The islands Andaman and Nicobar are a territory of the Indian Union located at approximately 800 km in the south-east of India in the Bay of Bengal, off the Burmese coasts . The islands Andaman and the islands Nicobar are separated by the parallel 10°N. The capital of this territory is Port Blair.

Geographically, the Andaman islands and Nicobar belong to the the West Indies.

Name

The name Andaman comes from Handuman the Malayan form of the name of the god Hindou Hanuman . The word Nicobar also comes from Malayan and means to him country of naked people .

History

The Marathe S integrate the islands into India during the 17th century. The British occupy it until the Japan board seize during the Second world war. The islands were then placed under the authority of the Arzi Hukumate Azad Hind (provisional government for free India) directed by Subhash Chandra Bose (or Netaji). The archipelago becomes a territory of the union at the time of the independence of India in 1947.

The British used the archipelago as prison for the combatants of the freedom of the Mouvement for the independence of India. This imprisonment was called the Kalapani and this bagne was called the " Siberia of India britannique".

Geography

The territory counts more than 570 islands, among which 38 are inhabited in a permanent way. The majority of these islands (approximately 550, of which 26 are inhabited) belong to the Archipel of the Andaman, the Nicobar not counting that 22 islands (12 inhabited). Andaman are separated from Nicobar by the 150 kilometers of the Passage of the tenth parallel.

The surface total of the Andaman islands is approximately 6.408 km ², that of the Nicobar islands of approximately 1.841 km ².

Economy

Demography

The islands Andaman are inhabited by 5 groups indigenous S of hunter-collectors. These groups, among smallest of the world of number, whose Jarawa, for which an international campaign was launched by Survival International, are threatened of disappearance. They speak about the languages which are not related to any known group.

The Nicobarais autochtones are probably the descendants of populations originating in Malaysia and Burma. One divides them into 2 groups:

• the Nicobaris
• the Shompen.

They speak about the Langues my-Khmer but also the Burmese , the Hindi and even English. The majority of the population is hindouist, but one finds also many Christians and an important Moslem minority.

Culture

The Andaman islands are evoked in one of the adventures of Sherlock Holmes: the sign of the four .

Tourism

Photographs of the Andaman Islands

Others

The December 26th 2004, the archipelago was devastated by the Tsunami which followed a earthquake. One estimates at 7000 the number of people died at the time of the catastrophe.

External bonds

• Official site of the territory

Simple: Andaman and Nicobar Islands

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