When the British established a penal colony in the Andaman Islands in 1858, they didn’t just bring prisoners – they brought a tragic collision of worlds that would forever alter the lives of the indigenous tribes. The story of British colonial policy toward the Andamanese tribes is one of initial violence, belated attempts at reconciliation, and ultimately, a catastrophic loss of life that pushed entire communities to the brink of extinction.
Table of Contents
The early years of conflict and coercion
The British arrival in the Andaman Islands was driven by pragmatic colonial interests. Following the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the British established a penal colony at Port Blair in 1858, choosing these remote islands as an ideal location to imprison political prisoners and convicts from mainland India. But the islands weren’t empty – they were home to the Great Andamanese and other indigenous tribes who had lived there for thousands of years.
Under Superintendent P. Walker, the colonial administration adopted what can only be described as a brutal “coercion and chastisement” policy. The British cleared forests, appropriated tribal lands, and established settlements with little regard for the people who had inhabited these territories for millennia. When the Andamanese felt their country was being cleared and taken on all sides, they responded in the only way they could – with organized resistance.
In May 1859, the tribes launched a series of attacks against the British settlement. On May 14, 1859, the Great Andamanese, with a force of 400-600 people, bravely confronted British soldiers armed with modern weapons in what became known as the Battle of Aberdeen. Armed only with bows and arrows, the tribespeople fought to reclaim their ancestral lands, but they were no match for British firearms. The battle ended in defeat for the Andamanese, marking a turning point in the relationship between the colonizers and the indigenous population.
A shift toward friendlier relations
The violent confrontations of 1859 prompted a change in British strategy. Captain Haughton, who succeeded Walker as superintendent, introduced a more measured approach. He instructed his officers not to attack the tribes without provocation – a small but significant shift from the aggressive policies of his predecessor.
Dr. Gamack, serving as Civil Assistant Surgeon, took this new policy further by making friendly overtures to the indigenous people. He offered gifts to the Aka-Bea-da tribe and other groups, attempting to build trust and establish peaceful relations. This “organized gift giving” policy, which was formally established by the British government in 1888, aimed to pacify the tribes and even employ them in the colonial settlement. Some Andamanese were recruited to help capture escaped convicts and protect the settlement from other hostile groups.
While these conciliatory gestures reduced open warfare, they set the stage for an even more devastating consequence: sustained contact with the outside world.
The silent killer: disease epidemics
If British bullets had wounded the Andamanese, British diseases nearly destroyed them. The indigenous tribes had lived in isolation for thousands of years, which meant they had no immunity to common infectious diseases carried by outsiders. Within just four years of the British colonial presence being established in 1789, the Jarawa populations experienced massive population decline due to disease. When the penal colony was permanently established in 1858, the situation only worsened.
The diseases arrived in waves, each more devastating than the last. Syphilis, malaria, ophthalmia, measles, mumps, and influenza spread rapidly through tribal communities. Many of these infections were carried by convicts and settlers who were either asymptomatic or had only mild symptoms due to prior exposure. When the British colonial settlers arrived in 1858, there were more than 5,000 Great Andamanese living in the islands, but thousands were wiped out in devastating epidemics of measles, influenza and syphilis, all introduced through contact with outsiders.
In the 19th century, a measles epidemic alone killed 50% of the Andamanese population. By 1875, just seventeen years after the permanent British settlement, the Andamanese were already described as “perilously close to extinction.” The population that once numbered in the thousands had dwindled to mere hundreds.
The Andaman Home: a deadly experiment
In the 1860s, the British established what they called an “Andaman Home” where kidnapped indigenous islanders were taken, supposedly for their protection and welfare. The reality was far grimmer. Hundreds of people died from disease and abuse in the home, and of 150 babies born there, none survived beyond the age of two. This devastating mortality rate speaks volumes about the conditions these people endured.
The British also introduced alcohol and opium to the Andamanese, which created additional health and social problems. Combined with the loss of their traditional hunting and gathering territories, these introduced substances contributed to a spiral of dependency and cultural disintegration that accelerated the population decline.
The path to near extinction
The combined effects of direct violence, disease, and social disruption had catastrophic consequences. When the penal settlement started in 1858, there were 4,800 Great Andamanese; by 1901, only 625 remained; by 1930, just 90; and by 1988, only 28 people survived. Several of the ten original Great Andamanese tribes became completely extinct, taking their unique languages and cultures with them.
The story repeated itself across other tribes as well. The Jangil tribe of Rutland Island was extinct by 1931, with the last individual sighted in 1907. The pattern was consistent: initial contact, violent conflict, disease outbreak, population collapse, and cultural extinction – all within a few generations.
By the end of the 19th century, what had once been thriving communities with distinct languages, cultures, and territorial identities had been reduced to scattered remnants struggling to survive. The colonial policies, whether brutal or ostensibly benevolent, had achieved the same tragic result: the near-total destruction of indigenous populations that had inhabited these islands for potentially 26,000 years.
A legacy of loss
Today, just over 50 Great Andamanese people survive, living on Strait Island where they depend on government support. The British colonial encounter with the Andaman tribes stands as one of history’s starkest examples of how contact between isolated populations and colonizers can lead to demographic catastrophe – even when later policies attempted reconciliation.
The shift from Walker’s violent coercion to Haughton’s and Gamack’s gift-giving approach represented a change in tactics, but not in outcome. Whether through deliberate violence or inadvertent disease transmission, the result was the same: the destruction of ancient peoples and ways of life. The epidemics that swept through the tribes – often starting from “friendly” contact and the very settlements meant to “protect” them – proved far deadlier than any battle.
What do you think? How might history have been different if the British had maintained a strict policy of non-contact with the Andamanese tribes? Can we learn anything from this tragedy to better protect remaining isolated indigenous peoples today?
References
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Andaman_and_Nicobar_Islands
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_Island_Penal_Colony
- https://southandaman.nic.in/people_culture/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andamanese_peoples
- https://www.survivalinternational.org/tribes/great-andamanese
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Measles
- https://minorityrights.org/communities/andaman-islanders/
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