PROBASHI- A Cultural News Magazine Volume 2 Issue 2 | Page 12

Probashi-Cover Story

Creating Anthropological History

much was expected, probably like
many futile missions in the past this
probably would also to go down in
the file as another wasted attempt.
However unlike in the past, this
mission had one difference, there
was a women anthropologist in the
contact team. At around 8 am in
the morning the team of 13
including Madhumala set sail for
the Island in a small craft. The key
team members were Shri Shri S.
Awaradi ( Director ,Tribal Welfare,
A&NI administration)-Team Leader,
Dr Arun Mullick, Medical Officer (
for providing medical attention in
case of sickness or injury) and Dr
Madhumala
ChattopadhyayAnthropologist. The rest were
support crew.
As the craft
approached the Island three huts
came into view. The dreaded
Sentinel Island, Madhumala had
read so much about was now in
front of her. As the boat inched
closer to the shore, Madhumala’s
heart beat went up a notch - will
the tribe show up. However the
shore looked deserted. Seeing
smoke coming out from another
part of the Island, the contact party
steered their boat towards that
direction. And suddenly Sentinelese
were there behind the trees- the
most secluded tribe in the world
had come to view. Most were men,
four being armed with bows and
arrows.
It was now up to the contact team
to take initiative, and they started
dropping coconuts in water which
they had brought with them. Then
something which had never been
seen before happened, after a bit
of trepidation a few Sentinelese
men came sprinting and waded on
the shallow continental shelf to
collect the floating coconuts.
The team was awestruck; the

Nelson Mandela might have never visited the Andaman Islands, but one Islander
gave him company during his solitary confinement at Robben Islands. This was a
Jarawa woman, whose photograph Mandela had cut from a 1975 issue of the
National Geographic. The photograph clicked by the renowned photographer
Raghuvir Singh shows a Jarawa woman full of life and joy. Mandela named this lady
Nolitha and she shared space on his study table in his prison cell with his wife
Winnie Mandela. And in a letter to his wife he wrote “How can my spirits ever be
down when I enjoy the fond affection of such wonderful ladies?”

Sentinelese had accepted a ice.
friendly gesture which till now had
It was 2 PM when the team returned.
been met by arrows.
The process of dropping coconuts
The team leader instructed that started and this time the tribe
more coconuts be dropped and welcomed the contact party with
this time the Sentinelese brought a shouts “Nariyali Jaba Jaba” (which in
canoe to collect the coconuts in Onge Language means more and
cane baskets. The women and more coconuts). Madhumala who for
children however maintained a long stretches had worked with the
distance and remained on the Onges understood the distinct Onge
shore. But still an invisible wall dialect which the Sentinelese use, an
stood between the Islanders and indication that there were times
the contact team. No party made when the tribes of the Islands would
the first move to bridge the gap intermix, The Sentinelese in the
further. Four hours rolled by, the second round had become bolder,
contact party kept floating and then something unexpected
coconuts and the Sentinelese kept happened, a young Sentinelese youth
collecting them. Perhaps this was waded up to the life boat and
the farthest that the Islanders touched it with his hands. Now more
would go.
men closed in to collect the coconuts.
In this moment of breaking the ice a
With coconuts over, the team went
Sentinelese youth who was sitting on
back to the ship to replenish their
the shore got up and aimed his arrow
stock, it