Sentinelese & Ceylonese: Similarities & Disparities

By Hiran B. Jayasundara –NOVEMBER 7, 2021

Once, as I was traveling in a flight over the Andaman Sea, I looked at the view of marvelous islands belonging to the Andaman Archipelago seen below. The amazing paradise in the Indian ocean, hiding secrets of nature, while many of islands which are over 550 still not polluted by human interactions. These tropical islands presently belong to India and indigenous Andamanese peoples appear to have lived on the islands in substantial isolation until the late 18th century. However, an Indian friend next to my seat sarcastically instructs me not to see these islands as there will have a possibility of a missile attack on the flight. He further informed me the attack will come from one of an island known to be north Sentinel Island and its inhabitants are famously known as Sentinelese. Later I heard the background of this story from him and further inquired about these Sentinel Islanders.

North Sentinel Island is one of the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal. Sentinelese, the indigenous people who have voluntarily been isolated for thousands of years, and presently these inhabitants are considered as one of the most isolated human tribes in the world. The Sentineli, a tribal people living on North Sentineli Island, vehemently deny all contact with outsiders. Much of what is known about the Sentineli have been collected from the distance cameras beyond the distance from their arrows. As my Indian friend said, these people do not hesitate to use their bows even to a plane going down. Those are the only missiles of this small nation.

These islanders, have long been independent of the world around them, lacking education or basic human values, and have extremely independent values of their own kind. They are mired in sacrifices and superstitions that do not exist in the New World. Although North Sentineli Island is not legally an autonomous administrative division of India, its people have come to believe that they are autonomous, or independent. It is estimated that there were 8,000 islanders when these isolated tribes tried to colonize the British in the 18th century, however, it is estimated that only 50-150 people are still alive. Therefore, Indian law does not allow anyone to enter the area without permission as any small germ can wipe out this small nation within a week or a day as they don’t have immunity for resisting such a germ.

Although the number is very small, none of the immigrants are allowed to come to the island, where the inhabitants are heavily equipped with stone Age military equipment. Sentineli have clearly withstood external human threats for centuries. The Sentineli, who live with myths and self-expression, are the forerunners of their own culture and civilization. They believe in their own defense system and dispel internal myths about the civilized world. Due to its isolation, the Sentineli live only on natural foods, such as coconut.

The study of the Sentineli ethnicity in the Indian Ocean is entrusted to anthropology and it will evoke memories from Frederick Marriott’s book “Masterman Ready” that we read as children. Or you can read GB Senanayake’s “Ranarala” in Sinhala, which was inspired by it.

However, the purpose of this article is to illustrate some of the similarities and differences between Sri Lankans and Sentinelease in terms of the socio-economic and political aspects of Sentineli. The focus will be on the tropical islands, centuries of solitary confinement as well as the extreme inhumane influences of the Indian and Western nations from time to time, as well as the Indian economic impact.

Geographically, the Andaman Islands have unique biodiversity with an island-specific index, which is home to some of Asia’s most endangered endemic flora. Due to a large number of species in a small area, the Andaman Islands have become one of the richest ecosystems and biodiversity hotspots in the world. Sri Lanka is one of the 35 regions with the greatest biodiversity in the world and is considered to have the largest number of extinctions in the world. Compared to the island of Sri Lanka, the Sentineli Islands are less prone to extraneous biodiversity threats and pollution. However, this unique isolation and biodiversity will be important as a biological laboratory for Indian biologists to explore species that were not touched on the day of the last Sentinel died. On the same day, the last elephant in forests in Sri Lanka also will be extinct.

The self-isolated tribal people of the Sentineli have a long history and a unique sense of self-worth built on superstitions and beliefs. They think of ‘civilization’ only as of the circumference of their island. Other people in the world, who see themselves as vulgar, are violently protected from contact with the outside world. Some people in Sri Lanka believe that the Lord Buddha was a Sri Lankan, a similar mindset that Sentineli.

The Sentinelese have no means of communication with the outside world. If they see anything in the outside world, it’s just planes flying across the sky. The people of Sri Lanka, mobilized with a wide range of media and means of communication, are also boasting and boasting about their established history of over 2500 years. It’s really a pride. Sri Lanka is one of the few countries in the world with a long and written history. But the thieves and murderers throughout history have been deceived again and again. 2500 years of history is not enough and the demons who were expelled from other countries go after the mythical history saying that God has resurrected. Many people in Anuradhapura know how mythical interventions can control the government, and the number of gods who come by helicopter to see a witch in a week will testify to that.

Events such as honey for Covid, snakes in the rivers, demons that cured kidney diseases, etc. will control the thoughts of the inhabitants of the two islands in a similar manner. The Sentineli use Stone Age techniques for hunting and agriculture to make a living. Also, they can enjoy natural food without any pollution on a lonely island and they do not need the modern agricultural practices of civilization.

Sentinelese have had no germs or germplasm of imported crop varieties other than locally grown coconut for thousands of years. Therefore, imported fertilizer is not needed to fertilize a small number of coconut trees and the excrement of the natives is sufficient. At least there is no need for Chinese shit that is spoken in Sri Lanka these days. There are no pests and diseases and there is nothing they can do about it.

Despite cutting-edge technological approaches and the proud history of high-level agricultural research, Sri Lankans still talk about mythical tools such as traditional farming methods and bio-dynamic farming systems. Establishing the oldest research institute in Asia in late 1925, Sri Lanka enjoyed more than 100 years of research and developments, especially in the field of food crops. Although, other than the handful of numbers, all the crop germplasm in Sri Lanka have been introduced. Apart from this, even Kurakkan, which is considered as the heritage of the politics of Sri Lanka, is a crop of African origin.

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