Transcending 'Indian': This author deconstructs the necessity to disconnect and the lure of glory

New Delhi, Oct 22 (IANS) In November 2018, the world suddenly woke up to a community that did not care to be known. And as much as it intrigued many, the incident caught the fancy of author Sujit Saraf, who decided to explore the extent of "absurdity" to which one could go, and crystallised his study and imagination into ‘Island’ (Speaking Tiger).

Launching the book here on Monday evening, Saraf explained the peculiar choice of his plot and characters—he did not choose it, he said, “they chose” him. The cornerstone of Saraf’s narrative is the true incident of John Allen Chau (based on whose character is a missionary in his fictionalised account), who sets out to attempt proselytising a people who are known to be older than Jesus Himself. The islanders are far less amused by the idea of anyone coming over to them, let alone coming along to save them!

John Allen Chau was a mixed-race Asian-American evangelical Christian missionary, who at the behest of the Joshua Project, decided to introduce the Sentinelese people of the Andaman Islands to the Christian faith after he illegally set foot on North Sentinel Island of the archipelago. The Sentinelese are a tribe in fiercely guarded isolation that has an interesting history that betrays the "cluelessness of the Indian government about what to do with them," as Saraf detailed in his discourse.

Joshua Project, as highlighted by the author and as it explains itself officially, is a research initiative that seeks to identify ethnic groups of the world with the fewest followers of Christianity. It implies that the purpose of this project is to seek out non-Christians and convert them.

The Sentinelese people are extremely few in number and the Indian state has a good reason to let them remain isolated as they wish. One of the reasons is that their seclusion has kept them from developing the immunity that a common mainlander has against health anomalies as simple as a common cold. A simple hand-shake with a North Sentinel Islander could transmit germs of the common cold “and that could potentially wipe out the entire tribe,” Saraf explained.

However, on the other side, on mainland India, as all the myriad ethnic, modernised and homogenised people are brought together under a common notion called 'Indian', the author illuminated why the Sentinelese “are not Indians”—because “they are ‘Indians’ only by the accident of the British empire.” Further, this stone-age community of hunters and gatherers neither cares about India nor Indians, much less about the government and its “friendly” gestures—they most likely do not even call themselves Sentinelese and don't care what we call them—but they do care a great deal about not having their homeland invaded—by anyone at all.

Veteran anthropologist Triloknath Pandit, now 90 years old, was the first professional anthropologist to land at North Sentinel Island in 1967. He later led the team that made the first “friendly contact” with the Sentinelese people in January 1991.

Initially turned away by the indigenous people by having arrows shot at him, the anthropologist appears in an iconic depiction and documentation where he stands in the waters (still not on their island) and hands over a coconut to a native. The North Sentinel Island does not have coconuts.

Saraf interprets such “friendly contacts” with the Sentinelese as attempts to “corrupt” them—often "unwittingly by well-meaning researchers." And in his opinion, “the correct approach to them is to not approach them at all,” as it is only through such incomplete and inconclusive interactions and encounters with these perishing tribes (Sentinelese and others across the Andaman Islands) that they are placed on the modern world map and appear on the radar of the likes of Joshua Project, jeopardising their existence and provoking them into violence.

The protagonist Mattoo’s character borrows significantly from Pandit and a few other anthropologists who attempted to establish contact with the Sentinelese people. Mattoo, an acknowledged expert on the tribes of Andamans—especially the Jarawas and the Sentinelese—agrees to set out with a missionary (character based on Chau) to visit North Sentinel Island to accomplish his purpose.

In the course of the discussion, Saraf asserted, “Wherever you write from, you’ll be as disconnected [from the Sentinelese].” He explained that there have been barely 10 documented interactions with this community over the past 200 years—because they are categorically averse to interaction with outsiders and they express it with hostility.

With the Sentinelese people existing in a number as small as a few scores, author Sujit Saraf—not opined but “predicted”—that if they are not left alone, they, too, will perish altogether.

A space scientist by training, Sujit Saraf yet again “arrived like a meteor after a decade [nearly] and left an impact.” Unlike his previous books, Island is shorter, has the pace of a thriller, yet prompts one to delve deep into the notions of nationhood and citizenship—subjects of intellectual indulgence to the assimilated—and matters much overlooked from the perspective of those beyond it, yet seen curiously through its prism foremost.

(Kavya Dubey may be reached at kavya.d@ians.in)

--IANS

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