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portant role in making key economic decisions. Their heads
turned by unfamiliar power, several of the captains favored their
own families when it came to identifying aid recipients, which
provoked disputes among them.
All the while the Nicobarese languished in the sweltering, rat-
tling tin cubicles; Mohoh of Kondul Island said he felt like a
“caged bird.” The cramped shelters offered no space to plant vege-
tables or raise pigs. The forests were full of fallen timber, but there
were no axes to chop it with so they could construct houses. The
creeks of the evacuated islands were replete with fish and crab, and
the sowing season was around the corner, but most of the Nicoba-
rese were stuck in the camps, dependent on relief rations. Some
felt they were being turned into beggars. “We can manage on our
own,” said Hillary, captain of Tapong, a village on Nancowry Island.
“We don’t need biscuits and chips. We need to make our homes and
plant our gardens. Give us tools if you wish to help us.”
Mild protests erupted across the islands. The Nicobarese
needed the space to grieve and to rebuild their lives in culturally
prescribed ways. “Leave us alone or we are sure to die,” said John
Paul, a leader from Katchal Island. These pleas fell on deaf ears.
Many elders, such as Paul Joora, chief of Great and Little Nicobar,
foresaw that “one day this aid will break the Nicobarese’s heart.”

But because of conflict with younger leaders and confusing sig-

nals from the administration, the elders could not prevail. Addi-

tionally, Nicobarese culture, being based on achieving consensus,

makes it difficult for the people to express disagreement; they

could not emphatically protest whatever was imposed on them.

A few of the Nicobarese refused to give in. While in camps on

neighboring Teressa, the people of Chowra, who had exceptionally

strong traditions, built canoes with tools they had salvaged from

the more intact villages. The canoes enabled them to repeatedly

visit Chowra to clean debris, plant orchards and repair houses. Eigh-

teen months after their evacuation, they returned home for good,

with more than 100 small canoes and 10 festive canoes, used in cel-

ebrations, which they had spent their time in exile building.

B

y the time the goverNmeNt finished building per-

manent shelters for the Nicobarese refugees, in

2011, their society had been irrevocably changed.

During their years in the relief camps the indi-

genes had come in close contact with Indian set-

tlers, who looked down on them as “primitives” who were semi-

nude and ate raw fish. Over time many of the young people inter-

nalized these views and came to be ashamed of their culture. The

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