Nicobar Islands

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Nicobar Islands
Aerial view of Bompoka Island
Aerial view of Bompoka Island
Waters Indian Ocean
Geographical location 7 ° 52 '  N , 93 ° 30'  E Coordinates: 7 ° 52 '  N , 93 ° 30'  E
Nicobar Islands (India)
Nicobar Islands
Number of islands 22nd
Main island Great Nicobar
Total land area 1841 km²
Residents 36,819 (2011)
Location of the Nicobar Islands
Location of the Nicobar Islands

The Nicobars (also Nicobars ) are an archipelago belonging to the Indian Union Territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal .

They have a total area of ​​1841 km² and 36,819 inhabitants (2011 census). Of these, 65% - around 24,000 - are indigenous, the rest mostly come from India. Only 12 of the 22 islands are inhabited.

geography

The Nicobar Islands are located over 100 km south of the Andaman archipelago , over 600 km west of the Malay Peninsula , around 200 km north of the Indonesian island of Sumatra and over 1300 km southeast of the Indian subcontinent . The Ten-Degree Strait stretches along the 10th parallel to the north and the Andaman Sea to the east . The Bay of Bengal begins in the northeast .

The islands are arranged in three groups:

  • the northern group:
    • Car Nicobar (126.9 km²)
    • Battimaly (2.01 km², uninhabited)
  • the middle group:
    • Bompuka (Poahat) (13.3 km²)
    • Camorta (188.2 km²)
    • Chowra (8.2 km²)
    • Isle of Man (Laouk) (0.01 km², uninhabited)
    • Katchal (174.4 km²)
    • Nancowry (also Nancowrie) (66.9 km²)
    • Teressa (101.4 km²)
    • Tillangchong (16.84 km², uninhabited)
    • Trinket (86.3 km² until 2004, less after the tsunami)
  • the southern group, separated from the middle group by the Sombrero Canal:
    • Great Nicobar (1045.1 km², the largest of the Nicobar Islands)
    • Klein Nikobar (159.1 km²)
    • Kondul (4.6 km²)
    • Meroe (0.52 km²), Kabra (0.52 km²), Megapod and Pigeon (0.2 km², all uninhabited)
    • Menchal (1.30 km²)
    • Trak (0.26 km²)
    • Treis (0.26 km²)
    • Pulomilo (Pillomilo) (1.3 km²)

The main town is Nancowrie (also: Nancowry, Nan Cowrie).

The Nicobar Islands form one of three districts of the Andaman and Nicobar Union Territory.

history

Early history

The islands have been inhabited since prehistoric times, and the local population speaks various Nicobaric languages.

The name "Nikobar" probably comes from descriptions of the Tamil Chola dynasty, means "naked man" in Tamil and has been recorded for 1050 AD.

The Chinese Yi Jing provided the first evidence of trade with the islands in the 7th century. The Arab trader Suleiman recorded his observations on his way to southern China in 851. Arab ships exchanged food for iron and fabric, but also for the very valuable ambergris , which was traded as far as Burma and China. Burmese and Malay ships also went to the Nicobar Islands.

Rajendra I , King of the Tamil Empire of the Chola , extended his rule to the Nicobar Islands between 1014 and 1025.

From the early 16th century, European ships paced the routes of the spice trade in the Bay of Bengal and called at the islands, including Portuguese ships from Malacca , which also brought missionaries. In April 1602, the British East India Company's first fleet, led by James Lancaster, reached the Nicobar Islands before continuing to the Moluccas .

Colonial times

The Danish ship Galathea in front of the Nicobar Islands (19th century)

With Denmark , the first European colonial power made claims: the Danish East India Company tried to colonize the islands repeatedly from its Indian base in Tranquebar from 1754/56 . The attempts were repeatedly interrupted by the outbreak of malaria : 1784–1807 / 09, 1830–1834 and finally from 1848. The Nicobar Islands were ultimately Denmark's last colony in South Asia. In connection with the Danish colonization attempts there was a mission base of the Moravian Brethren from 1768 to 1787 .

During this time, the pronounced trade between the islands is documented for the first time by Europeans.

In 1778 the Trieste East India Trade Company raised claims to four Nicobar Islands (Nancowry, Kamorta, Trinket and Katchal), which were declared Austrian crown colonies , although Denmark had never given up its claims and protested. A Nicobar island, Teressa, still bears the name of the Austrian Archduchess Maria Theresa today . The Austrian efforts ended unsuccessfully in 1784.

In 1846 the research ship Galathea (with the Danish geologist Hinrich Johannes Rink, among others ) came to the islands while sailing around the world. In 1858 the Austrian Novara expedition carried out research on the islands.

Denmark abandoned its claim by a royal resolution of 1868, according to which the islands were no longer considered to be Danish territory.

At this time, the Berlin colonial enthusiasts Ernst Friedel , Otto Kersten and Franz Maurer u. a. the colonization of the Nicobars by Prussia . They each published a book on an overseas territory that they thought was free and suitable for colonization. Maurer suggested in his book, which after extensive studies a. a. in Copenhagen and a lively correspondence with the Brethren arose, the Nicobars as a colony. This sparked a debate about the feasibility between Georg Ritter von Frauenfeld on the one hand and Maurer and Karl Ritter von Scherzer on the other.

There was no need for such discussion, for in 1869 the Nicobars were captured by Great Britain and added to British India . With Nan Cowrie a permanent settlement was established on Car Nikobar . The small population of the Nicobar Islands was ruled by the Chief Commissioner of the Andaman Islands in Port Blair, who was represented on the Nicobar Islands by an agent on Car-Nicobar. The main task of this agent was to maintain the connection with the local population and to ensure law and order. Before the Second World War , the agent was replaced by an assistant commissioner .

Second World War

In the spring of 1942 the Nicobar Islands were abandoned by the British because of the threatened occupation by the Japanese . The few British officers stationed on the Nicobar Islands were ordered to leave for Port Blair in order to be taken from there with the British of the Andaman Islands to the Indian mainland. On the way to Port Blair, her small ship, the Sophie Marie , ran into a British mine and sank with the entire crew. The British had laid mines against a Japanese invasion in the waters of the Andaman Islands.

The Japanese landed on the Nicobar Islands on June 13-14, 1942. A Japanese naval headquarters called the 12th naval base under a vice admiral was established in the Nicobar Islands and also acted as the military government for the Japanese-occupied islands. The Japanese naval headquarters in the Nicobar Islands were subordinate to the Japanese naval headquarters in Singapore , while the Japanese civil administration in the Andaman Islands was under the 12th naval base in the Nicobar Islands.

The Japanese presence on the Nicobar Islands was limited to Car Nikobar, as all the militarily important facilities of the island chain such as ports and airstrips were located on this island. During the first three weeks on Car Nikobar, the Japanese built an almost one hundred meter long landing stage and an airstrip with the help of the locals - road construction began.

From September 1943, the Allies began air raids on the Nicobar Islands, as the islands, as a Japanese naval base, threatened British shipping traffic in the Bay of Bengal. The number and strength of air raids increased in the course of 1944 and 1945. On November 20, 1944, the British submarine HMS Tally-Ho (P317) sank the Japanese auxiliary mine-layer Ma 4 30 nautical miles east of the southern tip of Groß Nikobar . During this time, some Japanese ships were sunk by British submarines in the sea area around the Nicobar Islands.

From July 28 to August 13, 1945, around 100 Nicobarese were executed by the Japanese for espionage. The Japanese believed that the targeted air strikes and attacks by Allied warships on Car Nikobar were due to light signals from the locals to Allied submarines. These light signals were never given; the accuracy of the attacks was due to a good photo reconnaissance with reconnaissance planes.

On October 18, 1945, the Japanese troops surrendered on the Nicobar Islands.

post war period

After the Second World War, an advantage of the Japanese occupation turned out to be the landing bridge, which they helped to build, the airstrips and more than 60 kilometers of roads for the Nicobarese.

British rule ended with the independence of India in 1947.

Together with the Andamans, the Nicobars became Indian union territory in 1950.

ethnography

The natives of the Nicobar Islands, the Nicobarese and Shompen , still make up almost two thirds of the population despite immigration from mainland India.

Group of the Shompen People (1886)

The indigenous population lived before the 2004 tsunami in villages on the coasts of the islands. The sea was the main source of food. The 2001 census recorded 28,653 Nicobarese, v. a. determined on Car Nicobar and 398 Shompen on Groß Nikobar .

Individual islands of the Nicobar Islands and the neighboring Andaman Islands were closed to visitors for decades by the Indian government in order to protect the indigenous population from the unpredictable influences of civilization . Researchers, too, only have access with a special permit. Tourists are not tolerated on the Nicobar Islands.

Important objects from the culture on the Nicobar Islands are kept in the Weltmuseum Wien . This collection dates from the time of Empress Maria Theresa and her eldest son Joseph II , when the Nicobars were an Austrian colony for almost five years . However, this collection has been in the museum's archive since around 2004. The former Museum of Ethnology, renamed Weltmuseum Wien in 2013, was redesigned between 2014 and October 2017. The Nicobar Collection forms part of the Insulares Southeast Asia Collection .

languages

The Nicobarese or Nicobaric languages ​​form a subgroup of the Mon Khmer languages , which are one of the three main branches of Austro-Asian . The eight to ten Nicobar languages ​​are spoken by around 27,000 people; the biggest language is spoken on Car Pu . Contrary to earlier studies, the language of the Shompen (around 400 speakers in the hinterland of Groß Nikobar) also belongs to the Nicobar group, although it is the most distant from all the others (van Driem 2008).

animals and plants

The islands were home to a large number of ( endemic ) species that only occur here . On Great Nicobar Island was in 1989 Biosphere Reserve "Great Nicobar Biosphere Reserve" was founded.

Important plant species are:

Unique and only found on the Nicobar Islands:

Nicobar Pigeon (2007)

Important animal species are:

Farther:

The 2004 tsunami and its aftermath

Trinket and Camorta after the tsunami (2012)

According to official figures, 4,405 Nicobarese fell victim to the devastating tsunami of December 26, 2004. According to unofficial information, a third of the local population (more than 6,000) did not survive the disaster. A total of eight waves up to 20 meters high destroyed almost all of the Nicobarese villages, all of which were located on the coasts of the islands.

Some villages can hardly be located. After the tsunami, the population was brought together in higher-lying emergency camps on the larger islands, and some smaller islands were evacuated. The tsunami probably largely destroyed the rich culture of the Nicobarese. The well-intentioned offers of aid from numerous, partly competitive aid organizations, including USAID , World Vision , Catholic Relief Services, the United Nations World Food Program and the Indian government, contributed to the further destabilization of Nicobarese culture. The social structure of the extended families, clans and tribes has largely collapsed, many of the older people fell victim to the tsunami and are no longer available for advice and guidance (cf. Singh 2006).

The geography of the archipelago has also changed due to the force of the tremors: some islands have been moved and raised or, like the island of Trinket, have broken into several parts. The most devastated islands are Car Nicobar and Chowra. There is no more agricultural land on Car Nicobar - the residents get their food from the island of Little Andaman .

There have been other strong earthquakes off the Nicobar Islands since the tsunami:

  • on July 24, 2005 with 7.2 on the Richter scale
  • on November 10, 2009 with 6.0
  • on June 12, 2010 with 7.7 and 153 km west of the Nicobar Islands

military

The strategically important islands are used by the Indian naval forces as a base, which leads to conflicts with the indigenous population. Military airfields are located in Port Blair and Car Nicobar. In 2012, Campbell Bay on Great Nicobar was expanded to include the Indian Naval Station (INS) Baaz ( Indian Naval Station "Habicht"). The runway there can be approached by aircraft up to the size of the Lockheed C-130 , as operated by the Indian Air Force since 2010.

literature

Web links

Wiktionary: Nicobars  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. NICOBAR DISTRICT. ( Memento from September 21, 2014 in the archive.today web archive ) at: police.and.nic.in
  2. a b Simron Jit Singh: Nicobarese early history and prehistory. ( Memento of July 28, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) at: andaman.org
  3. Alexander Randa: Maria Theresa's Asia Company. In: Austria overseas. Herold, Vienna 1966, pp. 73–84.
  4. “One year after Königgrätz , this group tried in vain to draw the interest of the public and the government to colonial questions with a joint venture. Each of them advertised a special colonial project in a brochure: “(Source: Klaus Bade : Friedrich Fabri and imperialism in the Bismarckian era . Evolution - Depression - Expansion. Atlantis-Verlag, Freiburg im Breisgau 1975, ISBN 3-7611-0476- 6 , footnote 3, p. 180.)
  5. Franz Theodor Maurer (Dedeleben * April 16, 1831 - January 27, 1872 * Charlottenburg): The Nicobars: Colonial history and description along with a motivated proposal for the colonization of these islands by Prussia. Heymann, Berlin 1867.
  6. Georg Ritter von Frauenfeld: Open letter to Mr. Franz Maurer, in response to his diatribe "Nicobariana". Leaflet. Berlin 1868, as well as Franz Maurer: Nicobariana: Illumination of the criticism exercised in the KK Zoological-Botanical Society in Vienna on the works of North German authors, in response to the Dr. Georg Ritter von Frauenfeld attacked Franz Maurer in matters of his and the knight Karl von Scherzer's work on the Nicobars. Heymann, Berlin 1868, digitizedhttp: //vorlage_digitalisat.test/1%3D~GB%3D2LRp9kGc40YC~IA%3D~MDZ%3D%0A~SZ%3DPP5~ double-sided%3D~LT%3D~PUR%3D .
  7. ^ TR Sareen: Sharing the Blame. Subhas Chandra Bose and the Japanese Occupation of the Andamans 1942-1945. SS Publishers, Delhi / India 2002, ISBN 81-85396-33-7 , pp. 161-170.
  8. Government of India press release, January 5, 2005
  9. page of the biosphere reserve
  10. Action Germany helps: India: People need a perspective - January 2, 2005.
  11. Donors Respond To Tsunami Disaster. In: The NonProfitTimes. January 15, 2005 (PDF; 32 kB)
  12. ^ Deutsche Welle: Emergency aid for the Andaman and Nicobar Islands , January 10, 2005.
  13. ^ Tsunami 2004 on the Nicobar Islands: The fatal second wave. In: SPIEGEL online. December 21, 2014.
  14. Fund for the promotion of scientific research: Aid for the Nicobars & Andamans - good will, large sums, little experience. ( Memento of the original from April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Press release from February 13, 2006. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.fwf.ac.at