Nicobarese people
Encyclopedia
The Nicobarese people are a Mon–Khmer-speaking people of the Nicobar Islands
Nicobar Islands
The Nicobar Islands are an archipelagic island chain in the eastern Indian Ocean...

, a chain of 19 islands in the southeastern Bay of Bengal
Bay of Bengal
The Bay of Bengal , the largest bay in the world, forms the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean. It resembles a triangle in shape, and is bordered mostly by the Eastern Coast of India, southern coast of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka to the west and Burma and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands to the...

. Only 12 of the 19 islands are inhabited. The largest and main island is Great Nicobar
Great Nicobar
Great Nicobar is the largest of the Nicobar Islands of India, north of Sumatra. Indira Point, its southernmost tip, is also the southernmost point of India. The island of Sumatra is located to the south of Great Nicobar...

. The term Nicobarese refers to the dominant tribes of the Nicobar Islands. On each island, the people have specific names, but together they are the Nicobarese. They call themselves Holchu, which means "friend".

History

The Nicobarese may not have been the first people to live in the islands, they appear to have shared the islands with those of Malay
Malay people
Malays are an ethnic group of Austronesian people predominantly inhabiting the Malay Peninsula, including the southernmost parts of Thailand, the east coast of Sumatra, the coast of Borneo, and the smaller islands which lie between these locations...

 descent and then as years passed the Shompen
Shompen
The Shompen or Shom Pen are the indigenous people of the interior of Great Nicobar Island, part of the Indian union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands.- Etymology and autonym :...

 came to the islands. The islands have been under the power of various Asian empires in the 16th century, Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

 from 1869–1947, and India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

 from 1947. Today they are administered by India as part of the Union Territory
Union Territory
A Union Territory is a sub-national administrative division of India, in the federal framework of governance. Unlike the states of India, which have their own elected governments, union territories are ruled directly by the federal government; the President of India appoints an Administrator or...

 of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Language

The Nicobarese language is part of the Austro-Asiatic language family. All of the different islands speak different dialects of the Nicobarese language. The separate islands are categorized into four groups, although most of the people understand the Car Nicobar dialect.

Religion

Most of the people of the islands are of the Christian religion, which was taught to them by a man named John Richardson
John Richardson
- Politics :*John Richardson , Deputy Governor of Anguilla* John G. Richardson , former Speaker of the Maine House and current candidate for Governor.* John S...

 who translated the New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....

 into Nicobarese. Besides Christianity, other Nicobarese follow the traditional religion of the islands, which is animistic in nature. They believe in spirits, ghosts, and the existence of the soul. A person becomes a ghost after their death when their soul leaves their body and the ghosts of all the Nicobarese are all around the islands. They believe that the spirits are responsible for all of the unfortunate occurrences on the islands, in the event of which shamans are called upon to handle the bad spirits.

Society

The Nicobarese are headed by a chief called "Rani" or "queen". The first Rani of the Nicobarese was Islon who married Mewalal, tahsildar of Nancowry
Nancowry
Nancowry refers both to a single island and to the group of adjoining islands that make up the central part of the Nicobar Islands chain, located in the northeast Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea....

 in 1941-42, and became the most influential person in the Nicobar Islands. On her death in 1954, Islon was succeeded by her daughter Lakshmi, the incumbent Rani of Nicobar, who subsequently converted from Hinduism
Hinduism
Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...

 to Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

 and assumed the name "Ayesha Jhulaikha".

On the Nicobar Islands, men and women have approximate equal status. The women have a lot to do with their own choice of husbands, and after marriage they are free to live with either of the couples parents. The Nicobarese men value the women economically because they not only take care of household duties, but also tend to the plantations and gardens.

The villages on the islands consist of sporadically placed huts strewn about in designated areas. The huts are normally round with dome shaped roofs. They are typically lifted up from the ground and they have ladders that they climb up to get into the huts that they bring in at night.

Economy

The Nicobarese have a traditionally horticultural economy, they base their monetary existence on the growing of coconut
Coconut
The coconut palm, Cocos nucifera, is a member of the family Arecaceae . It is the only accepted species in the genus Cocos. The term coconut can refer to the entire coconut palm, the seed, or the fruit, which is not a botanical nut. The spelling cocoanut is an old-fashioned form of the word...

s, pandanus
Pandanus
Pandanus is a genus of monocots with about 600 known species. They are numerous palmlike dioecious trees and shrubs native of the Old World tropics and subtropics. They are classified in the order Pandanales, family Pandanaceae.-Overview:...

, areca nut palms, bananas, mangoes, and other fruits. They also hunt, fish, raise pigs, make pottery, and make canoes. Many of the older Nicobarese are illiterate, however today the younger Nicobarese receive free education through the government. As more Nicobarese become educated they receive jobs as teachers and clerks, among other occupations.
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