ORIGINS :
Sentinelese is one of the isolated tribal groups living on north sentinel island in the Andaman Nicobar islands which are in the bay of Bengal administred by the union of India. Sentinelese are uncontacted and isolated from the mainstream world for almost 50,000 years. Some scientists believe that north Sentinelese are the direct descendants of the first humans from Africa.
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ALLEN CHAU'S INCIDENT :
Sentinelese was first described into the accounts of Marco Polo's voyage to India. He stated that these tribes are brutish cannibals and defined them as a cruel race that feasts on outsiders to their land.
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| Sentinelese with bows and arrows |
Recently, once again this tribe came into mainstream media through an incident that was happened in 2018. Allen chau was a US national and a missionary who was fascinated about the north Sentinelese and wanted to preach the gospel of Jesus to them. Even though north sentinel island is a prohibited area to visit, Allen chau illegally reached there with the help of local fishermen but unfortunately, he was shot and killed by Sentinelese tribe and his body was buried on the shore by them.
He has written his experiences in a 13-page journal and given them to the fishermen before he adventured to the north sentinel island.
Anchored successfully last night with the friend on the boat, waiting to make contact.
Left last night around 20:30 (14 November) and arrived around 22:30 but as we went north along the eastern shore, we saw boat lights in distance along the north shore and turned around. Headed south along the eastern shore and evaded them, went along the southern shore and then up along the western shore.
He further wrote that ‘God Himself was shielding us from the coast guard and navy patrols’. The diary also tells that Chau and two of his fellowmen entered a cove.
At 4:30 am (15 November) we entered the cove and as the sun began to light the east above the island, me and two of the guys jumped in the shallows and brought out two pelicans. The dead coral is sharp and I already got a slight scratch in my right leg.
He also narrated in his journal that in his first contact it did not go very well and a 10-year old tribal boy shot an arrow at him but it mishit the Bible which he was carrying with him. He return back to the fishermen and November 16 was the last time he was seen by them and he has given his journal to them to give to his friend.
Here are some other hostile incidents that were happened with north Sentinelese and outsiders.
SO,WHAT MADE SENTINELESE MORE HOSTILE:
In order to know the answer to this question, we have to go back to the history of when the first contact was initiated by outsiders. It was in the 18th century and mid 19th century where settlements were established on the Andaman Islands. At that time there are different tribal groups living in the Andaman Islands. They are THE GREAT ANDAMANESE , ONGE ,JANGIL, JARAWA and SENTINELESE.
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| Andamanese Tribal Territories before colonization |
British established a penal colony in 1858 to keep the captives and convicts from mainland British India.
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| Early settlements : Penal Colony |
This settlement was in close proximity to the Great Andamanese tribe, in the beginning, they were hostile and confronted the outsiders but later M.V portman, a British naval officer pacified them and made friendly contact. This is the beginning of the end of Andamanese, their population decimated heavily from 6000s to mere 50s now it's mainly because of the infectious diseases by outsiders, encroaching their territories and hunting zones and atrocities of colonial officials.
In an article called ' SAVAGE BODIES AND CIVILIZED PLEASURES ' author stated that M.V.Portman was photographed the tribals of different groups with homoerotic postures and for this, his men kidnapped these vulnerable tribes and treated them inhumanly more like an object of entertainment.
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| M.V Portman with The Great Andamanese |
But this pacification and photography were not ended with the great Andamanese tribe but also he was "sexually obsessed" with Sentinelese. He landed on the north sentinel islands in 1880 he attempted to pacify them but it was not possible and after several attempts, his men captured 2 old couples and a few children and took them to Port Blair. The old couple died quickly due to weak immunity. Children started getting ill and after spending a few days in Port Blair those ill children were sent back to North sentinel islands. This incident increased more hostility.
We exactly didn't know what was happened and how the officials treated the kidnapped Sentinelese but if they treated humanely there might not be this hostility towards outsiders from the Sentinelese tribe.
In the following, we can see the comparison of the pre-colonial and post-colonial situations of Andaman tribes.
From the above comparison, we can say that due to the contact of modern civilization all Andaman tribes' populations declined rapidly. For the Sentinelese tribe even though they were never pacified but there might be a possible decline in their population due to the ill kidnapped children who were sent back to the island. Other than this, the north Sentinelese were protected their habitat and hunting zone from the outsiders by their hostility.
Over the centuries, the Andaman Islanders have been a subject of both fascination and dread, often being portrayed as brutish cannibals by many outsiders, it was proven that they are not cannibals, they never took the dead bodies into the island instead they buried them on the shore. They are not brutal savages but Noble savages they are protecting their people from the outsiders i.e, from missionaries, government, poachers, and everyone who is not from their island. Even the government of India conducted many expeditions to befriend the tribes and assimilate them into mainstream society but they are not pacified. I can say this is good for the Sentinelese because if we consider the Jarawa tribe which is one of the four Andaman tribes, they showed hostility initially but they got pacified and the government constructed a trunk road that passes through their habitat which is fatal for them ( because of exposing to diseases from outsiders). Unfortunately, Now, it is a famous destination for HUMAN SAFARI.
Jarawas lost their identity and got vulnerable to outsiders.
CONCLUSION:
Anthropologist Madhubala chattopadhyay stated that friendly contact is not friendly, it is a process by which hostilities are calmed down to a point where people can be tamed and they can interact with you in peace and that introduces a series of events that eventually leads to MASSIVE DEATHS, DESTRUCTION, DECAY OF PEOPLE.
From the above comparisons and incidents, it is proved that Sentinelese were not brutal cannibals as stated by many from the past centuries. Pacification and friendly contact was an instrument to exploit the natives and the resources by the British colonials. In order to protect from the outsiders, hostility is the only Survival strategy for North Sentinelese. Otherwise, they will be a possible chance of extinction and exploitation.
REFERENCE:
- M.Sasikumar(2019), The Sentinelese of North Sentinel Island: A Reappraisal of Tribal SCenario in an Andaman Island in the context of Killing of an American Preacher, Kolkata, Journal of the Anthropplgical Survey of India.
- Satadru Sen, savage bodies, civilized pleasures: M.V. Portman and the Andamanese, Queens College, City University of New York.
- Whitaker Romulus;whitaker Zai(1986) , The Andaman Tribes - Victims of Development, Cultural Survival.
- History of the andaman and Nicobar Islands, Wikipedia
- onge, WIKIPEDIA
- Mildred Europa Taylor(2018), why the endangered African tribesmen in India shot dead an American missionary with arrow, face2face africa.
- THE JARAWA, survivalinternational.org