The Indigenous and Forgotten people of the Andaman

Andamanese people are the ethnic groups residing on the Andaman. As described by the Europeans colonists, the five distinct groups in which the Andaman’s people are categorised are the following,

Great Andamanese, As classified by the anthropologists, Great Andamanese are one of the Negrito people, who inhabits the parts of Southeast Asia.

Jarawa are the Adivasi tribal people with the current population expected between 250 to 400 individuals.

 Jangil, also known as Rutland Jarawa is an extinct tribe.

Onge, are the aboriginal people who live a nomadic lifestyle are barely 100 in number at present.

Sentinelese, inland people living on the Andaman are now estimated to be 100 to 200.

Many premier and early anthropologists considered the endemic settlers of Andaman Islands to be intact examples of the negrito people spread over most parts of Southeast Asia.

ORIGIN: Andamanese are traditional hunter- gatherer people with diverse culture .i.e. their most distinguishing feature. It is believed that they turned up to Andaman 26000 years ago. These ethnic groups are labelled as the Scheduled tribes.

LANGUAGE: Jeru, Khora and Andamani Hindi are three aboriginal languages spoken by the people living on this island. Andamanese language is noted as the fifth family language of India, following Indo- European, Dravidian, Austro-Asiatic and Sino- Tibetan.

FOOD: The cuisines of these indigenous people include vegetarian as well as non-vegetarian food. The vegetarian food includes rice, wheat, Dal, chapatti etc whereas the non vegetarian food includes fish, turtle eggs, crabs, roots, seeds and tubers. And cook with an array of spices.

RELIGION: Andamanese people are distinguishing endangered tribal people and believed to practice monotheistic animism. The ancestral god of these native people is known as Paluga.