LOVING LAKSHADWEEP

The name ‘Lakshadweep’ literally means one lakh islands. It is located off the Kerala coast in the Arabian Sea. Parts of the island system have been deliberately kept detached from tourism to preserve their rich natural habitat. Out of the 36 Lakshadweep islands, 10 are inhabited and only five are accessible to tourists. Lakshadweep does not have any aboriginal inhabitants or tribal groups. The islanders came to  settle on the island at some point in history. With several legends surrounding how this happened, more recent history tells us that the island had been successively invaded and captured by the Arabs, the Portuguese and finally the British. The influences are visible in the predominantly Hindu and Muslim culture evident here. The influence of Indian mainland is the most obvious as the local language is a dialect derived from Malayalam. The descendants are of either Indian or Arab ethnicity.