"Dance," the policeman instructed. The girls in front of him, naked from the waist up, obeyed. A tourist's camera panned round to another young woman, also naked and awkwardly holding a bag of grain in front of her. "Dance for me," the policeman commanded.
The young woman giggled, looked shy and hopped from foot to foot. The camera swung back to the others who clapped, swayed and jumped.
This kind of video is the trophy tourists dream of when they set off into the jungles of the Andaman Islands "on safari". The beauty of the forest functions merely as a backdrop. The goal of the trip is to seek out the Jarawa, a reclusive tribe only recently contacted, which is taking the first tentative steps towards a relationship with the outside world.
The Jarawa tribe is 403-strong. Its members are trusting, innocent and hugely vulnerable to exploitation, living in a jungle reserve on South Andaman. The islands are a spectacular magnet for tourists, set in the Bay of Bengal and belonging to India.
The role of the police is to protect tribespeople from unwelcome and intrusive outsiders. But on this occasion the officer had accepted a £200 bribe to get the girls to perform. "I gave you food," he reminded them at the start of the video.
Every day hundreds of tourist cars line up on the Andaman Trunk Road, which winds through the reserve. Signs at the entrance warn them of the rules; no pictures, no contact, nothing to disturb the tribe members. Most are already struggling to come to grips with the diseases of the outside world which have beset them since they started to make forays out of the jungle 14 years ago.
But, on the day the Observer visited, when the gates opened the cameras immediately started clicking. Tourists threw bananas and biscuits to the tribespeople at the roadside, as they would to animals in a safari park.
At the Vyas Brothers shop in Port Blair, capital of the Andamans, various Jarawa items were on sale: handicrafts and some small wooden figurines. Rajesh Vyas stood behind the counter. He was happy to lay out the price of a day out with the Jarawa: up to 15,000 rupees (£185) to buy off the police, another 10,000-15,000 rupees on top of that for a car, a driver, gifts for the Jarawa, and biscuits and snacks. Contact is guaranteed, he promised.
It gets light early in the Andamans. By 5.30am a line of about 130 cars and 25 buses stretched back from the entrance to the 1,021 sq km reserve. Vyas had found a driver, Guddu, prepared to carry a passenger who wanted to photograph the Jarawa, regardless of the illegality.
As a slight drizzle fell, the convoy was already quite strung out, the cars a good 50 metres apart. "If you not get picture, I give you. I have video too," says Guddu.
The car plunged on through the towering jungle. Suddenly Guddu put his foot on the brake: "Take photograph. Take, take, take." Ahead of the car, two Jarawa women had stepped out of the forest. One stood in front, the other moved round to the rear passenger window. No police and no security were in evidence. One of the women leaned through the window, arm outstretched. Guddu immediately accelerated away and the women were gone. What had she wanted? Food, said Guddu, or money. Maybe the camera.
The vehicle finally reached the jetty for Baratang, the end of the road. An hour later another convoy headed back. More Jarawa, large groups, men, women and children, were standing and sitting by the roadside. These tribespeople were guarded by police, who waved the vehicles on, but it is clear they were there because they know the convoys will come. They are not merely being protected from the tourists; they are being protected from themselves.
Denis Giles is the campaigning editor of the islands' Andaman Chronicle newspaper. He told the Observer it was principally the young who had come out of the jungle, fascinated by outsiders and what they have to offer. As they grow older, they lose interest, realising that the outside world is not for them.
"I believe that one fine day the Jarawa will have to come out and mix. They can't stay in the forest for ever. They are aware that there is a world outside the forest. But it should not be a cultural shock to them; they should choose the pace at which they do it," he says.
Instead, the tribe is being thrust into ever closer proximity to the tourists and other islanders. They believe the police are protecting them, Giles says, but the reality is that the police are using them. He says the police have taught the Jarawa to beg; the police take the money they collect and in return give them tobacco, which they never previously used, and food. The possibility of abuse is obvious, and Giles says there have been cases where Jarawa women have given birth to children fathered by outsiders. The babies are not accepted by the tribe and are killed, he says.
In an attempt to reduce contact, the authorities have cut the number of convoys to eight a day, but they will not close the road completely – as the supreme court ordered in 2002 – because they say too many people rely on it. Instead they are playing for time, apparently uncertain what to do next: shut the Jarawa off from the world for their own good, or allow those who want to make contact to do so?
"They are humans and they are a race which is looking at us and they are at a crossroads and we are not sure what is on their minds," says Ajai Saxena, secretary of the Andaman Adim Janjati Vikas Samiti, the island administration's tribal welfare office.
Anthropologists think the Jarawa are descendants of some of the first humans to move out of Africa. Theirs is a simple life. Men hunt pigs and turtles with bows and arrows; women gather fruit and honey. They have no gods and when people die they are left under a tree until only the skeleton remains. Then the tribe tie the bones to their bodies to bring luck during the hunt.
It was only in 1998 that they started to venture out of the jungle in any numbers. Two years earlier a young member of the tribe, Enmai, had broken his leg while raiding a settlement on the edge of the reserve. He was taken to hospital and treated; on his return, he spoke enthusiastically of the outside world. It was enough to convince some in the tribe to drop their traditional hostility towards outsiders. Some began to regard the road as a new place to forage, somewhere they could easily pick up treats.
But that is not all they were picking up. Like many previously uncontacted tribes, the Jarawa are vulnerable to unfamiliar diseases. They started succumbing to measles and mumps and even malaria, to which they previously appeared to have some sort of immunity. Some have also adopted the vices of the outsiders: tobacco, alcohol and betel nuts (a mild stimulant).
Those responsible for the tribe's welfare think the only solution is to keep them apart from outsiders for as long as possible. "Forced coexistence would be total genocide for them," says Dr Anstice Justin, head of the Anthropological Survey of India in Port Blair. He points to the case of Enmai, who became something of a minor celebrity before his interest waned and he stopped coming out of the jungle. Most of the Jarawa feel that way, Justin says. "The inner core feeling is not to have interaction with outsiders."
In 2007 the government established a buffer zone around the reserve, hoping to protect the tribe from further interaction with the outside world, in particular a luxury resort being constructed on the very edge of the reserve by the Barefoot India tour company. The company hired lawyers to fight the zone and the case is currently with India's supreme court: in the meantime the resort stands abandoned in a clearing near the shore of Constance Bay, on the west coast of the island. But the safaris go on, four each way, day in, day out, and the police admit they are powerless to prevent some contact between the tribe and the tourists.
"It is not a foolproof arrangement, but we are making the effort," says SB Tyagi, superintendent of police for South Andaman. "People have to understand that if there is a policy of non-interaction there has to be a list of rules. But still some of the drivers and tourists slow down."
He admits some officers are breaking the rules. "The moment we come across any misdemeanour on the part of our police officers they are dealt with swiftly," he says. "The tour operators and police are local, so there may be situations where they look the other way. There may be incidents where our officers are negligent, and we have taken action."
He cites an incident in which an officer was censured for allowing two bus drivers to take Jarawa girls into the jungle. "Who knows why they wanted to?" he says. "Some people will have the urge to look at Jarawa women as sexual objects. Humans will be humans. One can only try to educate them."
That particular policeman's punishment was to have his future promotion delayed by six months.
The human rights group Survival International, which has been campaigning for the Jarawa for nearly 20 years, believes the current situation is precarious.
"The Jarawa could easily be decimated or reduced to a state of dependency, as has happened to so many other tribes worldwide," says spokeswoman Sophie Grig. Survival argues that closing the road would at least allow the tribe to decide whether it has contact.
Not everyone agrees; the local MP has argued strongly that trying to keep the Jarawa apart is futile. But what everyone wants to avoid is the Jarawa going the way of the Great Andamanese, who once lived around Port Blair. From 10,000 in the late 18th century, their numbers have now fallen to about 50 and the tribe is drifting out of history.
"They lost the will to live," says Denis Giles. "The government gave them all facilities, it gave them jobs, but they started drinking and begging. They lost their self-respect and their language and their culture. It is easy for politicians to say integrate, but it is not simple to put it into practice."
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7 January 2012 1:48PM
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7 January 2012 2:02PM
So very sad
7 January 2012 2:10PM
"They lost the will to live". Sums it up.
7 January 2012 2:16PM
Human safari, whatever next ?
7 January 2012 2:28PM
What else could we expect from rule of New Delhi. Torment, torture and destroy the vulnerable is its Gurushatra principles and it would never budge from it.
Now Delhi seems to have exhausted all its Bollywood sizzling babes so Jarawa tribe is now on show, an easy target to keep its economy rolling.
7 January 2012 2:30PM
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7 January 2012 3:22PM
Yeah, get pretty close to it myself when I hear stuff like this.
7 January 2012 3:45PM
It is whatever motivates the tourists that I can't understand.
7 January 2012 4:18PM
Get a good photo for facebook innit!
7 January 2012 4:26PM
Why can't we just accept that their are other cultures that don't function the same way as ours.
But to be turned into a human zoo because they live differant than we do, having them appear sub-human, so our culture can seem to be superior, disgusting.
7 January 2012 4:37PM
Its very sad that people are being exploited and put in a dangerous situation for short term gain by corrupt officials. At the same time, while its good that situations like this are being publicised it would be helpful if these issued could be discussed in a more helpful way.
Using phrases like 'inncoent' as in: The Jarawa tribe is 403-strong. Its members are trusting, innocent and hugely vulnerable to exploitation' are incredibly patronising.
Equally,consider the report that 'the possibilities for abuse is obvious. Giles says there have been cases where Jarawa women have given birth to children fathered by outsiders. The babies are not accepted by the tribe and are killed, he says.'
If these pregnancies have been a result of abuse , that is awful and that is what should be being condemned, however that is not what is being reported... what is reported is infanticide by the tribe. It is offensive to report the actions of people within the tribe as only as a result of outside influence as if they had absolutely no agency over their actions. It also denies any kind of power relations within the tribe and any possibility for abuse by tribal members
Its sickening that 'Tourists threw bananas and biscuits to the tribespeople at the roadside, as they would to animals in a safari park.' but it is the kind of 'othering' of the tribespeople, depicting their way of life as charming and authentic whilst denying their autonomy that is sometimes on display in this article that does nothing to challenge this attitude.
7 January 2012 5:01PM
This is very sad and inhumane.
The UN and the international community must take responsibility for abetting such inhumanity to a fellow human being despite having copious of rules ranging from Articles to conventions to prevent such crimes against humanity.
New Delhi, which perpetrates these crimes, is now in the forefront for a seat in UNSC. If these people take up arms to protect themselves, they will be branded as terrorists and the members of the UN will unleash war on terror. Is this the new world order?
New Delhi must be evicted from Andaman.
7 January 2012 5:14PM
Her hear, very well said. I can't help feeling that whilst it's well-meaning, the article talks about the Jawara people in a similarly patronising way to the tour guides, with ''Dance for me'' being replaced with ''Let me project my 'noble savage' stereotype onto you.'' Neither are about hearing the Jawara themselves, both are about attributing certain characteristics to the entire group, not treating them as people.
Just as no human being should ever be treated like a zoo exhibit no human being should be depicted as being of another species lacking individual agency or without the universal spectrum of human emotions and characteristics, whether the motivation for depicting them in this way is positive or negative.
7 January 2012 5:32PM
Convert them to Christianity fast! Send in the missionaries. At least these people will be saved like the tribes of Papua New Guinea. They need to be civilized first. Then their culture has to be destroyed. Then they can seek independence. Time is running out. Stanley and David Livingston must be turning in their graves!
7 January 2012 5:38PM
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7 January 2012 5:54PM
Indeed, well said! This article is important, and I note the author has previously reported on the issue, but as well as citing Survival International, he needs to take some hints from them about how to write about people who chose to live in ways that are different from ours (or the sub-continental Indians).
The words of the Jarawa are completely omitted, and their ideas and motivations represented by outsiders, who sound as though they themselves have never spoken to representatives of the group, making unfounded suppositions about the eventual outcomes of this colonialist, bullying, disrespectful behaviour.
The issue of reproductive choice by women who have been made pregnant by outsiders is complex, and should be treated as such, not in a derogatory, simplistic fashion.
Previously colonised nations (India, Brazil, Australia, USA etc.) seem to find it incredibly difficult to make space for those societies who chose a pre-colonialised way of life, and to treat them as modern, contemporary, COMPLEX (note, Gethin, NOT 'simple. Human societies are never simple, or 'innocent'!!!!!!), partners in our occupation of this earth.
7 January 2012 6:08PM
The Jarawa are certainly reclusive but certainly not 'recently contacted' or particularly 'innocent': their long history of contacts with the other Andaman tribes gave them a reputation for belligerency that led to endless skirmishes with the British during the late Empire. Since the Indian succession in 1947 they have occasionally fought Indians as well, especially during the construction of the Trunk Road through their jungle territory. The Andaman Islands, situated as they are on the far eastern borders of India, are inevitably controlled by the security forces; and at the tribal management level, as everywhere in India, these forces are badly paid and corruptible. Their relations with the tribal people are of course exploitative. If the islands' dedicated and intelligent anthropologists were in charge, instead of the cops (they even have to ask the cops permission to enter the tribal areas), things might be different.
7 January 2012 6:17PM
Thus making them far more intelligent and progressive than, say, the Indian and American tourists that pursue them.
7 January 2012 7:46PM
Actually it is not complex. Those women have the right to choose their partner freely and those babies have a right to live. And killing those babies is a crime called murder.
Just because those people are picturesque in their other-ness we should not indulge in moral relativism. The writer seems to believe that, since "the tribe" is given a rough deal, it is entitled to any degree of brutishness against its individual members. It is not the rights of an entitiy called "tribe" that should be our concern, but the human rights of the individual members. And these are violated both by people outside and inside the tribe. And the crimes of the former do not offset those of the latter.
7 January 2012 8:19PM
Dancing for food, heart-breaking.
7 January 2012 8:25PM
Well said.
7 January 2012 8:36PM
It's shocking, deplorable and unforgivable. The UN should hide its face in its pants.
7 January 2012 9:08PM
Sorry, schobbe, but moral relativism is all around us, and unequal power is at the root of most of it. We choose not to murder our own citizens when they have done wrong, whereas many other countries continue with this practice.
I have no idea what role women play in terms of power within their own culture, but there is no doubt at all, that if the women/girls will dance for food/exotic items, they will also enter into sexual relations with outsiders for exchange items, or just to be left alone. The local police also seem to be unreasonably powerful and corrupt in their relationships with visitors and therefore in their relationships with Jarawa people, which rather raises my suspicions about their sexual behaviours.
I also have absolutely no doubt that they don't have access to reasonable supplies of condoms, or to safe, legal abortion.
The issue of 'the right to choose' is not simple, it is complex, don't fool yourselves...
7 January 2012 9:52PM
"But, on the day the Observer visited...Like many previously uncontacted tribes, the Jarawa are vulnerable to unfamiliar diseases. They started succumbing to measles and mumps and even malaria, to which they previously appeared to have some sort of immunity. "
Do you believe you were helping them somehow by being there? Or was your tourist trip more worthy than that of other tourists?
7 January 2012 10:28PM
Apparently, there are places called strip joints or lap dancing clubs where desperate people dance for money and are prey to sexual exploitation.
The world is a sick place
7 January 2012 10:34PM
Pity they didn't fight harder against the construction of the Trunk Road, by the sound of it!
7 January 2012 10:37PM
Oh, the irony. Guardianistas go into meltdown at the sight of outsiders invading an indigenous society while celebrating the same thing happening to its own.
7 January 2012 10:41PM
The Andamans were never part of India (they were handed over to 'India' following the departure of the British) and it is a great injustice that the Andaman people who have a unique and ancient culture should have been simply handed over to the Indians who consider themselves culturally superior. It is nor surprise that they treat the place like a zoo. I wish a body like the United nations would take a responsibility for the Andamans. Alas, the only thing which seems to matter in the world today is money. And the cheap labour markets of India are too much for the West to resist.
7 January 2012 10:53PM
The Andaman Islanders, the Negritos of the Philippines, the Veddas of Sri Lanka and the aboriginal tribes in areas such as the Ranchi plateau are striking reminders of how recent Asia has been 'Asian'.
Indeed, one could also say that Black Africa has been 'Black' for far less time than it was predominantly inhabited by Khoi-San peoples. It never ceases to amaze me how people puzzle over what happened to the Neanderthals and other humanoids - based on the way homo sapiens treats minority groups of our own species, it seems a pretty good bet that we drove our cousins to extinction.
7 January 2012 11:24PM
Doomed.
8 January 2012 12:55AM
Why are this paper showing a film of young topless women dancing? Isn't there a law to prohibit your usage of this , exploiting what you say is being exploited? Instead of making a difference you exploit what should be left to the privacy and right of a community not meant for probing cameras...or should we say predatory cameras
Remove this please
8 January 2012 1:02AM
Agree.
8 January 2012 4:50AM
"Oh will you look at that, these savages have noticed us! Oh wow, look Cybil, they appear to be communicating to each other in some form! How quaint!"
Disgusting.
8 January 2012 5:01AM
Maybe the enlightened westerners should start a "Free Andaman Islands" movement.
8 January 2012 5:14AM
There is ambiguity in the vileness of the spectacle of one set of humans being humiliated by another more articulate, more powerful set. Some posters have mentioned two elements already--the video and the journo's patronising commentary which effectively collude with the powers who direct the tourist traffic and gain from it. Another is the degree to which these Javaras choose to be where they are, performing for the tourists/guides, or onlooking. There is no escape for these people, and no way of preventing trophy hunting, but transactions of either kind (begging, fascination, food giving, picture gathering) can surely be better handled. The mirror is the best place to begin.
8 January 2012 6:24AM
"Giles says there have been cases where Jarawa women have given birth to children fathered by outsiders"
Oh the horror. We have loads of children "fathered by outsiders" in the UK - is this such a problem?
"The babies are not accepted by the tribe and are killed, he says"
Mmmhm, and this is outsiders' fault is it? No it isn't. It is murder.
"Some people will have the urge to look at Jarawa women as sexual objects. Humans will be humans. One can only try to educate them."
Erm, maybe they fancied them, and the girls fancied the guys and one thing lead to another etc... Exactly what are you trying to educate them on? That you shouldn't have inter-racial sex?
On the one hand this article bemoans the fact that we look on the Andaman islanders as though they are museum subjects, and then on the other hand attempts to make them out to be exactly that! Total hypocrisy.
8 January 2012 6:25AM
You could just as easily be referring to the X Factor.
8 January 2012 8:15AM
My hamster doesn't do god either. Does that make him more intelligent and progressive than me? Sorry, FAR more intelligent etc..
8 January 2012 9:22AM
'New Delhi must be evicted from Andaman."
Of course. Let the kind, humane, gentle, civilised USA take over.
8 January 2012 9:38AM
It's not just that. He's also better on a wheel.
8 January 2012 9:59AM
Yes, but there is money in it, and we all know that making money is the highest and only worthwhile way ti live. I daresay a lot of entrepreneurs are making their fortunes out of this exploitation.
8 January 2012 12:02PM
The police in the Andamans are no more or no less corrupt than anywhere else in India. Conflating the behaviour of the police with the question of how best to treat the the adivasis, as done here in a typically tabloid fashion, will no way help in answering either of the two questions.
8 January 2012 1:49PM
You are Nick Griffin and I claim my £5.
8 January 2012 2:09PM
Convert them to Christianity fast! Send in the missionaries.
There is actually an organisation called the New Tribes Mission, an American ( of course ) outfit with plenty of money who use every opportunity to peddle their particular brand of repressive 19th century Christianity.
I bet they are foaming at the mouth in their desire to get in there and 'save'them for Jesus'. And to get them into some decent clothing.
8 January 2012 2:12PM
The exploitation of these tribes is a digrace. It would be interesting to note that if the author saw a policeman taking a bribe, did he get his name/number which should be displayed on his uniform and report it to the head of the security. I would assume being part of a media organisation the authorities would be more likely to investigate the claim. It is one thing reporting corruption/exploitation but it would be better to contribute in the eradicating this as soon possible. By raising awarness in the local level.
With such tribes, would it be better if they are slowly educated and learn how to defend themselves from exploitation rather than viewing them as curiosities/animals?
8 January 2012 2:17PM
Actually it is not complex. Those women have the right to choose their partner freely and those babies have a right to live. And killing those babies is a crime called murder.
Er, that's under our law. Obviously things are different under their law. So should the authorities go in and make them obey a new set of laws ? And perhaps demolish their village and resettle them all while they are at it ?
Obviously, they have to be civilised, and if we have to kill them all to do so , tough luck.
8 January 2012 2:44PM
It is truly disgraceful. People who think themselves as the rulers and the modern, revealed their worthless aim, that is to enjoy and make money by selling others privacy, property and freedom. Almost all who hide their hidden ugly tastes are actually showing it by videoing, airing and certifying that the tribe women are brazen hussies. Noble breed are throwing bananas and biscuits to the tribes people at the roadside, as they would to animals in a safari park and sleeping with them, the same night!
8 January 2012 2:50PM
Gethin, 'tribe' is a racist term.
8 January 2012 3:15PM
So, your religious hatred against Christians is the solution for these victims? Didn't it strike you that you are provoking religious hatred?
8 January 2012 3:54PM
Only knowledgeable anthropologists familiar with the culture of the newly-discovered tribe should be allowed to interact with them, and not permit the police to prey on them for self-aggrandizement, or just ignorance, playing tourist guides
to curious visitors. The authorities are being totally irresponsible in this sad case
perhaps due to the false presumption that indigenous people are inferior to the rest of the main population - a not uncommon attitude in other regions.