sure eyebrow raising
figures will come out denoting the unchecked and increased activities by the
large number of mainlanders arrived. These people are neither ecofriendly nor
arrived under any scheme of resettlement but doubled or tripled the number of
total Local born Pre-42 people and the settlers (under government schemes). The
Carrying Capacity living within the limits of an ecosystem depends on three
factors viz. 1) the amount of resources available in the ecosystem, 2) the size
of the population and 3) the amount of resources each individual is consuming.A
simple example of carrying capacity is the number of passengers in a ship who
survive on the limited stock of food and water availablein the ship.How much
one person eats and drinks and how many times and for how long the ship is on
sail; all these suggest to calculate, evaluate and plan. The same thing is here
with an island and its population. To avail the community sustainability to
live within the Carrying Capacity of the Andamans, the Inner Line Permit system
is very essential to be a part of our positive approach to help the population
live a better and secured life ahead.
‘Population Increase’ increases Crime
It seems generally trite to point out that if
the Island Population increases, then certainly crime rate will increase in the
islands. The issue in a deep genesis bears some serious concerns to think
about.And certainly beyond all, the Andaman Local Born Pre-42 Communitieshas
realized its lethal impact and raised their voices to stop illogical settlement
of outside population.They unbearably experienced the agony of starvation
during the Japanese period when the ships loaded with ration were destroyed by the
air attacks of the allied forces. But in those conditions amidst Japanese
tortures, these people amongst themselves did not behave as snatchers to each
other. That time the population was only in thousands which had the ability to
somehow remain adjusted and live in peace and harmony;but it was then realized
under the prevailing circumstances that how fluctuation in local resource
availability affects the population.Now the population has grown to be in many
lakhs.In addition to the Port Blair city areas being overcrowded, its outskirt
areas (beyond Bathubasti) are now being heavily crowded and occupied by a large
number of labor class people recently either settled or trying to settle
down.Initially most of them were brought by the contractors for construction
works.The competition for space and opportunities with resources is on high
increase further leading to various crimes.John Braithwaite (in Aus-NZ Journal
of criminology (March 1975)has rightly stated that population growth
increases the crime rate (per capita). One effect of population increase is
the growth in the average size of the cities and towns. If the effect of a
doubling of the population is spread evenly among all communities; then towns
of 5000 will become towns of 10,000, cities of one million becomes cities of 2
million; and so on. In light of the above saying by Mr.Braithwaite, when we
think of Andaman Islands two things come out very distinctly. Firstly, in case
of Local Born Indigenous community and other ethnic groups, because of having
their historical- parental- territorial root in Andaman itself, there is no
chance of community growth at par with the other migrating increasing
population and secondly, the cities like Aberdeen Bazaar, Junglighat and other
areas of Port Blair undergo urbanization but unplanned-uncontrolled- unchecked
for they lack territorial spaces for expansion carrying geographical status of
being an oceanic island. This distinct situation undoubtedly originates
congestion further accelerating crimes. Further Mr. Braithwaite opined out of
his research which sits fit to our situation that the increased anonymity of
the city permits the criminal to commit his offence with little fear of being
recognized. Anonymity is thought to be particularly important in the causation
of Juvenile crime. The small town delinquent with little population with
majority of permanent inhabitants is likely to have his behavior reported back
to his parents by adult bystanders. (for an example out of thousands of
cases- A street fight among some youths finally ended up in a murder of a boy
Shiva on 17 Nov 2017). However in the anonymity amidst increased
outside population, chances are that the bystanders will not know the
delinquent and therefore will neither reprimand him themselves nor report the
behavior back to his parents.Thus the once strongly existing primary social
control is becoming very weak in Port Blair. The absence of social control
implies social disorganization. This disorganization is further manifested in
high trend for divorce, separation, suicide, alcoholism, drug abuse and other
forms of deviance. In the deviant environment in the city all moral
prohibitions are weakened through their apparent lack of force.
The large number of un-ethnic – non-native
people ensures that people with criminal tendencies can find people with
similar tendencies to provide social support for their criminalities. But in
case of presence of the ethnic population in majority with meagre outsiders,
the society will not allow the criminogenic influence of the criminal
subculture and ghettos to develop.
A majority of the reputed theories emphasis
thatthe aesthetic wilderness of the city, the overcrowding, the absence of a
spirit of community are bound to produce anti-social reactions. Many policy
makers have concluded from one or more of the theories that an effective way of
reducing crime is to reduce or control the population growth in the particular
city. Thus there is a clear correlation between the population growth and the
crime rate of the city. Since the Andaman Islands are oceanic Islands, this
appears to be more demanding looking to its limited space, resources and
opportunities. The long pending demands of the islanders for implementation of
Inner Line Permit system in these islands appear to be very genuine and urging
in a compelled situation.
The LBA efforts beyond the finger phalanxes
With some genuine demands and to implement the
Inner Line Permit system, a peaceful mass protest was organized on 08-11-2008
by the Andaman people at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi to grab attention of the
Centre. The peaceful protest was led by two major organizations viz. Local Born
Association (LBA) and Andaman Moplah Service Organization (AMSO) solely formed
by the people of pre-1942 communities of the Andamans and they were backed by
many other organizations.
After long time-consuming efforts to eventually
fail, the silence once again broke up and a mass rally to grab attention of one
and all was marched on 18th April 2017 at Port Blair.
These ethnic communities, who have come through
the painful passage of times throughout the history, are now depressed again.
Adversely, on the other hand the population influx has been continuing and has
accelerated to be under influence of the mass exodus from Bangladesh and other
known and unknown parts including the parts where poverty and crime chiefly
prevail with different creeds.
The LBA and AMSO alongwith other organisations
submitted their some demands with logics along with certain documents with plea
to implement the Inner Line Permit System in Andamans. In addition to it, their
demands for relieving of tax for their residential buildings, 50 % or sizable
representation of Pre-42 community in LG Advisory Committee etc. and many
others appear to be very genuine in light of the complete text above in this
submission. Their these demands if accepted complying the SC directives for
ILPs, all the islanders will sleep in peace and this can be construed as a
moral-socio-economic JUSTICE to the Local Born People (Pre-42 communities) and
their next generations. In addition the ILPs will certainly help to restore the
normalcy to promote sustainability in terms of a controlled population with
ecological equilibrium, and thus MINI INDIA again.
Lastly I
wish to have in record the fact that although I belong to Andaman's Bengali
Settler community and my proud grandfather Late Rajani Ranjan Sircar had an
important place in the modern history of Andaman, I am like many others, aware
of the reality that the refugees arrived here only after the independence and
enjoyed the fruits of freedom; while the Pre-42 communitiesof Andamanshave come
through the path of all sufferings in the history now deserve a salutary social
position in the Andaman Islands.
Port Blair dated 18th Nov 2017
