ANDAMAN ISLANDS COASTAL TRIBE-THE ONGES MATERIAL CULTURE AND TREND OF CHANGES
M.SELVAM
Assistant Professor
Department of Political Science
JNRM (Govt. College) –Port Blair
Andaman and Nicobar Islands-744104
Email: muthaiahselvam66@gmail.com
Introduction
The land of sea, sun, and sand- the Andaman Island was once a tribal island devoid of any contact with the mainland. The Andaman group of Islands are a chain of over 572 small Islands and ricks, running about 370 Km north in the Bay of Bengal, 1000 Km east of the east coast, but around 38 are inhabited.
In 1973, the Dhebar Commission created Primitive Tribal Groups (PTGs) as a separate category, who are less developed among the tribal groups. In 2006, the Government of India renamed the PTGs as Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) and Onge tribe of Andaman Island is included in this list along with other aboriginal Nigrito tribes of Andaman. In the earlier age, the Negrito tribes traditionally spread and occupied almost all the parts of Andaman group of Islands and the strength of the population was considerably good. The ‘Negrito’ tribes are believed to have inwards in these islands from Africa up to 60,000 years ago. After the advent of British and the establishment of Penal Settlement in 1858, the Nigrito tribes started to reside in a particular area which was not approachable and the population was started to decrease. These Negrito tribes of Andaman had several sub groups but most of them disappeared over a period of time. Now only four categories of Negrito tribes are exist in the Andaman group of Islands.
DOI link – https://doi.org/10.69758/GIMRJ/2410III03V12P0002
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