ABSTRACT
The Independence of India was followed by the Partition which has had serious implications on the A&N Islands. This chapter,‘The 1947 Partition of India and vulnerability of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands’, assesses the impact of the Partition of India on the A&N Islands. The Partition displaced 11 million people in Punjab and four million in Bengal. The A&N Islands were selected as one of the sites for the relocation of the Bengali refugees. Resettlement in the A&N Islands took place under several schemes over about 30 years. The resettlement changed the population composition of the A&N Islands, marginalizing its original inhabitants, so much so that in order to protect the latter, the Government of India passed the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (Protection of Aboriginal Tribe) Regulation in 1956. However, the many amendments made to this regulation added to the vulnerability of the tribal population, which became evident in the Tsunami of 2004 where the tribal population became prime victims.
