From the Ashes into the Fire? Institutional Change in the Post-Tsunami Nicobar Islands, India

Abstract

This article critically analyzes institutional change as a consequence of humanitarian intervention in the tsunami-affected Nicobar Islands in India. It shows that the state and aid agencies distributed resources on the basis of formal rules and norms different from those observed by the Nicobarese. This has created social upheaval by diminishing the stature of the joint family system and imparting greater agency to political representatives. Written communication has overridden the sanctity of the spoken word. Younger, educated Nicobarese, especially men, have been privileged by the new institutional arrangements and are active participants in social change. Thus, humanitarian intervention has resulted in shifting relationships of power and equity. Moreover, the ecological consequences appear to be unsustainable. The article suggests the need for enhanced sensitivity to cultural specificities and inherent human capacity in designing humanitarian intervention.

Keywords:

• disasters
• institutional change
• institutions
• Nicobar Islands
• tsunami

Acknowledgments

We thank Marina Fischer-Kowalski, Willi Haas, Richa Kumar, and Prakash Kashwan, as well as four anonymous reviewers for their comments. Much of the post-tsunami data was collected within the framework of the project RECOVER funded by the Austrian Science Fund (L275-G05). Acknowledgements are due to the Andaman and Nicobar Administration for their invaluable support in facilitating this research in the field. We are grateful to the Tribal Councils of Nancowry, Chowra, and Teressa, as well as to Mark Paul, Ameen Ismail, and Daniel Richardson for valuable discussions and field support. We are particularly grateful to the RAI fellowship in Urgent Anthropology (2009–2011) awarded to the second author that facilitated the writing-up of this article.

Notes

Certainly, a society may be fully subsumed under an external force or political system. This is, however, rare.

Part of the pre-tsunami data formed the basis of the second author's published doctoral thesis (Singh 2003).

The biophysical analysis of society–nature interactions on Trinket Island has been published elsewhere (Fischer-Kowalski et al. 2010; Singh 2003; Singh et al. 2001; Singh and Grünbühel 2003).

An ethnographic description of some relevant ceremonies, rituals, and festivals in the Central Nicobar Islands has been published as a book (Singh 2006).

The first author was trained previously as a social work professional and involved in community mobilization in the Nicobar Islands.

RECOVER stands for “Research on Coping with Vulnerability to Environmental Risk” and was funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF).

The Nicobarese, along with more than 600 indigenous communities in India, have been awarded the constitutional status of a Scheduled Tribe and are entitled to a policy of state protection and affirmative action. Population figures are derived from the 2001 census.

These are the islands of (a) Car Nicobar, (b) Chowra, Bompooka and Teressa, (c) Katchal, Nancowry, Kamorta and Trinket, and (d) Little Nicobar, Kondul, Pilomillow, and Great Nicobar.

In a prominent example of inappropriate aid, Nicobarese women, who wear sarongs, were sent sarees, which are worn by mainland Indian women.

This was not specific to the Nicobar Islands. An overview of the tsunami response notes, “A tragic combination of arrogance and ignorance has characterised how much of the aid community … misled people” (Christoplos 2006, 83).

Pseudonyms have been used to represent people's voices.