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Dear reader, The Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal contain some of the oldest inhabitants of the subcontinent. Scholars speculate that the ancestors of the indigenous Andamanese population reached the archipelago about 35,000 years ago. At one point, the islands were home to a large variety of languages spoken by over 12 tribal communities. At present, however, this vast linguistic landscape has been reduced significantly and has been replaced mainly by Andamanese Hindi. The love and pride for Hindi in the Andamans, says linguist Anvita Abbi, is more than what can be observed in the Hindi heartland itself. The rise of Andamanese Hindi has happened alongside the erasure of native languages, particularly the Great Andamanese. Today, fewer than 10 Great Andamanese speakers are left on the islands. Even those who remain have largely forgotten their mother tongue. Among them is 26-year-old Lephay, for whom Great Andamanese is nothing more than an idea lost in time, a distant language that her ancestors once spoke. All she knows of the language are a couple of odd phrases such as ‘give me water’, ‘give me food’ and so on. The proliferation of Hindi and the erasure of Great Andamanese are both products of a long and unique historical trajectory in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. For decades, the islands have been a great source of interest, first to the European powers and then to the government of independent India. Successive waves of migration and resettlements carried out by the government have caused a significant change in the demographics of the islands. Our story this week maps the long and convoluted history of migration in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and unravels how Andamanese Hindi emerged as the lingua franca here. While we are still discussing language diversity in India, we looked at the issue of translations, which is once again laden with complicated political meanings in the country's linguistic multiplicity. Our other story this week traces the history of translations in South Asia, where they have played a crucial role in shaping cultural identity and power imbalances. Wishing you a pleasant weekend ahead. Sincerely,
Adrija Roychowdhury | | | |
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